c.1934. The passenger log for the private yacht Minoco, from December, 1932 to March, 1937. Signed by Ernest and Pauline Hemingway, with Ernest adding their street address and "Key West, Florida." The Minoco was apparently based near Chicago, but wintering in Key West during the mid-1930s. Hemingway grew up in Oak Park, north of Chicago, and it may be this connection that prompted him to hire the Minoco in 1934, despite the fact that he already had his own boat, the Pilar, and had spent much of the summer and fall fishing on it, from a base in Havana. The log has also been signed by Morris [McNeil] Musselman, who co-authored with Hemingway the play "Hokum" in 1921, two years before Hemingway had ever published a book. Hokum was not published until 1978, many years after Hemingway had died, and the manuscript turned up at the Jonathan Goodwin sale. It was Hemingway's only known collaboration. Musselman's signature, along with that of his wife, appear right after Ernest and Pauline's signatures -- a historically interesting fact in light of the date, 1935, fourteen years after the Hokum collaboration, suggesting that the friendship, which dated back to their high school days, had continued over the years. Among other Minoco signers are Jean Harlow and Constance Bennett, in 1933, with Harlow adding the remark, "What a man Dalling" and Bennett adding, "Come and see us sometime" and "Oh Bill your [sic] so sweet." There is a sketch of Harlow laid in, by Dorothy M. Rohn, the wife of the skipper of the boat. Hundreds of other signatures and also many character sketches, tipped in or laid in, most signed "Casey." Stafford Lightburn "Casey" Lambert -- heir to the Lambert Pharmaceutical Company fortune which made Listerine, was an aviator who barnstormed with Lindbergh, was friends with Dwight D. Eisenhower, and dated Elizabeth Taylor, the niece of his friend Howard Young, a St. Louis investor and art dealer. Lambert not only signed the logbook but contributed a number of well-executed caricatures as well. One suspects a further examination of the Minoco logbook would reveal other notable figures of the period. A glimpse of a moment, hitherto undocumented, in Hemingway's life at a time when he was perhaps the most famous writer in America, and also into the brief life of Harlow, the screen siren who died in 1936 at the age of 26, among the other notables included in the book. Leatherbound, professionally rebacked, with a cut jade circular emblem inlaid on the cover. 11" x 14". Near fine. [#012556] $7,500

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