Posted on September 22, 2022 at 8:00 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
When Ernest Hemingway died, his widow went to Sloppy Joe's Bar in Key West, Florida, and retrieved some of the items he'd left there decades earlier.
The rest went to his friends Betty and Toby Bruce, who in turn left the items to their son.
Penn State University was able to buy the collection from that son in October 2021 and has now unveiled the treasures contained in those once-forgotten boxes, reports the New York Times.
Among them: four unpublished short stories (one of which appears to mock F. Scott Fitzgerald's boxing abilities), a reflection on death and suicide, the outline of a novel called A New Slain Knight, and many more letters, drafts, photographs, and personal items.
Experts like Carl Eby, the president of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation and Society, are starstruck by the find.
"There’s enough new material here to generate new biographical and interpretive insights for years to come," Eby told the NY Times, which describes — and shares images of — the Toby and Betty Bruce Collection of Ernest Hemingway.
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Categories: Today in Books