Hemingway, Ernest

26 pages (22 x 8 1/2 in.; 280 x 215mm), [Cuba, late spring 1956], carbon copy on onionskin paper, double-spaced, "E. Hemingway / A Short Story" typed at top of first page, author's additions and corrections in pencil; some wrinkling and slight soiling, tiny staple holes at extreme upper left corners, a few rust stains, in very good condition.

Hemingway's friend Bill Davis, though unnamed (Charles Hamilton, 24 May 1967, lot 316).

Condition as described in catalogue entry.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Working draft of a World War II story. The original typed title, "The Cross Roads," has been expanded by Hemingway in pencil to read "Black Ass at the Crossroads" ("black ass" being a Hemingway term for a black mood of depression). There are extensive corrections and revisions by Hemingway throughout this working draft — a total of more than 400 words in his hand in pencil — ranging from typographical changes to the insertion of entire sentences. Crossed-through material is very readable and earlier corrections in pencil that have been erased are still legible, graphically showing the creative process.

"After the long and exhausting distraction of movie making [0n The Old Man and the Sea], Hemingway did not immediately return to the African novel; instead, to resharpen his blunted pen, he wrote six short stories, mostly about World War II experiences. Based on the ambush at the Rambouillet crossroads ('Black Ass at the Crossroads') and his judicial hearing ('A Room on the Garden Side'), these storiesused material that would have been in the 'land' part of the 'big book' had Hemingway ever completed the project. With sarcastic references to the war novels of Shaw, Mailer, and James Jones, he insisted that his new stories were about real soldiers speaking in battlefield language about situations in which death was a constant. Scribner's could, he said, publish them after his death" (Reynolds, Hemingway: The Final Years, p. 297). The story was first published in The Complete Stories of Ernest Hemingway (1987).

"Black Ass at the Cross Roads" is a grim tale about a small unit of Allied soldiers who were killing retreating Germans by ambushing them at crossroads, casually and coldly, some with an eye to the loot obtainable from the bodies. The following passage is reminiscent of the Hemingway of the vignettes or short "chapters" of In Our Time: "the Germans we saw coming now were on bicycles. There were four of them and they were in a hurry too but they were very tired. They were not cyclist troops. They were just Germans on stolen bicycles. The leading rider saw the fresh blood on the road [from a previous ambush] and then he turned his head and saw the vehicle and he put his weight had down on his right pedal with his right boot and we opened on him and on the others. A man shot off his bicycle is always a sad thing to see, although not as sad as a horse shot with a riding him nor a milk cow gut-shot when she walks into a fire fight. But there is something about a man shot off his bicycle at close range that is too intimate. These were four men and four bicycles. It was very intimate and you could hear the thin tragic noise the bicycles made when they went over the road and the heavy sound of men falling and the clatter of equipment."

Typescripts of Hemingway's fiction have become very rare on the market and the extensive revisions on this one makes it particularly appealing. There is no listing for this story in Philip Young and Charles W. Mann, The Hemingway Manuscripts: An Inventory (1969).