Taylor Kirkpatrick

My original approach to building a collection of materials related to Ernest Hemingway was to collect what I loved—his short stories were transformational to me as a young man, and I felt a visceral connection to Nick Adams’ character. When I had a taste of success at work, I pursued the books that I liked, with an eye on condition and earliest state. As I got more involved in collecting, my predisposition to being a completist meant that my collection evolved from a few high spots, to gap filling, to the search for the elusive, to trying to build a meaningful archive of photos, artwork, correspondence, and documentation from certain milestones in Hemingway’s life, aiming to add to the scholarly narrative and gain insights into his creative process and inner thoughts. Any piece on its own is pretty neat, but the convergence of many can tell a deeper and richer story. 

The material on display represents a moment when Hemingway has had his first taste of success with American publishing (he had just signed a three-book deal with Boni & Liveright) and was traveling with two other writers to the bullfights in Pamplona. This short story and accompanying correspondence to fellow writer Donald Ogden Stewart (with reference to John Dos Passos, both of whom would soon be portrayed in The Sun Also Rises) as well as the letter to his father demonstrate the spark that resulted from his newfound interest in bullfighting, upon which The Sun Also Rises was based.   

The Scribner’s office copy of The Torrents of Spring helps tell the story of Fitzgerald’s introduction to Maxwell Perkins at Scribner’s; this book was written as a parody of Sherwood Anderson's Dark Laughter, and with Anderson being the most prominent author in the Boni & Liveright stable, the publisher was forced to break the contract. Called by Fitzgerald "the best comic book ever written by an American," The Torrents of Spring was begun in mid-November, completed by Thanksgiving, and rejected by his publisher Boni & Liveright in equally as little time. "I have known all along," Hemingway wrote Fitzgerald, that the firm "could not and would not be able to publish it as it makes a bum out of their present ace and best seller Anderson" (Selected Letters, p.183). With the contract broken, Hemingway signed with Scribner's. Fitzgerald was very involved on both sides of the negotiation with Scribner's, and actively encouraged the prospect with his editor there, the great Maxwell Perkins. The Torrents of Spring was published by Scribner's in an edition of only 1250 copies on May 28, 1926, and The Sun Also Rises followed five months later.