Fifty years before the book trailer even existed, the great Ernest Hemingway experimented by recording a rambling and possibly intoxicated introduction to Across the River and into the Trees.

Miracle Jones posted the video at the new literary videos section at Reddit, suggesting that “all writers should do this with their books.” What do you think? Open Culture has more about the recording:

The reading is called “In Harry’s Bar in Venice,” and it was recorded with a pocket recorder sometime in the late 1950s. You can access the recording (thanks to HarperAudio) in multiple formats here: .au format, .gsm format, .ra format. Or you can buy it as part of a larger collection called Ernest Hemingway Reads Ernest Hemingway.