The Essential Ernest Hemingway: On the Sea, Fish, Writing Books and Screenplays, Filming His Book “The Old Man and the Sea”, Cuba, and Containing a Certain Proposition

“You need an awful lot of luck when working with the sea and with fish.”

 

A fascinating, unpublished letter obtained by us directly from the recipient’s family

On Hemingway

After covering the Spanish Civil War, in 1939 Hemingway purchased Finca Vigía (“Lookout Farm”), an unpretentious estate outside Havana, Cuba. In 1940 he published “For Whom the Bell Tolls”, which many consider his best book. All of his life Hemingway was fascinated by war – in “A Farewell to Arms” he focused on its pointlessness, and in “For Whom the Bell Tolls” on the comradeship it creates. During World War II, he flew several missions with the Royal Air Force and landed with American troops on D-Day. He saw a good deal of action in Normandy and in the Battle of the Bulge. He also participated in the liberation of Paris. Following the war in Europe, Hemingway returned to his home in Cuba and turned his attention to writing again. He also traveled widely, and at the end of their 1953-1954 African safari, the Hemingways survived a near-fatal plane crash, only to have their rescue plane crash the very next day. Though they survived the second crash as well, newspapers around the world carried brought the details to the reading public. Soon after, he received the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for “The Old Man and the Sea”, a short heroic novel about an old Cuban fisherman who, after an extended struggle, hooks and boats a giant marlin only to have it eaten by voracious sharks during the voyage home. That book also played a role in gaining for Hemingway the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. It ran in its entirety in five million copies of Life Magazine, and the 50,000 copies printed in book form sold out in ten days.

In 1955, back in Cuba, Hemingway turned fifty-five and tried to follow his doctors’ advice by reducing his drinking. In October it is announced that he has been awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature. All of his wife’s’ efforts to protect his privacy were sabotaged by the crush of worldwide press and the fact that Hemingway invited any and all to the Finca Vigia to visit. In the summer of 1955 he was working on the filming of “The Old Man and the Sea” starring Spencer Tracy. The pace of people and press, of lunches and drinking, finally takes its toll and in the autumn of 1955 Hemingway took to his bed for two months, suffering from hepatitis and nephritis.

On his friend Mary Lou

A young American naval officer named Morris was on a training mission with the military and a liberty stop was scheduled for Havana, Cuba, in late January 1955. Mary Lou Firle, his girl friend at the time, and later his wife, was then a second year student at CCNY, and she arranged a trip Cuba so they could meet in Havana. She went a week earlier and stayed at Veradero Beach outside Havana with some other students. Their place at the beach cost $1.00 per day. Before she left she bet a friend that she would have Ernest Hemingway sign the book she had, “Farewell to Arms.” Mary Lou and boyfriend Morris met in Havana. They went to the famous El Floridita for daiquiris and had dinner. She wore pants (slacks) which were unusual for ladies at the time. The next day they went to Veradero Beach. His ship departed on Sunday.

A day or so Later Mary Lou telephoned Ernest Hemingway. When he answered she introduced herself and added, “I have a friend at Fordham University.” Hemingway immediately assumed the friend was Prof. Bob Brown who had been in touch with Hemingway on several occasions. Brown was writing a book or articles about Hemingway. Hemingway told Mary Lou that his wife Mary was away and he had to entertain visitors from the French Embassy that afternoon. He asked her if she would come to his home and help him. Mary Lou agreed and Hemingway sent his driver to pick her up.

At the meeting a member of the group, possibly the ambassador, said she looked familiar and that he had seen her at the Floridita with a naval officer. She stood out because she wore pants. After the meeting the group drove her back to Havana. Hemingway invited her back the next day for lunch and sent his driver to pick her up. They spent the afternoon talking. When Hemingway asked her about Prof. Brown, she replied, “Who is Professor Brown?” She said she knew one of his students. Hemingway laughed really hard about that and her “trick.” She had told him of her family background, that her parents were born in Germany. Since she had been at Veradero Beach for a week she had a deep tan, and Hemingway called her the “Black Kraut.” The reason for the nickname, Hemingway said, was that he called his good friend, Marlene Dietrich, the famous German actress, “Kraut”; so Mary Lou would be the “Black Kraut.” Later that day Hemingway’s driver drove her back to Havana.

In the Spring of 1955 Mary Lou, a friend and Morris met Professor Brown at his home on Long Island. When Mary Lou wrote to Hemingway about a possible trip to Cuba in the Summer, he wrote back to discourage the trip (too hot in Cuba). He told about how busy he was with his film, “The Old Man And The Sea,” adding that “You need an awful lot of luck when working with the sea and with fish.”

Hemingway’s letter to his black kraut

Typed letter signed, Finca Vigia, San Francisco de Paula, Cuba, July 29, 1955, to Mary Lou. “I don’t think August is a good time to take a vacation in Cuba . It is cooler here in the hills than any place except the sea but last night it was so hot I couldn’t sleep. The trade winds are not blowing and the general weather plan for July has been very hot mornings in town and moderately cool here until lately; then rains starting at noon. For two weeks the first part of July it rained nearly all day day and night. This was good for the farm because we had had a seven months drought. But it is poor vacation weather. August promises to be very hot and probably with rains in the afternoons. You would be much better off to take a vacation somewhere in the north where it should be cool by then. That heat spell they have been having can’t keep on forever.

“I am working terribly hard on my book and am on page 526. I have to concentrate on it all August heat or no heat as must start photography at sea of fishing for The Old Man and The Sea. Have had to interrupt several times to organize on this. It is a tough job with many problems; some very difficult. There will be people here that are working on that and the house, unfortunately, will be full in August and September when the actual photography starts. Peter Viertel will be back from Europe with the script which he and I worked on the first two weeks of June. We have a chance to make a great picture with patience, fortitude and very much luck. You need an awful lot of luck when working with the sea and with fish. The Gulf Stream current which is essential to bring the fish did not run for six weeks and is only starting tentatively now.

“Must stop now and get to work as I have to take two men who are studying the problems of the film out all day tomorrow and I must get in a good day’s work today. Bob Brown, the man you were supposed to be a pupil of, wrote me that you had been out at their place and that he and his wife enjoyed your visit and found you charming.” He adds in his hand, “Thanks for the birthday wishes. Whenever yours is, I wish you the same.” With the envelope addressed in his hand.

The subjects and subtexts of the letter are all the essential Hemingway, and rare to find together in one letter – script writing, working on a book, thoughts on the sea and fish, photography, the challenges of making a great film from one of his books, his hospitality, and his strong sexual impulse (his wife was away). Hemingway famously rewrote the ending to “A Farewell to Arms” numerous times, and that is possibly the writing he refers to.

The letter has been in the family’s possession since it was received, and we acquired it direct from them. Mary Lou had promised Hemingway that she would not sell the letter during her lifetime and kept her promise. She told Morris it would be ok to sell it after she passed.