Toby and Betty Bruce collection of Ernest Hemingway
- Author:
- Hemingway, Ernest, 1899-1961
- Published:
- 1877-2019.
- Physical Description:
- 17 linear feet (Housed in 6 Hollinger manuscript boxes, 7 Hollinger document boxes, 1 artifact box, 2 13.25" drop front boxes, 1 13.75" drop front box, and 1 34" clothing box)
- Additional Creators:
- Bruce, Benjamin, 1944-2020, Blacow, Toby Lynn, Blacow, Kenneth Michael, Bruce, Toby, 1910-1984, and Bruce, Betty, 1918-1994
- Language Note:
- In English or Spanish.
- Restrictions on Access:
- This collection is open for access.
- Summary:
- This collection documents the life and work of author and journalist Ernest Hemingway. It also documents Hemingway's travels as well as his relationships with family and friends. This collection further documents Hemingway's long-time friend and handyman Toby Bruce and his wife Betty's relationship with the Hemingway family, custodianship of this collection, and care for Ernest Hemingway's memory. This collection includes Hemingway's personal correspondence, drafts and galleys of Death in the Afternoon , other writings, photographs, artifacts and other ephemera. Materials relating to the Bruce family include their correspondence with Mary Hemingway, personal correspondence, photographs, clippings, notes, and inventories.
- Subject(s):
- Hemingway, Ernest, 1899-1961—Archives
- Hemingway, Ernest, 1899-1961—Correspondence
- Hemingway, Ernest, 1899-1961
- Authors, American—20th century—Archives
- Authors, American—20th century—Correspondence
- Écrivains américains—20e siècle—Archives
- Écrivains américains—20e siècle—Correspondance
- Authors, American
- 1900-1999
- Genre(s):
- Finding Aid Note:
- An original inventory is available in the collection file.
- Provenance:
- These materials were created and compiled by Ernest Hemingway. Following Ernest Hemingway's death in 1961, these materials were left in a storeroom behind Sloppy Joe's Bar (Hemingway's favorite bar in Key West, Florida, where he lived 1931-1939). Hemingway's wife Mary Welsh Hemingway visited the collection in winter 1962 and removed material she wanted to keep for herself (and which she ultimately transferred to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library). She gave the remaining collection to Toby Bruce to keep or dispose of. Toby Bruce and his wife Betty retained the collection. They also added material relating to Ernest Hemingway that they collected after his death and from their personal papers, such as family photographs and correspondence with the Hemingway family. Following their deaths, the collection passed into the custody of their son Benjamin "Dink" Bruce who continued to collect material relating to Ernest Hemingway. After Dink Bruce passed away in September 2020, the collection passed into the custody of his nephew Kenneth Blacow and niece Toby Blacow. Kenneth and Toby Blacow sold the collection to Penn State University in October 2021.
- Note:
- For information on inclusive description of this collection, particularly identification of Hemingway's third child, who chose the name Gloria but was known to the Hemingway family by her birth name throughout her life, see the finding aid (linked below).
- Preferred Citation:
- Toby and Betty Bruce collection of Ernest Hemingway, #10077, Special Collections Library, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA.
- Terms of Use and Reproduction:
- Photocopies of original materials may be made available for research purposes at the discretion of the Eberly Family Special Collections Library. Photocopies or reproductions of original materials may be subject to fees as outlined by the Pennsylvania State University Libraries reproduction policies. Copyright is retained by the creators of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law. Patrons seeking advice on the availability of unpublished materials for publication should consult relevant copyright law and laws of libel.
- Source of Acquisition:
- Purchased; 202110.
- Related Materials:
- Ernest Hemingway letters to his family, Eberly Family Special Collections Library, Pennsylvania State University Horton Bay, Michigan, in the time of Ernest Hemingway, Eberly Family Special Collections Library, Pennsylvania State University Madelaine Hemingway Miller scrapbooks, Eberly Family Special Collections Library, Pennsylvania State University Ernest Hemingway collection, Hornbake Library, University of Maryland Ernest Hemingway Personal Papers, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
- Administrative History:
- Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) was a novelist, journalist, and sportsman. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954 for his novel The Old Man and the Sea . Additional books include In Our Time . The Sun Also Rises , A Farewell to Arms , Death in the Afternoon , and For Whom the Bell Tolls . Ernest Hemingway served in World War I in an American Red Cross volunteer ambulance unit and was injured in Italy. As a journalist, he covered the Spanish Civil War, World War II, and the liberation of Paris. Hemingway was married four times to Hadley Richardson (1921-1927), Pauline Pfeiffer (1927-1940), Martha Gellhorn (1940-1945), and Mary Welsh (1946-1961). He had three children: John (Jack), Patrick, and [Gloria] Hemingway. Telly Otto "Toby" Bruce (1910-1984) was a long-time friend, assistant, carpenter, handyman, and driver of Ernest Hemingway. After meeting Ernest in Piggott, Arkansas in 1928, Bruce moved to Key West in 1935 to remodel Hemingway's Key West, Florida home. Bruce married Laura Elizabeth "Betty" Moreno (1918-1994) in 1943. Betty Moreno worked as a librarian and historian for the Monroe County Library. Toby and Betty had two children, Benjamin Curry "Dink" Bruce and Linda Bruce. Following Hemingway's death in 1961, Mary Hemingway asked Toby to act as a pallbearer at Ernest Hemingway's funeral. After the funeral, Toby and Betty assisted Mary Hemingway in sorting Hemingway's papers stored in Sloppy Joe's Bar. After Mary removed the papers she wanted, she left the remainder to the Bruces to retain or dispose of. Toby and his wife Betty ultimately kept these materials and stewarded them by arranging and inventorying the papers. Following Betty's death in 1994, their son Benjamin Curry "Dink" Bruce inherited the collection, and, along with his sister, Linda, began to research, protect, and preserve the collection. Dink Bruce passed away in September 2020.
View MARC record | catkey: 35855496