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A review by saareman
The Hemingway Valise by Robert Olen Butler
5.0
A Papaphile's Delight! - Bibliomysteries #38
Review of the Mysterious Press/Open Road eBook (December 18, 2018) of the Mysterious Press hardcover & paperback (April 15, 2018).
One of the great legends about Ernest "Papa" Hemingway is the story that he lost all of his early pre-1922 work when his wife Hadley had a suitcase stolen at the Gare de Lyon train station in Paris, France. Hadley was travelling to Switzerland to meet Ernest and thought that as a surprise she would bring all his draft fiction work along for him to work on while he was doing newspaper reporting on the Lausanne Conference of 1922-23.
Ernest Hemingway (right, with bandaged head) and Sylvia Beach (2nd from right) and two friends in front of Beach's bookstore "Shakespeare and Company" in 1922 Paris, France. Image sourced from Pinterest.
Robert Olen Butler has constructed a delightful fictional reason for the theft and for its resolution. In the story Hemingway asks his war correspondent friend Christopher "Kit" Marlowe Cobbs to help him out. Kit has ties to the intelligence community and suspects a possible connection from Hemingway's reporting days during the Greco-Turkish War. He traces the valise on that basis but there is a surprising twist to the end of the story.
Even though parts of the fiction diverge from reality (e.g. it was a suitcase and not a valise, the early story My Old Man (1922) had been sent out for publishing consideration and therefore was not lost, etc.), there is plenty here to delight Hemingway fans. There are encounters with early Hemingway supporter [a:Sylvia Beach|241519|Sylvia Beach|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1244545028p2/241519.jpg] at her Paris bookstore of "Shakespeare and Company." There are meetings with early Hemingway mentor [a:Ezra Pound|30055|Ezra Pound|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1447820845p2/30055.jpg]. There are various references to writers such as [a:Lincoln Steffens|642476|Lincoln Steffens|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1384567488p2/642476.jpg], [a:F. Scott Fitzgerald|3190|F. Scott Fitzgerald|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1517864008p2/3190.jpg], [a:James Joyce|5144|James Joyce|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1615569948p2/5144.jpg] and Sylvia Beach's bold publication of his [b:Ulysses: The 1922 Text|3263632|Ulysses The 1922 Text|James Joyce|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1308306195l/3263632._SY75_.jpg|2368224], etc. All are wonderful references for fans of 1920's Paris "Lost Generation" authors and writing.
Although the Hemingway manuscripts don't strictly meet the definition of "deadly books" which are the mandate for the commissions of the Bibliomysteries series from The Mysterious Press, for a long-term Papaphile such as myself this was a joy to read.
Trivia and Links
There have been several earlier fictions about the lost Hemingway manuscripts such as [b:The Hemingway Thief|27774552|The Hemingway Thief|Shaun Harris|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1459115389l/27774552._SX50_.jpg|47750551] (2016) and several under the title Hemingway's Suitcase.
Robert Olen Butler (1946-) is an American author of 18 novels and 6 short story collections which range from historical fiction to magic realism. His most popular book (based on the number of GR ratings and reviews) is the short story collection [b:A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain|261601|A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain|Robert Olen Butler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1435162825l/261601._SY75_.jpg|1773531] (1992) inspired by his experiences in Vietnam. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1993.
The Bibliomysteries series are short stories commissioned by Otto Penzler's The Mysterious Press to be written around the theme of deadly books. They are individually published in limited edition signed hardcovers followed by paperbacks and ebooks, and periodically collected in anthology editions such as [b:Bibliomysteries|32191848|Bibliomysteries|Otto Penzler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1478278696l/32191848._SY75_.jpg|56893092] (2013, containing stories 1-15) and [b:Bibliomysteries: Volume Two|36327114|Bibliomysteries Volume Two|Otto Penzler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1507842055l/36327114._SY75_.jpg|58003435] (2018, containing stories 16-30). There does not appear to be a Goodreads Listopia for them, but on Library Thing the current listing (as of early-October 2024) includes 41 short stories Note that there is a double count of #33 and that book #41 isn't numbered yet in that list.
Review of the Mysterious Press/Open Road eBook (December 18, 2018) of the Mysterious Press hardcover & paperback (April 15, 2018).
Hem said, "She put every word I've ever written into a valise and allowed them all to be stolen."
"Man, on man," I said. "Every word?"
"Originals and copies," he said. His voice broke with this. His eyes glistened in the incandescent light. "Three years of work. Poems. Stories. Longer stuff. The novel set at the war, the one I began in Chicago. A long story about fishing."
One of the great legends about Ernest "Papa" Hemingway is the story that he lost all of his early pre-1922 work when his wife Hadley had a suitcase stolen at the Gare de Lyon train station in Paris, France. Hadley was travelling to Switzerland to meet Ernest and thought that as a surprise she would bring all his draft fiction work along for him to work on while he was doing newspaper reporting on the Lausanne Conference of 1922-23.
Ernest Hemingway (right, with bandaged head) and Sylvia Beach (2nd from right) and two friends in front of Beach's bookstore "Shakespeare and Company" in 1922 Paris, France. Image sourced from Pinterest.
Robert Olen Butler has constructed a delightful fictional reason for the theft and for its resolution. In the story Hemingway asks his war correspondent friend Christopher "Kit" Marlowe Cobbs to help him out. Kit has ties to the intelligence community and suspects a possible connection from Hemingway's reporting days during the Greco-Turkish War. He traces the valise on that basis but there is a surprising twist to the end of the story.
Even though parts of the fiction diverge from reality (e.g. it was a suitcase and not a valise, the early story My Old Man (1922) had been sent out for publishing consideration and therefore was not lost, etc.), there is plenty here to delight Hemingway fans. There are encounters with early Hemingway supporter [a:Sylvia Beach|241519|Sylvia Beach|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1244545028p2/241519.jpg] at her Paris bookstore of "Shakespeare and Company." There are meetings with early Hemingway mentor [a:Ezra Pound|30055|Ezra Pound|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1447820845p2/30055.jpg]. There are various references to writers such as [a:Lincoln Steffens|642476|Lincoln Steffens|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1384567488p2/642476.jpg], [a:F. Scott Fitzgerald|3190|F. Scott Fitzgerald|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1517864008p2/3190.jpg], [a:James Joyce|5144|James Joyce|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1615569948p2/5144.jpg] and Sylvia Beach's bold publication of his [b:Ulysses: The 1922 Text|3263632|Ulysses The 1922 Text|James Joyce|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1308306195l/3263632._SY75_.jpg|2368224], etc. All are wonderful references for fans of 1920's Paris "Lost Generation" authors and writing.
Although the Hemingway manuscripts don't strictly meet the definition of "deadly books" which are the mandate for the commissions of the Bibliomysteries series from The Mysterious Press, for a long-term Papaphile such as myself this was a joy to read.
Trivia and Links
There have been several earlier fictions about the lost Hemingway manuscripts such as [b:The Hemingway Thief|27774552|The Hemingway Thief|Shaun Harris|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1459115389l/27774552._SX50_.jpg|47750551] (2016) and several under the title Hemingway's Suitcase.
Robert Olen Butler (1946-) is an American author of 18 novels and 6 short story collections which range from historical fiction to magic realism. His most popular book (based on the number of GR ratings and reviews) is the short story collection [b:A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain|261601|A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain|Robert Olen Butler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1435162825l/261601._SY75_.jpg|1773531] (1992) inspired by his experiences in Vietnam. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1993.
The Bibliomysteries series are short stories commissioned by Otto Penzler's The Mysterious Press to be written around the theme of deadly books. They are individually published in limited edition signed hardcovers followed by paperbacks and ebooks, and periodically collected in anthology editions such as [b:Bibliomysteries|32191848|Bibliomysteries|Otto Penzler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1478278696l/32191848._SY75_.jpg|56893092] (2013, containing stories 1-15) and [b:Bibliomysteries: Volume Two|36327114|Bibliomysteries Volume Two|Otto Penzler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1507842055l/36327114._SY75_.jpg|58003435] (2018, containing stories 16-30). There does not appear to be a Goodreads Listopia for them, but on Library Thing the current listing (as of early-October 2024) includes 41 short stories Note that there is a double count of #33 and that book #41 isn't numbered yet in that list.