[HEMINGWAY, Ernest (1899-1961), association]. GINGRICH, Arnold (1903-1976). Archive of Early Letters by Gingrich, Two to Hemingway, Two to His Staff at Esquire, Mentioning Hemingway. [V.p., ca. 1930s]. Letters approximately 11 x 8 1/2" on plain beige or blue paper. Horizontal creases, some edgewear, faint chipping, some soiling. Generally very good. Letter I: Autograph Letter Addressed to Hemingway, signed "Yours very truly Arnold Gingrich". Letter in pencil. Undated. 4pp. "... it's no skin off your behind if I buy your first editions or if I don't, but this point is that I don't give a damn about first editions either... I've got everything in the books that is, from Torrents of Spring to Death in the Afternoon... I've read everything you've written probably more times than you have... I'd like to have you write something in my copy of Death in the Afternoon..." Letter II: Autograph Letter Unsigned, to Hemingway. 3 pp. Letter in pencil. 

"... It's pretty hard, really, to figure out your friendship for Pound...and it's very hard to understand Gertrude Stein's influence on your... And how come you don't publish "Death of the Standard Oil Man?" A Farewell to Arms is a good title, very good as titles go, because it's smooth... and hard to forget... but Death in the Afternoon is probably the best four-word poem on any subject in any language..." Letter III: Typed Letter Signed (signature is typed) to Gingrich's secretary, Miss Richards. January 22, 1933. Addressed: "Dear Helene:" 1 p. on blue Interoffice Correspondence letterhead. "I met Ernest Hemingway at Captain Cohen's and he left Friday night for Key West... I want to send my copy of Death in the Afternoon down to him but I don't want him to keep it as he's more than likely to do..." Letter IV: Typed Letter. Unsigned. February 24, 1933. 1 and 1/2 pages on one sheet of blue paper. Addressed: "Dear Mr. Hemingway:" "I probably don't have to tell you that publishing, as a means of making money... ranks just a hair above playing the races... The next thing on the schedule... is a consumer magazine ... it will try to be to the American male what Vogue is to the female [Esquire Magazine]... a quarterly... I'll try anything to sell you the idea of being in that first issue... something about fishing in Florida or about hunting or about anything you like, about the full fights in Mexico... did you get and inscribe my copy of Death in the Afternoon, I wonder?... if I'm just a twirp, offering my measly two hundred fifty plus hopes, you won't mind telling me so." A wonderful group.