Lot 167
Ernest Hemingway Inscribes A Book To Alejo Carpentier 1/11/59 (1899-1961) American novelist and short-story writer; winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 for The Old man and The Sea and the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature. Hemingway's personal copy of The Count of Monte Cristo, VolumeTwo (New York: P.F. Collier and Son, 1904) inscribed and signed on the first leaf: "Dear: Alejo Carpentier Best to you alway [sic] and un abrazo de tu amigo Ernest Hemingway. 1/11/59". The book itself is not in great condition and needs restoration; the cover is almost totally discolored, the title page and first page of the Table of Contents are separated, and there is some faint to moderate dampstaining to top and upper right margin from the frontispiece through page 20, not affecting the text. The signature page, however, only has some toning.
Alejo Carpentier y Valmont (1904-1980) was a Cuban (his mother was Russian and his father French) novelist, musicologist, essayist,and playwright, who is considered one of the fathers of modern Latin American literature. He was the first to use the technique of "lo real maravilloso" (magical realism). Among those he influenced were Gabriel García Marquez and Carlos Fuentes. In 1928 Carpentier fled Machado's repressive regime in Cuba and lived in Paris until 1939. He returned to Cuba until 1945, when he left for Caracas, but returned to Cuba in 1959 when Castro's revolutionary forces took over. From the mid '60s until his death, he served as a Cuban diplomat in Paris.
Hemingway owned a home, Finca Vigía, 12 miles outside of Havana, where he lived for 22 years. He remained in Cuba for a year after Castro came to power, leaving in 1960. Amazingly, this book was signed and inscribed by the great American author to the great Cuban author just as Castro was taking power in Cuba.
Estimated Value $3,000 - 5,000.
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