Ernest Hemingway Recovering for WW1 Wounds
Dear Ernest,
Your letter dated October 18, 1918 speaks of missing home and your appreciation of your continued correspondence and sharing of photos with home in order to stay connected, "If you only realized how much we appreciate pictures, Pop you would send em often. Of yourselves and the kids and the place and the Bay. They are the greatest cheer producers of all, and everybody likes to see everybody elses pictures." You are still on the long road to recover from being wounded at the front, and I'm sure that, at times, spirits can wane and homesickness set in.
What your Dad wrote about "coming home," and your reply sheds light on your feelings of being part of of a brotherhood and something that's important. At the same time your reply reflects your hurt at being rejected during the draft process when you initially tried to enlist, "It would be foolish for us to come home because the Red X is a necessary organization and they would just have to get more men from the states to keep it going. Besides we never came over here until we were all disqualified for military service you know. It would be criminal for me to come back to the states now. I was disqualified before I left the states because of my eye. I now have a bum leg and foot and there isn't an army in the world that would take me. But I can be of service over here and I will stay here just as long as I can hobble and there is a war to hobble to. And the ambulance is no slackers job. We lost one man killed and one wounded in the last two weeks. And when you are holding down a front line canteen job, you know you have just the same chances as the other men in the trenches and so my conscience doesn't bother me about staying."
And hobble back to the font you did, only to come down with a raving case of jaundice. There is an up side as you say, "I had the satisfaction of being in the offensive any way and now I can rest up in the hospital and get cured and finish the treatments on my leg." Your plans, as you share them, are to heal up and then take the two weeks leave that you have coming to see some of Italy: Rome, Naples, Sicily, and Florence.
The time you spend exploring Italy will mark the beginning of a lifelong love affair with this country. It's people have already endeared themselves to you, "The Italians have shown the world what they could do. They are the bravest troops in the Allied Armies. The mountain country is almost impassible to skilled Alpine climbers and yet they fight and conquer in it and by the time you get this they'll have the Austrians all the way out of Italy."
On November 11, 1918 you wrote your family, "Well it's all over! And I guess everybody is plenty joyous. I would have liked to see the celebration in the States, but the Italian Army showed the wonderful stuff it is made of in that last offensive. They are great troops and I love them!"
You also wrote that you plan to stay in Italy for awhile as you are still going through treatments on your leg and you have invitations to visit with friends there, do some fishing and decompressing, and have chosen to put off passage to the States because, as you put it, "I don't like the Atlantic in the Winter!" I don't hold it against you one bit, Hem. You've just come through some rough times and the thought of days of dark water and a stormy passage would put off anybody. Particularly when you compare that to the sunny, warm embrace of the Italian countryside and a country and people who are grateful to their hero. Yes, by all means, bask in that, and take the time to heal, for as long as you need.
You write of your opportunity, "After my treatments are finished I've been invited by an Italian officer to take two weeks shooting and trout fishing in the province of Abruzzi. He wants me to spend Christmas and New Years at his country home and guarantees fine quail, pheasant and rabbit shooting. Abruzzi is very mountainous and is in the south of Italy and will be beautiful in December. There are also several good trout rivers and Nick claims the fishing is good. So I'll take my permission there. After that I'll come back to Milan and out to the X front and when I'm not needed I'll come home."
Hem, dearest, there is so much healing that has to happen because of this awful war and I hope you take all the time you need to make that happen for you.
Wishing you the best on your journey of recovery.
Warmest Regards,
Betsy
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