The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park

Summer 2011 Hemingway Despatch Available

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Nancy's Cuba Blog: Final Days

On June 14, EHFOP Board Member Nancy W. Sindelar traveled to Cuba to present at the International Colloquium Ernest Hemingway in Havana. This gathering of literary professionals and enthusiasts from all over the world was a rare chance for an American Hemingway scholar to gain insight into the great writer’s life in Cuba. Sindelar blogged her experiences, which have been presented as a serial in this space. Scroll down for previous installments.

FINAL DAYS: June 19 presentations focus more on the writer’s early life. Sandy Spanier, researcher and professor at Pennsylvania State University, talks about her work in collecting Hemingway’s letters. She is in the last stages of editing the first volume, which comprises his early letters. She comments that Hemingway’s correspondence list reads like Who’s Who, stating that the first volume will contain the letters he wrote to Ezra Pound, Gary Cooper, Picasso, Archibald Mac Leisch as well as to his wives and children. Sandy anticipates the letters will fill sixteen volumes and that the project, authorized by Patrick Hemingway, will take fifteen years.

My presentation focuses on the “The Early Influences (1899-1917) Impacting Hemingway’s Attitude toward Death.” I discuss the influences of Ernest’s two grandfathers and his father and mother and show photos of Hemingway as a baby, a child, and a high school student. The photos have not been seen by most of the audience and are well received. Follow-up interviews and videos are then completed by international press services and a local documentary film-maker.

After Alyson Gills’ presentation about of the transformation of the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum to a virtual 3D tour that can be taken via computer, our group heads to Finia Vigia. There we watch a baseball game, which recreates the team Hemingway financed and trained during his time at Finca Vigia. That evening I also have the opportunity to view Hemingway’s fishing boat, The Pilar, and his 1955 Chrysler convertible.

As I return to Chicago on June 20, I reflect on the many opportunities provided by the Coloquium to learn about the life, the writing and the personal artifacts of Ernest Hemingway. I now have a deeper appreciation of the wealth of information and resources which the Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park preserves and maintains. Our Foundation’s buildings and artifacts are valuable resources to scholars around the world, and the importance of our mission is underscored by my trip to Cuba and the worldwide interest in his life and writing.

Nancy's Cuba Blog: Day Four

On June 14, EHFOP Board Member Nancy W. Sindelar traveled to Cuba to present at the International Colloquium Ernest Hemingway in Havana. This gathering of literary professionals and enthusiasts from all over the world was a rare chance for an American Hemingway scholar to gain insight into the great writer’s life in Cuba. Sindelar blogged her experiences, which will be presented as a serial in this space. Check back tomorrow for the next installment!

DAY FOUR: The June 18 presentations focus on preservation -- artifacts, documents and Hemingway’s Cuban residence, Finca Vigia. Susan Wrynn, curator of the Hemingway Collection at the Kennedy Library in Boston, presents an engaging overview of Hemingway’s art collection, personal artifacts, photos and letters housed at the Kennedy Library. She also plays a clip of the writer’s voice, which is exciting to hear. Walter Newman, of the North East Document Conservation Center, discusses treatment plans involved in the conservation and preservation of Hemingway’s notebooks, manuscripts and photographs, “plans” that are outlined in international agreements.

Because the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park owns and maintains both Hemingway’s birthplace home and his boyhood home, I find it insightful to hear Jenny and Frank Phillips discuss the 2002 founding of the Finca Vigia Foundation. Using both political and financial appeals, this U.S. couple engaged on an inspiring mission to save the documents and 9000 volume library housed at Finca Vigia as well as restore the house. Bill Dupont, chief architect for the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Finca Vigia technical team leader, then expands on the Phillips’ presentation by discussing the topic of “Preserving Places of Creative Inspiration,” stating that “(Preservation) goes beyond tangible objectives…One must know what a place meant to an artist to make preservation decisions."

In the late afternoon our group travels to Cojimar, the setting of The Old Man and the Sea, and the site of the bronze bust of Hemingway cast from boat propellers, anchors and other donations from the local fisherman who honored the writer after his death in 1961. The members of the Colloquium pay tribute to the writer by placing a large arrangement of white roses next to the bust. I, personally, am honored by being one of four Colloquium participants chosen to place the flowers next to the Hemingway memorial. After the presentation of flowers, we visit another of Hemingway’s favorite places, Restaurant Las Terrazas, which overlooks the bay where the old man kept his boat.

Nancy's Cuba Blog: Day Three

On June 14, EHFOP Board Member Nancy W. Sindelar traveled to Cuba to present at the International Colloquium Ernest Hemingway in Havana. This gathering of literary professionals and enthusiasts from all over the world was a rare chance for an American Hemingway scholar to gain insight into the great writer’s life in Cuba. Sindelar blogged her experiences, which will be presented as a serial in this space. Check back on Tuesday for the next installment!

DAY THREE: The morning and afternoon of June 17 are filled with more presentations about Hemingway’s life and work. Dr. Victor Pina Tabio, an aeronautical engineer trained in the former Soviet Union and now a resident of Cuba, speaks in detail about Hemingway’s plane crashes in Africa, the first in a small Cessna 180 and the second crash a few days later in a larger plane, a deHavilland Rapide. Later Hideo Yanagisawa of Japan talks about the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the impact of these events on Hemingway’s writing and his attitude toward death after 1945. As one can see from these two examples, the presentations are detailed, documented insights into Hemingway’s life and work.

In the late afternoon we travel to the Hemingway Marina, where Hemingway gave his name to an International Fishing Competition. Clearly one of the motivations for Hemingway’s move to Cuba was his love of fishing and the world class fishing opportunities that exist off the coast of Cuba. We learn that it was at this marina where Hemingway first met Fidel Castro on May 15, 1960. Castro had competed in and won the fishing tournament, and it was at this meeting that Castro told Hemingway that For Whom the Bell Tolls was his favorite book and an inspiration for the Cuban Revolution.

Our afternoon at the marina ends with a visit to the Club Nautico Internacional Hemingway de Cuba, where we are greeted by the commodore and treated to drinks and appetizers. Commodoro Jose Miguel Diaz Escrich explains to our group that the Hemingway gave permission to the club to use the Hemingway name because of the writer’s love of the sea and fishing, and with the intent of promoting the boating and fishing with the people of Cuba.

In the evening we enjoy a performance of Hemingway on Stage by Brian Gordon Sinclair of Canada. This one man show depicts Hemingway’s life, attitudes and struggles while in Cuba, and is well received by the audience. Sinclair sets forth what he calls the “Hemingway Challenge” to our Foundation and tells me that he will provide a complimentary performance to help us raise funds. (www.BrianGordonSinclair.com)