The Lost Suitcase

Just finished The Paris Wife by Paula McLain which is the early story of Ernest Hemingway, and his first marriage to Hadley Richardson. Most of the book takes place in Paris where the young couple goes so that Hemingway can become part of the writing scene. They meet and befriend other writers of the time such as Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ezra Pound. There is a part in the book where Hemingway has been sent to Switzerland on assignment, by the newspaper he is writing for, and meets fellow journalist and editor Lincoln Steffens. Steffens is impressed with Hemingway's work and asks to see more of his writing. Hadley is just leaving to visit Hemingway and decides to suprise him by packing all of his manuscripts and copies into a suitcase and bringing them to him. The suitcase is stolen on the train and she has to explain to Hemingway that it is all gone. Of course, I had to research this to make sure it was a true, and yes it was. It is such a crushing and heartbreaking story! Imagine if that suitcase was found today? There are some that say this tragedy freed Hemingway to adopt the "clean prose style" that he became famous for, but I still wouldn't have wanted to be the one to tell him I'd lost years of his work.