Agnes von Kurowsky's actual "Dear John" letter to Ernie...
This is the actual text of Agnes Hannah von Kurowsky's rejection letter to Ernest Hemingway after he returned home to Oak Park, IL:
March 7, 1919
Ernie, dear boy,
I am writing this late at night after a long think by myself, and I am afraid it is going to hurt you, but, I'm sure it won't harm you permanently.
For quite awhile before you left, I was trying to convince myself it was a real love-affair, because, we always seemed to disagree, & then arguments always wore me out so that I finally gave in to keep you from doing something desperate.
Now, after a couple of months away from you, I know that I am still very fond of you, but, it is more as a mother than as a sweetheart. It's alright to say I'm a Kid, but, I'm not, and I'm getting less & less so every day.
So, Kid (still Kid to me, and always will be) can you forgive me some day for unwittingly deceiving you? You know I'm not really bad, and don't mean to do wrong, and now I realize it was my fault in the beginning that you cared for me, and regret it from the bottom of my heart. But, I am now and always will be too old, and that's the truth, and I can't get away from the fact that you're just a boy - a kid.
I somehow feel that some day I'll have reason to be proud of you, but, dear boy, I can't wait for that day, and it was wrong to hurry a career.
I tried hard to make you understand a bit of what I was thinking on that trip from Padua to Milan, but, you acted like a spoiled child, and I couldn't keep on hurting you. Now, I only have the courage because I'm far away.
Then - and believe me when I say this is sudden for me, too - I expect to be married soon. And I hope and pray that after you thought things out, you'll be able to forgive me and start a wonderful career and show what a man you really are.
Ever admiringly and fondly,
Your friend,
Aggie
The tone of this letter is so patronizingly hilarious that I can only imagine how furious it made Hemingway.
Here's a link to an official wartime photo of her http://www.geocities.com/~worldwar1/agnes.html of Aggie, as well as a link to her biography: http://www.nurseweek.com/news/features/02-07/agnes.asp.
Footnote: Von Kurowsky ended up having a distinguished 18-year career with the ARC till her retirement in 1935. She married twice, with her last marriage to a widower and Virginia Beach motel owner named William Stanfield, which lasted from 1935 to her death in 1984. Born in Washington D.C. in 1892, von Kurowsky is now interred at the Arlington National Cemetery in honor of her "gallant and commendable services" with the ARC.