Between the Covers

Softcover. Quarto. P.[3], 22, [1], 19, [1], 4, [2], 34, [1], 27. Typed leaves on rectos only bradbound into black leatherette wrappers stamped in gilt with Meyerson's information. The gilt title on the front wrap is covered with a typed label that reads "Ernest Hemingway's 'Love and Death' "; a title label on title page also covers a previous typed title; Ink number "16" on title page, near fine.

A play that includes scenes from *The Snows of Kilimanjaro*, *For Whom the Bell Tolls*, *A Farewell to Arms*, and *The Good Lion*, a fable written in Venice in 1950, which was published in *Holiday* magazine. It would be difficult to determine the original title stamped on the front wrap and on the title page without damaging the labels, although on the front wrap, the title begins with "T" and ends with "y." We speculate that this is likely the earliest draft of "The Hemingway Hero" (for which scripts exist) bearing an earlier title and that the title "The Heroes of Hemingway" is a possibility here.

Laid-in is a letter from Hotchner to producer and director Fletcher Markle: "Herewith the script of LOVE AND DEATH. I am very enthusiastic about your casting suggestion, and I'm sure Hemingway would be. I agree that Welles would add considerably to the overall value." He goes on to state that "I shall do my best to shake loose, THE FIFTH COLUMN, for I am certain that that and THE UNDEFEATED will go splendidly at 90-minute length." He concludes "My regards to your wife [Mercedes McCambridge], whose talents as an actress I have always admired." (Our thanks to Ira Steingroot for identifying Markle and McCambridge).

We have no evidence that the play was ever produced theatrically. Hotchner was a close friend of Hemingway's and seems to have created a cottage industry adapting Hemingway's works, and television plays of *The Snows of Kilimanjaro* (1960), *The Fifth Column* (1960), and *For Whom the Bell Tolls* (1959), all directed by John Frankenheimer, as well as several others, all appeared with scripts by Hotchner. Although the title here indicates that this script was prepared for the stage, it seems likely that it was later adapted into several "teleplays."

*OCLC* locates three copies of *The Hemingway Hero,* all with different pagination. It locates no copies with this title or pagination.

Item #414395