2011: the year of Papa?

Posted on October 20, 2011 by pagesofjulia
[Updated 2pm]

Before you think I’m late to the party, yes, we all covered the anniversary on July 2 of Ernest Hemingway’s death 50 years ago in 1961. But I guess I underestimated how much this anniversary was going to mean. For one thing, in July I was unaware of the upcoming publication of either The Letters of Ernest Hemingway: Volume 1, 1907-1922 or Hemingway’s Boat, both in September of this year. (You can see my review of the latter here.) These two books have been covered in a variety of magazines; I posted already about a blurb of Hemingway’s Boat in Town & Country magazine, and then came across another in Men’s Journal, and a brief mention in Playboy. And now I see coverage of The Letters of Ernest Hemingway in Vanity Fair. I’m not a big reader of magazines normally (just Playboy and Bike), but I receive a lot of them at the library where I work, and I have loving family in California (hi, Grammy!) who clip articles for me. So I’m just sort of marveling at all this coverage – which I attribute to the 50-year suicide anniversary – and observing what a hold Papa still has on pop culture. One of his unique qualities is that he captured the national and international attention, and imagination, as more than an author: he was a character. (Some would say a caricature.) He was a personality. He was bigger than his work – and that’s really saying something. I guess I should be on top of this concept, me with my Hemingway obsession, but I really wasn’t. I think I was too close to things. I’m a huge fan, first of his work; but as I became more and more impressed with his writing I started reading more about the man behind it. I guess I failed to notice how much the rest of the world shared my interest.

So, belatedly, I’m making the observation that 2011 appears to have seen a Hemingway revival. Is this a big duh; was I oblivious? Or are you just noticing, too? Have you seen Papa everywhere this year?

EDIT: I just read another article. Although this one was published in 1997, it fits with our theme today. The author, Nan Klingener of The Bone Island Book Blog, sent me a copy of her article, The Papas and the Papas, about the annual Ernest Hemingway Look-Alike Contest in Key West. Thanks, Nan, I enjoyed it! It is certainly a shame that Key West fails to embrace the look Papa wore while he lived there – that is, a 30-something, dark-haired handsome Hemingway. But I do understand the argument given by a contestant-turned-judge: the white-bearded, bellied look is the one we know best in pop culture. And the takeaway lesson of the contest is about pop culture: that, as I wrote above, Hemingway is a cultural icon.

Nan, your article was a lovely little trip into a weird world, a Hemingway theme park if you will, that I did not experience on my recent trip to your fair island! What an interesting event. Thanks for sending me a little reading material. 🙂

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hemingWay of the Day: last words

Posted on October 12, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Thank you to Buzzfeed’s The Last Words of 25 Famous Dead Authors for today’s brief words from Papa. [Go click that link and read some others; there are a number of humorous, poignant last words up for your contemplation.]

Goodnight, my kitten.

Spoken to his fourth and last wife, Mary, before she retired; she would be awakened in the morning by the sound of gunshots and have the honor of finding his body, which frankly I think was an awfully mean thing to do to her.

Pagesofjulia is having a season of Hemingway around here. You might have noticed. Goodnight, Papa, we miss you.

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shrine to Papa

Posted on October 9, 2011 by pagesofjulia

I’ve been working on this little project for a month or so now, and it’s finally ready for its photo shoot.

First of all, I have limited bookshelf space (I’m sure you’re shocked). When I read Paul Hendrickson’s Hemingway’s Boat recently, I enjoyed being immersed again in one of my favorite literary and historical figures. It had been a little while since I’d read any Hemingway (or anything about Hemingway), and it was like coming home: it was comforting and comfortable to return to a subject I know and love. It also inspired me to make some purchases.

First, I decided I wanted a smallish bookshelf to dedicate to the Hemingway theme. I thought maybe it could hold all my books by Hemingway, and about him, and also the works of his friend or those authors I’ve picked up directly because of a Hemingway connection (Stein, Fitzgerald, de Maupassant, Beryl Markham). I cleared it with Husband and he even agreed to come shopping with me. It took a little looking, but I ended up with this charming piece.


I was prepared to do some decorating…


I bought this print from the Hemingway House in Key West, and took a second shopping trip to find a beat-up real-wood frame for it. Again Hemingway’s Boat gets credit: I was taken by this picture in my reading of the book, which to my memory is the first time I had ever seen it. I like that it shows him in his non-writing leisure time, in pursuit of an activity he loved, and I like that he’s wearing his glasses in it, which he was not in the habit of always doing. Sorry it’s not a better picture of the picture…


And don’t laugh at me, but this is my own portrait of Papa, a copy of the famous Karsh portrait.


Top shelf, with antique fishing reel donated by Husband. (It’s not specifically accurate to Papa’s fishing, we don’t think, but it sets the mood, if you will.)


Bottom shelf, with four new purchases inspired by my reading of Hemingway’s Boat. They are the four on the right: memoirs of life with Hemingway by his son Gregory (Gigi), by Arnold Samuelson (“the Maestro”), by longtime friend A.E. Hotchner, and by Valerie Hemingway, Gregory’s ex-wife (who was originally a secretary or assistant to Papa). I have not read these books yet…

As you might see, I ran out of room for the friends, so Stein et al reside on the “regular” shelves again. And there’s not much room for the collection to grow, on my Hemingway shelves. But I’m very pleased with my end result: a special space that honors my favorite author on his own. As for growth, I suppose these shelves will begin to look like the rest of them, with books stacked in front of or on top of other books. It’s all organic.

Do you have a special space or special shelves reserved for a particular author, genre, subject, or other beloved group of books?

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HemingWay of the Day: in Town & Country (I know, weird, huh?)

Posted on October 3, 2011 by pagesofjulia


Well, unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be available on the interwebs at all. You have to go find a physical print copy of the September issue of Town & Country magazine to read these articles. But keep your eyes open for one, because it might be worth it! There are two Hemingway-related articles: the first is available in part (and with some lovely pictures) at Mariel Hemingway’s blog – that’s Papa’s granddaughter. It basically catches us up with the current generation: Mariel, a successful Hollywood actor, and the fate of her two sisters who haven’t done as well; and then Mariel’s daughters, Dree and Langley. Town & Country’s focus is clearly on the beautiful people (Mariel and Langley; Dree is only mentioned) and the beautiful house: the Hemingway estate in Ketchum, Idaho. Yes, that’s where Papa died. The short story is, these beautiful ladies seem to have overcome their family legacy of depression, angst, and suicide. Good for them.

The second article is even more worthwhile, though. It contains an excerpt from Paul Hendrickson’s new book, Hemingway’s Boat, which you may have noticed I am mad for (main review here). I don’t have any kind of electronic version of it. 😦 Sorry. If you see a Town & Country (September issue – with the younger Hemingway women on the cover, at right), check it out. Or better yet, go get a copy of the recently published Hemingway’s Boat! (You will get much more Papa that way.)

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Hemingway’s Boat by Paul Hendrickson

Posted on September 23, 2011 by pagesofjulia

A lyrical, textured, and meticulously researched meditation on Hemingway from a fresh new angle.

Paul Hendrickson, NBCC award-winning nonfiction author for Sons of Mississippi, pulls off the remarkable feat of finding a fresh, new angle from which to approach Ernest Hemingway: his boat Pilar. Purchased in 1934 with an advance from his longtime publisher Scribner, she saw him through three wives, great achievements and critical failures in his writing career, big fish and little ones, and the beginnings and the endings of many relationships. Hendrickson suggests that Pilar may have been the love of Hemingway’s life.

This is not a biography but a careful and compassionate rumination on the man through the lens of the boat. Hendrickson has brought to his readers a Hemingway who is neither object of worship nor monster, but a full and complex human who made serious mistakes in his relationships and fought pitched battles against his own demons, and finally lost.

The Hemingway fan will be enthralled with new details of his life, and the study of figures previously treated as minor but now revealing new facets of the man. The less familiar reader will be fascinated by this comprehensive account of the master and his complex spiderweb of varied effects on so many lives, large and small. Hendrickson presents his unusual and noteworthy story with beautifully quiet intensity and contemplation. Hemingway’s Boat achieves a terrific feat in reworking Hemingway’s story.

This review originally ran in the September 23, 2011 issue of Shelf Awareness for Readers. To subscribe, click here, and you’ll receive two issues per week of book reviews and other bookish fun!

Further notes… I can’t tell you how much this book moved me. Perhaps you have noticed that pagesofjulia is a raving fan of Hemingway. I’ve read several biographies, works of literary criticism, and other spinoffs (see The Hemingway Hoax and The Paris Wife); I’m a little obsessive. But Hemingway’s Boat holds a very special place for me. Hendrickson (PH) treats Papa (EH) sort of gently, but doesn’t spare EH in his moments of monstrosity… PH comes from several different angles, interviewing different people who knew EH more or less well, unearthing some new details. PH approaches EH with the relatively unique concept that he was just a man – a great artist, but also human, with flaws and moments of everyday beauty. This book was noteworthy in all my reading of EH and the surrounding literature. It made me laugh and cry; I treasure this galley copy, where I usually pass them on as soon as I’ve turned in my review. This book alone has made my recent career as Shelf Awareness book reviewer worthwhile. (PH also recently came around here to comment on a post, which I found very exciting. Hi Paul!) I wholeheartedly recommend this book for fans of Hemingway, or of literary biography, or of well-written nonfiction, or for those looking for vignettes in Key West or Havana history.

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The Hemingway Hoax by Joe Haldeman

Posted on September 14, 2011 by pagesofjulia

This was a delightful short read. The Hemingway Hoax was loaned to me by my friend Amy, librarian (newly, my coworker librarian! yay!), science fiction enthusiast, and science fiction author to boot. (I wrote briefly about one of her short stories here.) After my recent raving about Hemingway’s Boat (my review to come at Shelf Awareness), she lent me her signed, personalized copy, ooooh. It’s an easy read at 150ish pages; I ran right through it at one sitting.

David Baird is a college professor and Hemingway scholar. He and his (much younger, former student) wife are summering in Key West, where they meet a con man with a scheme to “find” the manuscripts of Hemingway’s early short stories, and a partial novel, that H’s first wife Hadley lost on a train in their Paris days. Baird, with his expertise, should be able to successfully forge them. In so doing, however, he gets wrapped up… transported through times… to parallel universes… meets the Hemingways of various eras… or does he? I won’t ruin the whole surprise, but there is time travel and questions about What Is Real. Some bad things happen. Or do they?

I enjoyed the Hoax. It had suspense, interesting characters, intrigue. It had Hemingway! And the Hemingway parts were well done; Haldeman knows his Papa well enough to pull this off without offending the armchair Hemingway scholar. (I didn’t pick it apart or check references or anything but it held together.) And that would have been a deal-breaker for me, of course. Not for the first time, I say: this is sci fi? I thought I didn’t like sci fi! Well done, Amy. You may keep lending me books. Thank you!

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the Hemingway House

Posted on September 11, 2011 by pagesofjulia

All right! You want the details.

The Hemingway House at 907 Whitehead in Key West was Papa’s residence from 1931 until 1940ish. He bought the house with his second wife, Pauline, and left her to live in Cuba (in sort of a gradual manner, which is why I say 1940ish). Pauline would live in the house til her death in 1951, and Ernest would continue to use it, on his odd visit to the island, from that point until his death in 1961. It’s now a museum, with the Hemingways’ original furniture and books largely intact, we’re told. One of its more famous features is the population of polydactyl (six-toed) cats that still roams the grounds freely; they have forty-something today. Papa had one original cat, Snowball, who eventually populated the place pretty thoroughly. (Our B&B, the Wicker Guesthouse, also had a few polydactyl cats gracing its grounds, just a block from the Hemingway House. One assumes they’ve taken the island over for their own, to some extent.)

Our photo tour begins with a cat. Husband was rather good at making friends with them.

That’s Husband’s hand there.

Most special to me, of course, was the connection to Ernest Hemingway’s life and writing. This is his writing studio, in a separate building, up a flight of stairs: at this very typewriter (says our guide) Papa created much of his best work, including my personal favorite, For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Husband was careful to also record the urinal in Papa’s workshop.

More cats… did you hear me say FORTY-SOMETHING on the grounds? You could literally trip over them.

This is Husband’s lovely photo of the outside. Thank you, Husband! The House’s website has a number of pictures of the exterior from different years, which are nice to see as a series; I know from these pictures, for example, that it was not so lushly vegetated when Papa bought the place. (The other side, not pictured here, is a veritable jungle.) I have to keep going back to study all these exterior shots to try and convince myself that he was really here, right here where I am now… what a special thing to experience. On the morning we left Key West, I went back to stand and study the house and try to feel his presence.

But! Our trip didn’t end with touring the grounds. I’m always looking to have more Hemingway books – by, and about. I had saved up a little list of the holes in my collection, so that I could try and do some buying at the Hemingway House’s bookstore. I didn’t find everything I was looking for – their biographies, for example, were just the most well-known ones (Baker, Meyers, Lynn, Reynolds) who I already own. (I’m searching for some that were cited in Hemingway’s Boat, including Samuelson, V. Hemingway, P. Hemingway, Hotchner…) But I did fill a few holes:

That is, I bought four books by EH himself: Men Without Women, The Nick Adams Stories (a posthumous collection), To Have and Have Not, and The Fifth Column and Four Stories of the Spanish Civil War. (The Fifth Column was his one and only play, and I’ve never read it!) I also got Bernice Kert’s The Hemingway Women, which I’ve read references to for years. All in all, a good haul!

I had a very special time visiting a place where Papa himself lived and walked and worked. This was my first, but hopefully not my last trip: I want to see the family home in Oak Park, IL, and also the finca in Havana if they ever let us go.

As an aside, here’s another literary connection: at the start of Tripwire by Lee Child, my other hero Jack Reacher (who actually has a bit in common with Hemingway, at least as he wanted us to see him… hmmm) is making his living by digging swimming pools – by hand – in Key West. Husband also being familiar with this fact, our running joke was to ask each other every time we saw a pool (and there are a lot of them!) whether Reacher had dug that one? Good fun. 🙂

What about you? Have you made any literary pilgrimages? Do you have any in mind?

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quick trip report: Key West, FL

Posted on September 10, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Hello friends! I’m back! Did you miss me?

Husband and I DID, in fact, make it to Florida! Here’s a quick report…

Last Friday night we flew into Miami, got a hotel room and a rental car and a beer, and went to bed. Saturday morning we got up lateish and began the drive down through the Keys. It was a lovely drive, as promised, with water on both sides of the narrow highway for a few hours. We took our time on the drive down, stopping for lunch – fried conch, an outstanding Ahi burger, and some rum – and made it into Key West around 5pm. We got a room, had a few drinks, and walked around Duvall St. before turning in.

Sunday we really began our sightseeing, with my top priority: the Hemingway House. It was very special. I am still trying to wrap my head around the idea that he lived right there. I’ll give you the full Hem House report shortly. [EDIT: Here‘s my report.] Then we rented bikes and rode out to the area where the fishing charters depart, so we could shop for a fishing trip for Husband. Finally, we found some solid pizza by the slice and took yet another dip in the pool at our B&B.

Monday was a lazy day in and out of the pool, the bed, and various books… we rode our bikes around some more and fished off a pier on the east (Atlantic) side of the island. Then we had an early night so we could wake up early on Tuesday to go fishing!

We went out in a little boat with Captain Mike and Husband fished for baby tarpon, bonefish, permit, and maybe something else?? This is not my area but I went along for the boat ride. We saw maybe 5-7 sharks and a whole mess of sting rays, which was cool. This was “flats” fishing, on the Gulf side of the island, with a lot of poleing the boat over very shallow flats, so we could see very clearly what was swimming around under us. Husband didn’t have any luck but he thoroughly enjoyed himself all the same, and has expressed greater interest since we’ve gotten back home, in getting out there more. There’s talk of renting us seats on a local fishing boat in the coming months. And when I got up this morning he was casting in the back yard!

Tuesday night we spent more time exploring the island, catching up on the last of the recommended beer bars, getting our fill. Wednesday morning we had the time to wake up in a leisurely fashion, get Husband a new fishing hat (the other one disintegrating) from a local angler’s shop (so it’s a functional souvenir, good work Husband), and make the drive back up to Miami for an evening flight home. It was a fairly quick trip but we got everything out of it we wanted to (except a tarpon – maybe next time) and made it home with free time to spare.

Nephew Tanner kept all three little dogs alive and didn’t burn the house down, so things were a success all around!

Thursday morning involved some unexpected travel: we drove out west of Houston to Columbus, TX, one of the areas that was hit hard by wildfires in our absence. My family owns property out there and we had to assess the damage. In a nutshell, we were lucky: the hard work of the local fire crews saved our house, literally stopping the fire at the doorstep (as they did for countless of our neighbors). We lost our barn and tractor, and 30 acres of woodlands are spotty, some places nearly destroyed by fire (biggest trees standing but scorched, little else, carpeted in ash) and some places almost untouched. Overall we were most definitely lucky. Columbus lost 11 homes. Nearby Bastrop has lost some 1400 homes; this is almost unthinkable, in terms of all those families who have only what they could carry. We did take some clothes, toiletries, food and books up there with us to donate to the effort.

And now I’m just settling back in. I have several books and audiobooks to write for you. They might be brief reviews; I didn’t take any kind of notes, sadly. It feels good to be home. Here’s hoping you’re enjoying your reading, maybe even a break of some sort, and hoping your families are safe and fire-free…

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and we’re off! literary travels

Posted on September 3, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Here comes a little break, children. I’m going to try to stay away from the interwebs this time. Husband will be facebooking, of course – he has a “smart” phone (harumph), for one thing, and we like to make our friends jealous by posting real-time pictures of things like beautiful beaches and craft beer and bloody Marys while they’re at work. But I won’t be blogging. I will be reading! But not blogging. I’ll save it all up to dump on you upon my return. 🙂

This vacation has morphed a few times. Originally we intended to go to Colorado someplace to go mountain biking. (We both have new full suspension 29ers, yum.) But I hurt my knee way back at the beginning of July, and have had a hell of a time coming back from it. I’m just now coming off a month of physical therapy with the lovely, talented Ingrid, and I’m coming along well – can now ride a bike again, but just a little teeny bit, not enough to go off on a cycling vacation. You can only imagine how crazy this has made me for the last several months. But enough about the bad news. The good news is that we have found another travel option we like: the Florida Keys. This would involve some walking but not as much as the UK (the other considered destination) and I think I’m up to it.

This partly came about, and will be extra-enjoyable, because of the coincidence of my having just read Paul Hendrickson’s Hemingway’s Boat. This is a new book coming out in September, and I REALLY loved it; he brought a fresh, new angle to the somewhat tired (although still and forever interesting to me) field of Hemingway biography. His lens is Hemingway’s boat, the Pilar, which he first purchased while living in Key West; it followed him to Havana of course, but KW plays an important role, along with his residence there, which is now the Hemingway House and open to visitors for a fee. I’ve heard it’s touristy and crowded, but I’m not afraid. My life (and adoration and scholarship) won’t be complete without a few trips to some of his homes; I’d also like to see the finca in Havana one day if they ever let us, and his childhood home in Oak Park (Illinois), and what the heck, the house in Bimini (Bahamas) sounds lovely. Maybe we’ll go there instead, or next.

Hem House in KW, circa 1933, the year before he bought the boat. from Hem House website


So! I’m all fresh now on the Hemingway House, and really hope to see it. Key West and surrounding environs (we’d drive down the famously scenic Highway 1 from Miami) also boast beaches, fishing (that’s for Husband), and some unique ecosystems. I hope to visit several state parks and/or national parks, and maybe go canoeing; maybe we’ll take some sort of boat tour. We would definitely relax, get some craft beer – we’d be there for the Key West Beer Fest, and there is one little brewpub – sit around, and read.

I’ve decided against doing “potential vacation” posts (like I did when we went to Terlingua last year) to come up while I’m gone, so we’re just going to go radio silent here at pagesofjulia for a little while. I’m back to work on Monday, Sept. 12, but likely home before then, and I hope to post again before then, too. [NOTE regarding the Great Gone With the Wind Readalong: I’m going to miss part 3’s scheduled posting on 9/5. It will be up here the next week when I’m home. But go check out the hostess at The Heroine’s Bookshelf.] Meanwhile, many thanks to nephew Tanner who is staying at our house with THREE little dogs, bless his heart.

I think the beaches down there are rocks, not sand. it's okay, I'll take it

But! It’s never that simple. Because the flights (everywhere) are very full, we are not sure we can make it to FL. A second option that has been discussed is Seattle; others are in the discussion stage as well. We’re considering various destinations, in fact. The long and short of it is – when this post posts, we will be I know not where. We are playing airport roulette this week. It will be an adventure, and if it goes well-ish, I shall tell you all about it on the other side. (If you hear nothing about my vacation at all, it is probably because it did not go well.) Place your bets, children! Where do Husband and I end up? I can’t wait to find out.

See you back here in a week or so, then!

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hemingWay of the Day: with love

Posted on August 31, 2011 by pagesofjulia


According to Paul Hendrickson in his meticulously researched Hemingway’s Boat which I respect and admire very much, Hemingway wrote to Sara Murphy (an old friend from the Paris days) in December of 1935 of his concerns on aging… his work habits… and a recent hunting trip with his son Patrick. The part I like the best (and which strangely echoes Gertrude Stein) is his closing,

with very much love much love and love also with love.

I love you too, Papa.

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