LETTERS FROM PAPA
That he was meticulous with his art, disillusioned by war, and deeply in love with Martha Gellhorn, his third wife, are just some of the things undergraduate Michelle Vincent is learning about Ernest Hemingway.
"Although much of the man's man myth remains—an adventurer, avid fisherman and bullfight aficionado—the letters show a very different man," the junior from Greenville, 
PA, says. "People will be surprised."
Vincent works on the Hemingway Letters Project, a long-term cooperative venture between Penn State, the Ernest Hemingway Foundation, and the Hemingway family, and directed by general editor Sandra Spanier, professor of English at the University. The correspondence, a collection estimated to be 8,000 to 10,000 pieces strong, will be edited and annotated for publication in a multi-volume edition, in addition to a single-volume edition of selected letters to be published for the general public. Vincent's job, which continues to evolve since she began working with the project in her first year at Penn State, is to help catalog, scan, and transcribe the letters from their source into an electronic filing system called Docushare, which was donated by the Xerox corporation.
The letters come from auction houses, private individuals, academic institutions, public libraries, and the Hemingway Collection Preservation Project. This historic project represents a collaborative agreement between the United States and Cuba to restore and preserve Hemingway's books and papers at Finca Vigia, his home in Cuba from 1939-1960. Spanier was the first North American Hemingway scholar ever granted permission to see the preservation project.
"The huge amount of material and letters found in Cuba was an amazing discovery," says Vincent. "But many of them were in poor condition and people realized that without a serious preservation effort, they would disintegrate soon."
The Penn State project will contain letters that span Hemingway's entire adult life, offering very different views of the writer and his often complicated relationships with friends such as Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and editor Charles Scribner, whose reciprocal letters are in the collection as well. Vincent's favorite letter was to third wife Martha Gellhorn, the pioneering war correspondent, and the only one of Hemingway's wives to leave him—after five years of marriage. Hemingway was smitten with her, as evidenced by his letters.
"He wrote that no matter what, he would always be there for her," she says. "I think their marriage didn't last because of an ego clash. With a personality and reputation almost as famous as his, Gellhorn was very much Hemingway's intellectual equal, and that was hard for him."
An English major focusing on virtue, moral and political philosophy, and motives that drive the human spirit within texts of early American literature spanning from the early republic to the 1930s, Vincent hopes to pursue an academic career path. She works approximately fifteen hours a week, along with a team of other interns, research assistants, a full-time associate editor and project coordinator, and an information technology specialist.And although Hemingway did not want his letters published, Vincent says that this project, which was approved by his son, Patrick, will be doing a real service to the American master.
"Hemingway spent a lot of time putting forth a persona that he wanted the world to see," she points out. "But these letters reveal the man behind the words, and show a deeper, more colorful side. I think it will add immensely to people's enjoyment of his books."
Vincent, who received enrichment support from the College that enabled her to work on this project, has only read a few of Hemingway's books and that was in high school.
"Now that I know so much more about him than what is revealed through his books, I can't wait to go back and read all of them."