HEMINGWAY, Ernest (1899-1961). Autograph letter signed ("Papa") to Katherine "Kit" Larry Figgis, Venice, 24 April 1954.

One page, 346 x 164mm (light corner creases).

Reporting on his slow recovery following back-to-back plane crashes in Africa. Writing to "Kit" Figgis, a British expat living in Kenya who worked as his typist, Hemingway assures her that the check he had sent would probably clear, but if "they bounce will send new ones." He explains he was writing " in a hurry" on account that he had to go to the hospital "to see a kidney and liver king," part of a series of procedures he underwent following the pair of plane crashes in the Belgian Congo that resulted in false reports of his demise, allowing the author some time to read his own obituaries. He reports that his burns ore "ok." He adds that the situation was "sort of comic. Turned out what I had was a skull fracture. Two places. That liquid that ran out in between the ear and the head was the fluid off the brain. The hemorage [sic] was pin point but made a clot over the nerve which built up slow. The clot was pressing on the never and made the hearing and left eye trouble. Very good American head King says impossible to happen and keep going. But says never kid myself it didn't happen. Guess that's why used to get tired at the end of the installments."