"JUST FINISHED A HELL OF A CHAPTER… HOW DO YOU LIKE MY MARIA?": SIGNED HEMINGWAY LETTER ON WRITING FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS

HEMINGWAY, Ernest. Typed Letter Signed. No date, circa 1940. One page, measuring 8-1/2 by 7-1/2 inches, matted and handsomely framed with two portraits. Entire piece measures 26 by 17-1/2 inches.

Typed letter signed by Ernest Hemingway, discussing the unfinished For Whom the Bell Tolls, handsomely framed with two portraits of the author.

The letter, written to Harry Payne Burton, then editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, reads: "Dear Harry, I'm so sorry you have that damned sinus. Do so hope it is better now. Anyhow will be calling you around noon tomorrow. To get out here, get a taxi and tell him you want to go to San Francisco de Paula. Fare in town is $1.50 for the smaller cabs. From Nacional Hotel would be $2.00 I think. In San Francisco you turn to the left at the Post Office and come straight up a hill. Just ask for Finca Vigia [Hemingway's house]./ There are 14 Chapters here and there are 28 chapters completed in all. Am writing either two or three more and plan to publish in the fall. Am still working on the title./ How do you like my Maria? She gets pretty wonderful later on. Just finished a hell of a chapter the day you came./ Will be swell to see you. Ernest."

This piece is accompanied by a typed note signed by Ralph E. Whitney, Art Editor of Cosmopolitan, which fully explains the circumstances surrounding the Hemingway note. The note, Whitney explains, is written to Harry Payne Burton, then editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, which had by then published five of Hemingway's stories. While the note is undated, Whitney notes that it had to be written prior to April 21, 1940, since on that date Hemingway decided on the title For Whom the Bell Tolls for the as-yet-untitled book he discusses in the letter. Burton and Whitney had joined Hemingway in Havana to negotiate the publication of a new story, and during their stay, Hemingway left this letter (as is, on paper torn across the bottom) at their hotel. A scrawl beneath the signature is, Whitney explains, Hemingway's telephone number in the hand of the hotel desk clerk.

Fine condition, very handsomely framed. A splendid Hemingway letter discussing his greatest and most successful novel while still in progress.