Dear Papa, Dear Hotch: The Correspondence of Ernest Hemingway and A. E. Hotchner
Hotchner first met Hemingway in Cuba in 1948 when he tried to land the great writer's work forCosmopolitan. The result: the magazine got first serial crack atAcross the River and into the Trees,and a deep friendship was born. The Hemingway industry has been prolific lately, but this volume of 161 letters stands out as something special. Hemingway trusts Hotchner, and in their correspondence readers can trace the emotional tumult and bodily decay that led to the writer's suicide. But more than that, the letters vividly detail Hemingway's life and obsessions and lend an insider's glimpse into the world of publishing and the early days of television. Hotchner served as de facto agent for Hemingway, working to adapt Hemingway's fiction for the new medium and for the stage, an often frustrating process. With their banter about baseball, boxing, and bullfights; women, money, and writers, these letters constitute an intimate portrait of archetypal 1950s American males, even as they reveal facets of Hemingway not widely understood.Steve PaulCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved