Re: Maestroes in Paris

On Sat, Nov 02, 2002 at 10:48:44AM -0500, Will Hochman wrote:

> Scottie is referring to a meeting between Hemingway and Salinger
> during WWII where Hem supposedly killed a chicken and freaked Jerome
> all the way home. Possibly Hem's fictional machismo didn't ring true
> for Salinger, but I'm aware of a letter in the Baker Archives at the
> Firestone Library dated July 27, l946 so I'm wondering if anyone
> really knows what happened between Hem and Jerry in Paris?

I have a copy of a letter, but it's from the JFK library in Boston.
It's full of adulation. (JDS describes being in the hospital and
hoping that he will meet his own Catherine Barkeley [cf. A FAREWELL TO
ARMS, non-Hemingway fans]) and doesn't sound at all as if he is
disillusioned with Hemingway.

In a letter to Whit Burnett from 1944, he describes having met EH, and
he describes driving into Paris at the liberation, and how they could
have stood on their jeeps and "taken a leak, [and] Paris would have
said, 'Ah, the darling Americans! What a charming custom!'"

Both notes are funny. The Hemingway note is two pages typed. The
Burnett note is handwritten and is a few pages, 3 or 4 or 5, I think.

I don't have the Hemingway note near (in fact, I fear that it may have
been among the stolen papers and books, but I'm unsure), but it wasn't
hostile or cynical at all. I think JDS even nominates himself as head
of worldwide "Papa" fan clubs. I don't have the date; sorry.

--tim

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Received on Sat Nov 2 12:59:45 2002