Dear Papa: Letters to Hemingway get crucial repair

Tue., Sept. 25, 2012

In this Sept. 11, 2012, photo Hemingway curator Susan Wrynn, right, and intern Jessica Green collate documents from the Hemingway collection at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston. Among letters written to Ernest Hemingway slated for repair are dispatches from public figures including Hollywood stars Ingrid Bergman and Marlene Dietrich, writers F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein, and Hemingway's editor Max Perkins. (Stephan Savoia / Associated Press)

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Bridget Murphy Associated Press

ANDOVER, Mass. (AP) — Ernest Hemingway was the famous writer, but it’s the letters his friends wrote to him that are getting special treatment now.

The JFK Library and Museum in Boston has launched a restoration project aimed at preserving its collection of thousands of letters to the Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winner.

Some are already at the Northeast Document Conservation Center in Andover, where they’ll be treated for damage from things including mold, water, and corrosive ink.

Among letters slated for repair are dispatches from public figures including Hollywood stars Ingrid Bergman and Marlene Dietrich, writers F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein, and Hemingway’s editor Max Perkins.

JFK Library’s Hemingway curator Susan Wrynn says the project should take two or three years and fundraising is going on to cover the project cost of about $300,000.