More on Hemingway…

As I was researching poems by Ernest Hemingway I came across what I think is a good biography on Hemingway at the Poetry Foundation site that can be seen here. This great website has been part of my Blogroll (see lower right) for quite some time). While we are on the topic of poetry – notice the new EH poem on the right (upper) side of the home page.

Also, check out this great site on Hemingway from the University of Delaware, which again has been on my fav EH link list. This is part of the U. Del Library Special Collections and is really quite interesting and filled with copies of some of the original Hemingway work published in various periodicals. It includes some facts about his work that you may have not been aware of.

Hemingway & Gellhorn Movie Coming in May

I have to admit that I have not yet seen Woody Allen’s – A Midnight in Paris yet but I am looking forward to the movie made for TV – Hemingway and Gellhorn due out in May 2012. The filming will start soon (Feb. 28). It looks like it will have a great cast with Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen in the starring roles. It will also co-star Connie Nielson – who I like in the BOSS – as the “blonde women.” I believe Martha Gellhorn, Hemingway’s third wife was the most interesting of all of Hemingway’s wives. For additional readings on Martha try: Gellhorn: A Twentieth Century Life by Caroline Moorehead as well as the Selected Letters of Martha Gellhorn also by Moorehead.

Ernest Hemingway Apps

I have done a blog post on Hemingway and iTunes (search on iTunesU) in the past but I recently saw free app for the Android and the iPhone ($$) regarding personal quotes from EH himself if your interested. On the iPhone the app is called Ernest Hemingway Quotes Pro and it looks like there are 80 Hemingway quotes (cost $0.99). There are also othe rappd that contain various quotes and an app called Audiolibro: Ernest Hemingway ($1.99/Spanish).

For those of you who may have missed this – there is a section on Hemingway in the book titled: A New Literary History of America (Harvard University Press, 2009). Read Review here.

Happy New Year to All!

My First Visit to the Hemingway Museum!

I had the distinct pleasure of visiting the Hemingway Museum at the JFK Library last week for the first time. I could have easily spent the entire day looking at all the Hemingway letters, books, photos and art work. A great way to describe what part of the museum up on the 5th floor is like was stated nicely by Hemingway curator, Susan Wrynn, who said to me “it’s a hidden gem” of the area. I spent more than two hours in the beautiful archive room that overlooked the water and nearby UMass Boston.

I did not have a specific focus on this visit other than to get a tour by Hannah who was terrific and then to spend some time to peruse Hemingway’s work and letters. As for the letters (Collection #104), I spent time looking at incoming letters, postcards and newspapers from people like F. Scott Fitzgerald during the Dec 28, 1928 time period and through May 10, 1934. Following that, I spent time looking at letters from Ford Maddox Ford during the 1932-39 time period.

In addition to letters, I found a fantastic 353 page PhD dissertation by Sharon M. ZeBrack titled Ernest Hemingway: A Levinsonian Study of Mental Illness in Middle Adulthood - The CA School of Professional Psychology at Alvaredo (May 2001).

I would highly recommend a visit to this “hidden gem outside Boston – the museum has a knowledgeable staff and more than 90% of the Hemingway letters are housed here. I now even have my own researcher identification card (good for a year) that I will surely be using soon again. Happy Holidays!!

Hemingway Forum Back at JFK Library

Hemingway’s Letters: From Childhood to Paris

Sunday, December 11, 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.   Join us for a discussion of The Letters of Ernest Hemingway: Volume 1, 1907-1922 with Sandy Spanier, the book’s editor, and novelist Ward Just. Scott Simon, host of NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday, will moderate, and the actor, Corey Stoll, who played Hemingway in Woody Allen’s recent Midnight in Paris, will read selections.

A free screening of Midnight in Paris will be shown following the forum. Running time is 94 minutes.

In the Company of Writers

I recently received a copy today  of the book, In the Company of Writers: A Life in Publishing (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1990, 193 pages) which chronicles the history of Scribner’s Sons that was of course Ernest Hemingway’s publisher with Max Perkins for the majority of his work. The book is based on the oral history by Joel Gardner and written by Charles Scribner, Jr. himself. Hemingway is mentioned throughout the book but my focus will be on the fourth chapter entitled My Life with Hemingway (pp 63-87).

11/25/11 – As expected this was indeed a great chapter to read. I was curious what Charles Scribner’s perspective would be on certin issues especially publishing Hemingway’s work posthumously.

“Hemingway left strict instructions that his letters not be published. But, with Mary’s approval, I published them – and I think I did the right thing. To begin with, he had kidded my father about publishing his letters, so he thought of such a thing. Second, I believe his letters show a side of him that nothing else in his work does, and it is a very nice side. I considered that I was justified.” (p. 85)

“Looking back, I am bound to say that working with Hemingway was rather like being strapped to an electric chair. All the electrodes were always in place, and it would need just the flicking of a switch to ruin me. I might do something quite innocently that would be taken amiss and I would be in outer darkness forever. It was hard. It required constant diplomacy to keep everything smooth. I don’t think it made me cowardly, but it made me nervous.” (p. 87)

NY Times Review on Hemingway

The New York Times had a review (read here) by Author Arthur Phillips recently on some of the latest work to come out on Hemingway this past year.

Hemingway in the News

Here are a few recent articles on Ernest Hemingway that I have come across:

Are Criticisms of Hemingway Unfair? (Panel Discussion) – Idaho Mountain Express

The Finest Life You Ever Saw by James Salter (New York Book Review)

Tender Buttons to Push by Robert Fulford, National Post (article on G. Stein)

The Man who Would be Papa by Robert Fulford, National Post

Sandra Spanier Online at National Review

Sandra Spanier, one of the Editor’s of The Letters of Ernest Hemingway, 1907-1922 can be heard in a great interview online at the National Review. Check out Between the Covers with John Miller. This episode can also be found on iTunes.

Going Fishing with Hemingway

After listening to Author Paul Hendrickson speak last evening about his book – Hemingway’s Boat – at the JFK Library, I felt like I should try to find a few photos of what EH would have caught off his boat, the Pilar. Here are a few that I had as well as a few new photos that I found on the web. Enjoy!

   

EH and Henry Strater off coast of Bimini in 1936

 

EH congratulates Helen Lerner and husband Mike after catching a big Marlin off Bimini

 

Author Paul Hendrickson at JFK Library

Well I am two for two when it comes to forums at the JFK Library.  Maybe it was because both talks had to do with Ernest Hemingway or that both authors were very dynamic speakers who new more about their topic than most.  The previous talk was with Caroline Moorehead (author of Gellhorn and Selected Letters of Martha Gellhorn) and the second was a talk (forum) that I actually attended tonight (Oct. 12, from 5:30 – 7:00 PM) titled Ernest Hemingway and the Sea.  Paul Hendrickson, is the author of Hemingway’s Boat: Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost, 1934-1961.  I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Hendrickson following the forum, that was moderated by Scott Simon, host of NPR’s Weekend Edition, who also did a great job with his probing questions.  I have to say, and not because he signed my book, that Mr. Hendrickson was extremely interesting to listen to and I could have easily have spent the rest of the evening listening to his stories about Hemingway as I’m sure the rest of the packed audience could have.  Now I need to do a little research to find his Washington Post story that he wrote about Hemingway’s three sons whom he all met back in 1987. I kept thinking how lucky his students (at UPenn) are to have a Ernest Hemingway scholar right at their finger tips.

The author signing copies of his book at the JFK Library Forum

Hemingway Finally Arrives

Hemingway arrived at the house today. Two of the latest publications that is – Hemingway’s Boat: Everything He Loved in Life, And Lost, 1934-1961 Knopf, 2011). This 531 page book looks like it will be a fantastic read. I had heard some earlier conversations on the Hemingway Society email list that mentioned it looked quite good. Author Paul Hendrickson is on the faculty at UPenn and his previous work Sons of Mississippi (2003) won him a National Book Critic Circle Award.

The much anticipated Letters of Ernest Hemingway 1907-1922 (Cambridge University Press 431 pages, 2011) looks like it will tie some things together for me concerning EH youth, WWI experiences, and his arrival in Paris. The book – volume 1 of 16 (? I believe) is edited by Sandra Spanier and Robert Trogdon. The introduction states that 85% of the letters have never been published before.

Table Of Contents

1. General Editor’s introduction Sandra Spanier; 2. Foreword Linda Patterson Miller; 3. Introduction Robert W. Trogdon; 4. Note on the text; 5. Acknowledgments; 6. Abbreviations and cue-titles; 7. Chronology; 8. The letters, 1907–1922; 9. Roster of correspondents; 10. Calendar of letters; Index.

Hemingway Letters in Vanity Fair

A. Scott Berg has a story on Ernest Hemingway’s letters that were found at his estate in Cuba in the October issue of Vanity Fair. Click here to read. The article is accompanied by photos of some of the letters in the form of a slide show.

Upcoming Hemingway Talk at JFK Library

Ernest Hemingway and the Sea

Tuesday, October 12, 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the JFK Library in Boston

Author, Paul Hendrickson discusses his new biography of Ernest Hemingway as seen through Hemingway’s long relationship with his beloved boat, Pilar.

The Atlantic (1954 copy)

You just never know when you may come across Ernest Hemingway. For me it could be while walking the streets of Manhattan and find a 1st edition of For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) at a sidewalk book sale or most recently while in Camden, Maine I found a copy of The Atlantic (1954) with Hemingway on the cover. In regard to the second, Charles Fenton was featured as the cover story in a great 10-page story entiled, Ernest Hemingway: The Young Years. This particular copy was found at a great little book store called the Goose River Exchange which had a sign out front that first caught my eye – Antiques, Books Ephemera. This 1954 copy, in good condition, was just 50 cents back in the day (I purchased it for $25). I also found a 1952 copy of The Old Man and the Sea (which is still there!).