Letters by American novelist Ernest Hemingway revealing devastating injuries including ruptured kidney and burnt right arm suffered in TWO successive plane crashes go on sale for £50,000
- Novelist and his wife were caught up in plane crashes in Uganda in 1953
- Second one was a rescue plane which caught fire and crashed on take off
A cache of letters by Ernest Hemingway disclosing his devastating injuries after surviving two plane crashes have emerged for sale for £50,000 ($65,000).
In 1953 the American novelist and his wife, Mary, were travelling in Africa when they experienced successive crashes.
Rumours spread around the world that the famous writer had died after the first crash in Uganda while on a sightseeing tour of the Murchison Falls.
In fact the passengers, including the Hemingways, managed to escape from the crash unscathed.
The group walked out of the jungle and managed to get picked up by a boat and taken to Lake Albert at Butiaba.
Hemingway and Mary boarded a rescue plane only for it to catch fire and crash on take off.
A cache of letters by Ernest Hemingway disclosing his devastating injuries after surviving two plane crashes have emerged for sale for £50,000 ($65,000). In 1953 the American novelist and his wife, Mary, were travelling in Africa when they experienced successive crashes
In an April 1954 letter to his lawyer Alfred Rice, Hemingway says his right kidney was ruptured, his spleen injured and he was ‘weak from so much internal bleeding’.
The For Whom The Bell Tolls author adds that his right arm was ‘burnt to the bone’ and his wife ‘had a big shock and her memory is not too hot yet’.
READ MORE: The Old Man and the PC! Woke warnings on ‘language and attitudes’ of Ernest Hemingway books
Writing from Venice, Italy, he says: ‘The trouble is inside where right kidney was ruptured and liver and spleen injured.
We’ll get them checked out at this clinic where they have the best man at that stuff in Europe.
‘… Mary had a big shock and her memory not too hot yet and it will take quite a time to sort things out.’
Also in the letter, Hemingway discusses shooting his first lion in Kenya but bemoans having to hire a gun as his got lost in shipping.
He says the gun he ended up using ‘was so old it would come apart in my hands and had to be held together by tape’.
He adds: ‘Their carelessness in shipping imperiled both my life and livelihood.’
The four page handwritten correspondence is the marquee lot in a collection of nine Hemingway letters, spanning 1939 to 1958, which are going under the hammer at auctioneers Nate D Sanders, of California, US.
They divulge Hemingway’s financial affairs, which were a source of frustration to him as he slams his lawyer for ‘mismanaging his money’.
He writes in 1956: ‘When I give a specific instruction twice I should not be expected to take responsibility for its being dis-obeyed.
In an April 1954 letter to his lawyer Alfred Rice, Hemingway says his right kidney was ruptured, his spleen injured and he was ‘weak from so much internal bleeding’. Also in the letter, Hemingway discusses shooting his first lion in Kenya but bemoans having to hire a gun as his got lost in shipping
The four page handwritten correspondence is the marquee lot in a collection of nine Hemingway letters, spanning 1939 to 1958, which are going under the hammer at auctioneers Nate D Sanders, of California, US. Above: A September 1954 letter to
The letters also divulge Hemingway’s financial affairs, which were a source of frustration to him as he slams his lawyer for ‘mismanaging his money
The Daily Mail’s initial report of Hemingway’s ordeal told how he was missing after the crash
The following day featured an account from the author after his two air crashes
‘…I know it is hard for you to listen to instructions from me and rarely have I been allowed to give one without an interruption, But please read this… and digest it thoroughly before you begin objecting to it.’
The letters have been consigned by a private collector.
A Nate D Sanders spokesperson said: ‘Hemingway and his wife survived, not one, but two plane crashes in the jungles of Africa.
‘Hemingway suffered a broken arm and a severe brain injury which could have led to some of his volatile behaviour.’
Hemingway, who also wrote A Farewell to Arms (1929) and The Old Man and the Sea (1952), committed suicide in 1961.
The sale takes place on August 31.
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