JOHN HERSEY - COLLECTION 04/14/1960 - HFSID 264704

JOHN HERSEY
Early handwritten draft of a page of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author's novel, The War Lover, complete with his own personal notes and revisions. Incredible handwritten signed letter included explaining his notes and how he edits his writing. Remarkable combination!
(1) Autograph Letter Signed: "Sincerely yours,/John Hersey", 1p, 7¼x10. Southport, Conn., 1960 April 14. On his personal stationery to "Dear Miss Barnowsky". In full: "In answer to your interesting request, and I hope not too late, I'm sending you a page of an early draft of my last novel, The War Lover. Scraps of this page, including most of the long paragraph, appear on pages 13 and 15 of the novel. All the rest has been cut. I write the first and much of the second drafts longhand, and revise further on the first typescript. At the stage of the page I'm enclosing, most of the revision is in the form of interlinings and insertions; from that point on it's all cutting. I hope this small sample will give some hint of the work of writing." Lightly creased and soiled. Paper clip stains at upper left margin. (2) Autograph Manuscript Unsigned, 1p, lined sheet, 8½x11. Draft of pages 13 and 15 of Hersey's 1959 novel, The War Lover, with handwritten corrections and insertions. Creased, lightly soiled. File holes at left touch no writing. Ink notes (unknown hand) on verso. Otherwise, fine condition. A former war correspondent in the Pacific and Europe for Time magazine (1939-1945), John Hersey (1914-1993) brought vivid accounts of war to readers in such books as Men on Bataan (1942), Hiroshima (1946), a graphic report on the bombing of the Japanese city, and The Wall (1950). His 1944 book, A Bell for Adano, the story of the Allied occupation of Italy, won the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Two items.