Leicester Hemingway collection of Ernest Hemingway and Hemingway Family archives

The Hemingway Family Archive joins Hemingway archives in more than 75 private and institutional collections, the most distinguished of which include those at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum, in Boston, and the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

Compiled by writer Leicester Hemingway (1915-1982), the younger brother of Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), in the process of researching and writing his biography, My Brother Ernest Hemingway (1962), the collection contains more than 1,600 items. Listed in the inventory are scanned color copies of 151 handwritten or typed letters by Ernest Hemingway, from childhood until shortly before his death. There are copies of Ernest's published articles in Esquire magazine, as well as copies of drafts of a number of articles and book chapters. Of significant literary note, is the 15-page carbon copy typescript of the original two opening chapters of The Sun Also Rises, excised before publication by the author at the recommendation of his friend F. Scott Fitzgerald. This draft varies slightly from the only other known copy at the John F. Kennedy Library.

Among the manuscript holdings, the bulk of which date from the mid-19th century until shortly before the author's death in 1961, are original letters, diaries, notes, original stories, and architectural drawings of Ernest's family including his mother, father, grandparents, and siblings. Items of particular interest include diaries of grandfather Anson Hemingway dating from the 1850s; family Civil War letters; courtship letters of his parents, Clarence and Grace Hall Hemingway, prior to and after their marriage; and letters to Grace from Ernest's four wives, (Elizabeth) Hadley Richardson (1921-1928), Pauline Pfeiffer (1928-1940), Martha Gellhorn (1940-1945), and Mary Welsh (1945-1961).

There are nearly 700 original family photographs, including photographic portraits of Hemingway ancestors and the wedding portrait of Clarence and Grace Hemingway. A telling representation of the rise in popularity of snapshot photography among the turn-of-the-century American middle class, the childhood of Ernest Hemingway and his siblings (sisters Marceline, Ursula, Madelaine, Carol, and brother Leicester) at home in Oak Park, IL, and at their summer retreat on Walloon Lake, in northern Michigan, is documented on an impressive scale and provide images that offer fascinating insights into the Hemingway family dynamic. Later original and exhibit photos record Hemingway's marriages, his three sons (Jack, Patrick, and Gregory), literary colleagues, his residences in Key West and Cuba, as well as his well-known wartime, hunting, and fishing exploits. Perhaps the most important aspect of this collection is the span of time—more than a century—represented by the materials. While a number of the original Ernest Hemingway items, represented by copies in this collection, are available in other repositories throughout the United States, this archive provides a broad familial context for the writer's personal life and published works in a single location.

Beyond offering a rich context for understanding Ernest Hemingway's childhood and early development, the original family letters, photographs, and other documents, also provide insights into family and domestic life in late 19th and early 20th century America.