Call Number:

C0200

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 1 box
• 0.45 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Selected Papers of William B. Smith, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1918-1971 (inclusive)

Creator:

Smith, William B. (William Benjamin), 1895-

Form:

Letters. and Photoprints.

Abstract:

Consists primarily of correspondence between childhood friends William B. Smith and Ernest Hemingway, the American author and Nobel Prize winner.

William B. Smith was a childhood friend of Ernest Hemingway, the noted American author. The two carried on a long correspondence in their youth, in which Hemingway took on the role of the mature, experienced friend. Smith later broke off the friendship because of a family quarrel.

The collection consists primarily of correspondence between Smith and Ernest Hemingway. Of the twenty-two Hemingway letters included in the collection, most span the years 1918 to 1927. The letters are friendly and personal; many discuss Hemingway's experience in Europe, particularly his fascination with bull fighting, and references are made to his works Men Without Women and the then-untitled Death in the Afternoon. A folder of photographs contains twenty-nine pictures of the author at various stages of life, including some taken at Horton's Bay, Michigan. In addition, there are eighteen John Dos Passos letters and cards, one Edmund Wilson letter, and one Donald Ogden Stewart letter.