Hemingway

Even the most famous writers had to work for it. First drafts are not always good. Below is the first draft of the first page of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises.
I got it from Tim Powers on his mailing list. I asked Tim: "Awkward is no overstatement. Are you sure it's a first draft as such? It reads more like an outline."
He answered:
"That Hemingway page was virtually _final_ draft, actually! It's from a carbon of the manuscript that Fitzgerald read "while proofs were being set" at Scribner's! Luckily Fitzgerald read it and wrote Hemingway a letter full of crucial advice, and luckily Hemingway made the appropriate changes. This is all in Matthew Broccoli's book, Scott and Ernest. Hemingway is one of my favorite writers, so it's reassuring to me to see that he could do clumsy stuff that didn't (quite) make it into publication."

This is a novel about a lady. Here name is Lady Ashley and when the story begins she is living in Paris and it is Spring. That should be a good setting for a romantic but highly moral story. As every one knows, Paris is a very romantic place. Spring in Paris is a very happy and romantic time. Autumn in Paris, although very beautiful, might give a note of sadness or melancholy that we shall try to keep out of this story. Lady Ashley was born Elizabeth Brett Murray. Her title comes from her second husband. She had divorced one husband for something or other, mutual consent; not until after he had put one of those noties in the papers stating that after this date he would not be responsible for any debt, etc. He was a Schotchman and found Brett much too expensive, especially as she had only married him to get rid of him and to get away from home. At present she had a legal separation from her second husband, who had the title, because he was a dipsomaniac, he having learned it in the North Sea commanding a minesweeper, Brett said.