Ernest Hemingway

First edition, presentation copy of Death In The Afternoon, signed and inscribed: “To Eleanore Havre / remembering aperitifs and a confused itinerary set forth at the Deux Magots / Ernest Hemingway.”

• Ernest Hemingway (American).
• New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1932.
• Octavo.
• Publisher’s black cloth gilt, first issue dust jacket, in collector’s clamshell box. 

A convivially inscribed copy of Hemingway’s eighth book, referencing the popular café Deux Magots, a favored gathering spot for the expatriate writers and intellectuals of the era where ideas were tossed across tables brimming with drinks. Eleanore Havre’s connection to Pauline Pfeiffer places her within the intimate orbit of Hemingway’s second marriage — she was purportedly a former roommate of Hemingway’s second wife, Pauline Pfeiffer, during their time in Paris. This copy demonstrates the inextricable link between Hemingway's personal experiences and his writing — the author reflects warmly on his time at Les Deux Magots in A Moveable Feast.

Death in the Afternoon is the author's classic study of bullfighting and the nature of fear and courage. It frequently references drinks and drinking — indeed, drinking was done before, during, and after a bullfight: “The drinking is not done so much for pleasure as for the ritual of it. The wine is drunk, like the bullfight, in the memory of death and for the bracing effect it gives.” Hemingway’s exploration of ritualistic drinking parallels the intense, ritualistic nature of bullfighting, together addressing the existential confrontation with mortality that pervades much of his work.

Bonham’s San Francisco, 14 February 2010, Lot 1133.

REFERENCES:

Hanneman A10a