A book with a very special dedication has been brought to Stockholm from Minnesota. It is a copy of The Old Man and the Sea with a personal greeting by Hemingway written in June 1961, just weeks before his death.

Hemingway expert Curtis DeBerg came to Stockholm and the Nobel Prize Museum in January. A few years ago, he visited the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Minnesota, where Hemingway was given medical care at the end of his life. In the hospital archive, he found a book with a dedication believed to be one of the last things written by Hemingway. The greeting is addressed to Sister Immaculata and dated 16 June 1961, a little more than two weeks before Hemingway died.

Franciscan Sisters of Saint Francis in Rochester, Minesota offered to donate the book to the Nobel Prize Museum. Curtis DeBerg returned to Rochester at the end of November, where he received the book so that he could bring it to Stockholm.

“This book has passed through very few hands: from Hemingway’s to Sister Immaculata’s, into the quiet safety of the archives, and finally to mine”, says Curtis DeBerg. “There is a weight to being the sole courier for its final journey. My role is simply to ensure that the trust placed in those first keepers – Sister Immaculata and the Franciscan Sisters – is honored all the way to Stockholm.”

The dedication, which is one of the last things ever written by Hemingway, reads:

To Sister Immaculata,
This book, hoping
to write another one as good
for her when my writing
luck is running well
again,
and it will

Ernest Hemingway
St Mary’s
June 16 1961

Saint Marys Hospital was founded in 1889. It was merged with Rochester Methodist in January 2014 to become the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Minnesota.