10-Year-Old Hemingway's First Tale Found In Freezer Bag In Key West

OAK PARK, IL — Hemingway scholars have uncovered an untapped treasure —the bombastic author's purported first work of fiction— preserved, as it were, in a Ziploc freezer bag in Key West, Florida. The only hint of the bag's hallowed contents was a small label that reads "September 8, 1909, EH diary to Europe," putting Hemingway at about 10 years old when he penned this bit of juvenilia.

According to the New York Times, this piece was found by Hemingway scholars Sandra Spanier and Brewster Chamberlin in May amid archives that belonged to friends of the author. Chamberlin kept the notebook safe throughout the destruction of Hurricane Irma, and it miraculously emerged unharmed.

Ten-year-old Hemingway likely wrote the story when he lived in Oak Park and made its way to Key West, somehow eluding the ever-eager eyes of archivists, scholars, friends and family members for more than a century.

Scrawled in awkward penmanship with no shortage of spelling errors, the brief work describes a trip to Europe and gives glimpses into what would become some of the budding author's trademarks. According to the Telegraph, Spanier noted that Hemingway did not actually trek to Europe until later in his life. Atlas Obscura also reports that "[t]he details in the story about local landmarks and lore came from research alone."

"Yesterday, we saw an ice berg [sic]. It looked like a great mountain," Hemingway's first story begins and goes on to follow the author's experience on a fictionalized journey.

The writings even include what seem to be personal notes about composition, including,"use commas in words used in address," something historians and grammarians alike can appreciate.

In all, these words offer a a surreal step onto pages that could have been tacked on a proud parents' refrigerator but instead are held as a piece of literary history.

>>Images courtesy of Sandra Spanier