Flirtatious letters from famed author Ernest Hemingway to screen star Marlene Dietrich have been revealed to the public for the first time, giving the world an inside look at what descendants of the two cultural icons said was a purely platonic relationship.
In one of the dozens of written exchanges recently donated to the John F Kennedy Library in Boston, Hemingway admits: "I love you too, you beauty, indestructible", and signs the letter: "Papa".
Another note to the German-born film legend reads: "Would certainly like to see some psychonalayzermaru start to straighten out you and me, for example. He better get the couches insured." The author goes on to refer to a photograph, asking what type of cigarette Marlene smokes in the shot "so I can get a package and roll them up and put them under my armpit. That's the only way I like tobacco really. But I guess it wouldn't go good in the adverts."
Marlene Dietrich’s daughter, Maria Riva, donated the letters – sent by Hemingway from diverse locales such as Cuba, Idaho, France, Italy, Spain and Kenya between 1949 and 1959 – to the Library along with drafts of three of the writer's stories and two of his poems.
"The devoted friendship of Ernest Hemingway and Marlene Dietrich produced some truly wonderful memorabilia,” said Maria. “As custodian of these, my mother's treasure, I was determined that Hemingway's letters and manuscripts should find not only a true American home, but one that would guard them and treat them with the respect they so richly deserve. The Kennedy Library is such a sanctuary."
The complete archive will remain closed for four years and made public in 2007.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
