I don't consider myself a big fan of Ernest Hemingway, but I've probably read a half-a-dozen of his books, and learned plenty watching the new Ken Burns' series, especially about bullfighting (e.g., the proper placement of hands to emulate horns). But Burns didn't have room for everything in his six hour documentary and I'm glad to help fill in the gaps.
Hemingway and Hunter S. Thompson. One of the more popular posts in this blog is short paragraph about Hunter S. Thompson's 1964 essay "What Lured Hemingway to Ketchum?" Details of the July 2011 post is here. What makes the essay an interesting read in retrospect is the coincidence that Thompson also died by a self-inflicted gunshot in 2005. Thompson prophetically says, "writers who lose their power of conviction lose the willingness to create art out of chaos."
Hemingway vs. his contemporary John Hersey. In 2016, I reread Hemingway's novel The Sun Also Rises (1926), and John Hersey's 1996 collection of short stories Key West Tales (who also lived in Key West). Hersey stories show tremendous range in subject matter with some measure of wit. For example, in the story "To End the American Dream," Hersey pays "tribute" to Hemingway by portraying him as a bar brawler, but also balances his portrayal by showing how Hemingway cares about his sentences and his writing habits.
Hersey also wrote the Pulitzer Prize winning novel A Bell for Adano (1944) about the American occupation of an Italian village in World War II, but his Hiroshima far surpasses any of Hemingway's journalism.
Hemingway & Martha Gellhorn & My Grandmother. My grandmother was very well read, and she loved tossing in quotes from her reading experiences at the appropriate time. When my grandfather was being particularly difficult, she'd say, "Nobody knows the trouble I've seen--except Gellhorn." It was a reference to Ernest Hemingway's fourth wife Mary Welch who once made the remark "Nobody knows the trouble I've seen" in front a what she thought was a dozing Hemingway. Papa woke and replied, "Nobody, but Gellhorn" (his third wife).
I scribbled this memorable note in my copy of For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940).
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