‘Ernie, dear boy, I am writing this late at night after a long think to myself, and I am afraid it is going to hurt you, but I’m sure it won’t harm you permanently.

Dear boy [Ernest Hemingway]

[This is the dramatic opening line in the letter that Agnes von Kurowsky wrote to 18-year-old Ernest Hemingway on 7 March 1919. The two had met in an Italian hospital where Hemingway was being treated during the First World War. They fell in love, but the age difference led Agnes to end the relationship, leaving Ernest in great sorrow.]