Ernest HEMINGWAY (1899.1961)

Lettre autographe signée « Papa » à son ami Gianfranco Ivancich.

Trois pages grand in-4° sur papier à en-tête de la finca Vigia.

Cuba, La Havane, Finca Vigia, 24 mai 1957

“Have not had a drink since March 5th except wine. It is lonesome.” 

Depuis La Havane, l’écrivain américain se débat avec ferveur contre ses éditeurs italiens et donne un aperçu de la situation politique de Cuba. Il confirme par ailleurs son arrêt (presque) total de l’alcool.

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“Dear Gianfranco, Have started many letters to you but have always held them up waiting to hear from those two Princes Mondadori and Einaudi [les éditeurs italiens Arnoldo Mondadori et Giulio Einaudi]. Now Einaudi writes he paid Dr Camerino 5 million lire (less taxes) May 20th. Sure he is Einaudi I have to ask:

Did he really do this?

How much did he promise to pay?

How much does he owe?

Did he ever make a stock payment?

Thanks for paying (…). I feel badly you had to use some of farm money. Let me know so as to make a credit. Or rather skope you took back what you paid Mario for me out of that use Einaudi payment.

I have called Mondadori May 10. Nando letter gave no business details stop Einaudi did not mentioned collected editions stop impossible for me to give consent until Einaudi deposits money (…) he has owed and promised for so long stop must also know royalties proposed to be paid me all editions cheap and collected and see whether I agree with these royalties stop you can see impossibility me permitting Einaudi dispose of my property that he has not paid for and then me agreeing to accept reduced royalties on my property which he would sell to you stop First Einaudi must pay me what he owes stop then I must examine your terms which I have never received stop. Sent this and he answered that he had written an exhaustive letter about terms etc. But it has never come and today is the 26th of May. So, you please if you let me know exactly what Einaudi has paid since the first of the year. (I need to know that for income tax anyway) and what Einaudi has promised to pay and not paid.

Here we have rain, rain, rain just as we used to have drought. It has rained all but 3 days for 3 months. Sometimes day and night both. Very strange weather. We are now on the 3rd planting of the garden. I enjoy your letters about the country very much but each time I have started to write you on Sundays there has been some of this cursed Mondadori and Einaudi business that have been waiting an answer for. They want me to agree to something like a Pazzo without being given the details and I am afraid that they fear to give the details because they are crooked and so much to my disadvantage.

Denis, our friend in the game department in Kenya was supposed to come over here in June to fish. Now he does not arrive until July. That makes it impossible to go to Pamplona. I had hoped we all could go. Will have to figure out something else. Have not had a drink since March 5th except wine. It is lonesome. Weight 209 – 210. Blood pressure good again. Mary is healthy but is fed up with the weather and not doing anything creative.

We both miss you very much. The pool is fine and the place green as jungle. Politics uncertain but country very prosperous with 6 cents sugar [La Révolution cubaine – initiée en 1953 par Castro et Che Guevara – trouvera son point d’aboutissement un peu plus d’une année après cette lettre avec la chute de Batista]. Skyscrapers everywhere now like in Caracas. Gregorio, René, Paco Garay, Sinsky all send their best. Your letters about the country and the people and the river make me very happy. Please forgive me for writing such poor letters. Much love to the family. Un abrazo. Papa »

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Hemingway rencontra Gianfranco Ivancich en 1949, au bar d’un hôtel de Venise : ils avaient engagé la conversation sur leur premier point commun : les blessures de guerre, encore douloureuses. Dans la foulée, Hemingway fit la connaissance d’Adriana, la sœur de Gianfranco, alors âgée de 19 ans, qui allait devenir sa muse. Elle lui inspirera en effet la Renata dans Au-delà du fleuve et sous les arbres, dont elle en dessinera la jaquette pour l’édition Scribner.

Gianfranco fit son premier voyage à Cuba en 1950 ; « Hemingway lui permettant de vivre pendant trois ans dans la tour de la Finca et lui offrit son amitié paternelle » (Jeffrey Meyers). Gianfranco, petit, trapu, beau, calme, modeste et distant n’était guère à l’unisson des compagnons bruyants de Hemingway, raconte Meyers. Entre plusieurs allers-retours à Venise, Gianfranco fit un autre long séjour à la Finca Vigia, entre 1954 à 1956. Hemingway voyait en Gianfranco « une version masculine et un substitut d’Adriana » (Meyers) mais surtout un confident et compagnon discret, dont l’absence lui pèse : « Tu nous manques beaucoup, et c’est bien triste de voir partir quelqu’un qui était toujours aux alentours, un peu comme un frère. Maintenant, je n’ai plus d’amis, plus de compagnons de beuverie et plus de récolteurs de bananes courageux ».

C’est grâce au Vieil Homme et la mer qu’Hemingway gagna une célébrité internationale – et le Prix Pulitzer 1952. Il revint s’installer à Cuba, définitivement, en 1957, et cette lettre est la première qu’il envoie à Ivancich depuis sa nouvelle installation à la Finca Vigia, cette demeure acquise grâce aux droits de For Whom the Bell Tolls. Située à San Francisco de Paula, à dix kilomètres au sud-est de La Havane, la Finca Vigia est aujourd’hui un musée, laissée en l’état depuis la mort de son propriétaire en 1960.

Vingt lettres de Hemingway à Gianfranco Ivancich sont connues et référencées au John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library Center, entre le 14 août 1950 et le 20 septembre 1960. La JFK conserve le fonds le plus important au monde consacré à Ernest Hemingway réuni en un même lieu : la « Hemingway Room », dessinée par I.M. Pei, est ouverte depuis 1981.

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