19th Hole: The Readers Take Over

HEMINGWAY'S JOURNAL (CONT.)
Sirs:
Reviewing your 19TH HOLE section indicates dissent may be an affront to your editorial pride—there is so little of it printed. Surely no subject can have much vitality or worth if it creates no dissenting interest. With that I volunteer the possibility that I may be your only reader who thinks you added little of value to your magazine with the Hemingway collection of notes to himself (An African Journal, Dec. 20 et seq.). It is nothing more than a curiosity piece anyway.

For this admirer of Ernest Hemingway in his most vital and productive years, his reputation needs no enhancing or defending. A good thing, because this did neither. What a pity if there should be latecomers who will think this was the real Hemingway—that this was what Hemingway was all about.

I doubt that even the author cared much for this random collection of whatever you want to call it. His sticking it away unfinished and uncoordinated makes one wonder if he knew what to do with it. Inspiration one day might have whipped it into form—who knows, maybe even another masterpiece. But this is not it. And like all exhumation proceedings, this one, too, seems only sad.
EUGENE J. DESRUELLES
Brussels

Sirs:
"The time of shooting beasts for trophies was long past for me"—Ernest Hemingway. For some less famous, less intelligent people, it never arrived.
EMIL J. SMITH JR.
Delair, N.J.

Sirs:
I enjoy your magazine each week, but I was especially informed and entertained by Ernest Hemingway's African Journal. Hunting was the one sport I could not relate to. After reading the journal I cannot remember why.
RACHEL RAUB
Crown Point, Ind.

Sirs:
I am appalled at the insipid comment of one of your readers (19TH HOLE, Jan. 10) concerning your publication of Miss Mary's Lion. I find this journal to be not only a credit to SPORTS ILLUSTRATED for its literary worth but also to the memory of the Nobel Prize winner who wrote it. Ernest Hemingway was an excellent sportsman in his own right.
DONALD R. NIMS
Cave City, Ky.

Sirs:
Of course there will be the usual bellowing about keeping sports in a sports magazine. This is to be expected from a few inarticulate readers. But the publishing of Hemingway's extraordinary manuscript marks a peak, I believe, in SI's own innovative endeavor to bring to its readers something more in sport than the usual weekly articles on current events. More than this, SI's publication of a major literary figure reflects a faith in the literate tastes of its readers that I, for one, welcome and congratulate.
CHARLES DE LISLE
Santa Barbara, Calif.

Sirs:
Best thanks to K. M. Bennett of Bellaire, Texas for letting us know (19TH HOLE, Jan. 10) that Hemingway was "the greatest user of the English language." We used to think it was Shakespeare.
HAROLD KING
Paris

Sirs:
It is a beautiful piece of work—tender, true, real and surprisingly very funny. His comments on wives, past and present, and on other authors are priceless. It proves that E.H. was a sensitive man who saw himself quite clearly and who thought deeply about things that mattered. And oh, how that man could write! Thank you for letting your readers share it.
JANE SPIES
Dallas

BOWLED OVER
Sirs:
After eight years as a "season-ticket" holder of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, I can no longer contain myself. Dan Jenkins' article All Yours, Nebraska (Jan. 10) is symbolic of the SI effort that transcends the boundaries of imaginative, factual reporting and treads deeply into thought-provoking, creative writing that challenges the mind of the reader.