HEMINGWAY, Ernest (1899-1961). Typed Letter Signed to Novelist and Screenwriter Peter Viertel. Finca Vigia, San Francisco de Paula Cuba, Sept. 6, [19]48. On Hemingway's onionskin stationery from Finca Vigia. Approximately 11 x 8 1/2". Addressed "Dear Peter:" Signed in pencil, "Papa". IN THIS LETTER, HEMINGWAY WRITES TO HIS OLD FRIEND (WHO HAD WRITTEN THE SCREENPLAY FOR FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS), IN WHICH HE TALKS ABOUT DEALING WITH PEOPLE FROM THE AMERICAN EMBASSY, THE VIRTUES OF THE WORD "FUCKING,"  VIERTEL'S FRIEND, INGRID BERGMAN, AND HEMINGWAY'S WEIGHT. "Thanks for letter and call. Had taken the Embassy people out to Strengthen My Status ( you never know with my politics whether you go to the can or get canonized) and at regular intervals I strengthen my status if can do it without eating shit..." "You change addresses faster than a goat so keep me inf rmed [sic]. I am takeing [sic] a course in late Californian geography just following your addresses. ( Have found that elimateing [sic] the word fucking as an adjective you save around three sheets of onion skin paper a week) Always insert it where you think it should be if omitted..." "Am sure you are right about Bergman in the preface. Would change XXX [typed correction] if the damn things had not gone out of my hands. Actually want['ed' in pencil] in [pencil mark] because she means something to me way past glamour pusses. I know you shouldn't bandy names, not raise the visor on your cap, and know how to behave in church and am studying how to write. But sometimes like to make a mistake and put somebody's name in so it will be more permanent than celluloid is..." "Have weight down to 208.3/4 and pressure to I70 over I00. Think we have good chance to beat the rap. Wish the hell you guys were going to be on the boat..." 

Viertel (1920-2007) was a prolific novelist and screenwriter, who had met Hemingway in Ketchum, ID, and they remained lifelong friends. Viertel had worked with Ingrid Bergman on the film version of For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), and both Viertel and Hemingway had high opinions of her. Viertel would later write screenplays for The Sun Also Rises (1957) and The Old Man and the Sea (1958), and many other non-Hemingway screenplays, including The African Queen (uncredited, 1951). In 1960, Viertel would marry actress Deborah Kerr, who was a close friend of Bergman, strengthening his relationship with Bergman even more. As for his weight, Hemingway was always obsessed with his weight. In 1992, Viertel wrote a memoir of his friendship with Hemingway and John Huston, Dangerous Friends: At Large with Huston and Hemingway in the Fifties. A wonderful letter between two close friends.

Two horizontal creases, a few pencil corrections in Hemingway's hand, lower left corner a bit creased. Fine.