Uncovered Hemingway story to be auctioned
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-09-29 09:25

A newly discovered story by the 20th century literary giant Ernest Hemingway will be auctioned at Christie's in New York in December, with the proviso that it not be published -- at least for now.

An undated photo of the author Ernest Hemingway. A newly discovered story by Hemingway will be auctioned at Christie's in New York in December, with the proviso that it not be published -- at least for now. [AFP]

The comic manuscript, together with a signed letter, were written in 1924 when the future Nobel laureate was 25, shortly before publication of his first important work, the short story collection "In Our Time."

"My Life in the Bull Ring with Donald Ogden Stewart," was penned after a rowdy sojourn in Pamplona, Spain with the novelist John Dos Passos and the Stewart of the title -- a well known satirist and playwright in the 1920s.

"It's by no means a literary masterpiece, but I think it's more than juvenilia," said Patrick McGrath, an expert in books and manuscripts at Christie's.

"It's a deliberate attempt at writing a comic story, and is interesting in that way, because it's a form Hemingway didn't try very often," McGrath told AFP on Tuesday.

The manuscript and letter have been estimated at between 12,000 and 18,000 dollars.

The five-page sketch parodies Stewart's attempts to take on a bull during an amateur session at a Pamplona ring during the famous running of the bulls festival.

Hemingway sent the story to Stewart, asking him to submit the manuscript to the magazine Vanity Fair for publication.

But Stewart felt it was not good enough to pass on, explaining in his autobiography that "humour was not (Hemingway's) dish."

Stewart died in 1980 and the manuscript was recently discovered by his son, also named Donald, while going through his father's papers.

Ogden Jr. put the manuscript up for auction after first offering it to Vanity Fair as Hemingway had originally intended.

The magazine jumped at the prospect, but was prevented from publishing after the Hemingway estate refused to give the required permission. The estate offered no explanation for its decision, which means the story will continue to go unread by the public unless it has a change of heart.

"It's important as another piece filling out the Hemingway corpus .. and it's going to attract a lot of attention from collectors and scholars," said McGrath, one of only a handful of people to have actually read the piece.

Hemingway committed suicide in 1961.

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