MartiniPundit

A New Story by Hemingway

The Guardian notes that a ‘new’ story by Ernest Hemingway is coming up for auction at Christies. The story, written in 1924, was apparently already published in the Chicago Tribune, but the Hemingway Estate is expected to block publication because they consider the work “juvenile.”

Juvenalia has a long pedigree - the Brontës left some behind - but I think the larger issue is the ban itself.  The estate does not nor has it owned this story, and when sold, I would expect the owner would have full property rights to it, intellectual and otherwise.  It’s hard to see how it could ‘damage’ Hemingway’s reputation and it really seems like the estate wants a monopoly on his work. That strikes me as wrong, not to mention petty.

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