Novel About Hemingway Sold to 'Loving Frank' Editor For North of Half a Million

By Leon Neyfakh writing in The New York Observer
June 17, 2009

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On Monday, we reported that literary agent Julie Barer was out with a historical novel by Paula McLain written from the perspective of Ernest Hemingway’s first wife, Hadley Richardson. At the time, Ms. Barer was preparing to take the book to auction, and expected to have a winner by the end of the day. Quitting time came and went, though, and, due to the intense interest the book inspired from editors, the auction was still going, with what we’re told was more than six publishing houses bidding aggressively.

Ms. McLain, meanwhile, was on jury duty, literally biting her nails and hoping her manifest nervousness would convince the judge not to select her for service.

A resolution came finally around lunchtime yesterday, with Random House executive editor Susanna Porter prevailing over her competitors with a bid that two sources said was worth just north of a half-million dollars—a staggering sum, in this day and age, especially because it was only for North American rights, which means Ms. Barer can now sell foreign rights to the book abroad.

What’s the book about? Mainly the five-year period after World War I during which Richardson and Hemingway, who was in his 20s, were married and living as expats in Paris alongside Lost Generation writers like Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and Sherwood Anderson. Ms. Barer said on Monday that the book is a “heartbreaking love story” that ends with Hemingway betraying Richardson and marrying someone else.

Read the full story at NYO.