LIVING LIFE AT FULL THROTTLE

Mae Marsh, Hemingway's Crush in K.C. 1918

Ernest, you are in the thick of it!

You wrote to your family, in your November 19th, 1917 letter, "This last week I have been handling a murder story, a lot of Police dope and the Y.W.C.A. fund stuff a couple of times so am mixint em up." You also wrote about riding in the Ambulance several times and that there is an epidemic of small pox. I get a kick out of the way you write about your fellow workers at the Star, "There are a bunch of dandy fellows down here at the Star and we have all kinds of fun in the office."

When you write the family in general, or your parents in particular you are much more reserved in what you share and how you share it. It's your letters to your sister Marcelline that are much more revealing. Those letters bespeak a sibling relationship that is much more connected an honest. What you share with Marcelline is much more open than what you share in letters to your parents or the family in general.

In your January 1918 letter to Marcelline you tease her about possible beaus that she might have and you share that you are about to pull the trigger of joining the war effort, "It may be the Navy blue, or the snappy O. D. and officers belt of an American ambulance man in the Italian service which it may." After sharing such a life changing possibility you immediately lapse into discourse on the Cub Reporter's life you're leading, "I scooped the world on a big, roarer of a story and nearly got bumped off doing it." You go on to instruct your sister not to share the dangerous details but you're OK with her sharing the news paper clipping of the event.

You speak to the fact that, "The old Carl and I are living in our dump and having the jazzy time," and that you're living a speedy existence - throttle full out. You share how much you love the gang your with in your letter to Marcelline, dated 30 January, 1918, "Most of them call me The Great Hemingstien of Hospital Hill. That being one of my hang outs. There are a swell bunch of buds here Ivory. Almost as good as the old gang. They are a bit to the wild but a peach of a gang."

If your passion for and immersion in your life and job isn't enough, You share with Marcelline that you are head-over-heals in love with a Mae Marsh - an actress that you met at the Muehlebach hotel - site of your news paper satellite office. Again, you caution your sister not to tell the family anything about it, and you close your letter with, "I don't see what anybody can see in the brutal Steinway but I hope she keeps on seeing it." 

To be so young, so passionate, so immersed and involved, and to have so much going on in the world - it's a powder keg and once it's lit there's no turning back.

Hugs to you and the gang - when next I lift a pint I'll be sure and toast you and the richness of your life that you embrace so wholeheartedly. Bravo Hemingstien!