The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park

Hemingway Reading Groups Begin in February

The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park

Winter 2010 Reading Schedule

Ernest Hemingway and James Joyce

 

All Groups Meet at 7:30 p.m. at the Oak Park Public Library, 834 Lake Street, Oak Park, Illinois.

Space reservations are not required. For more information contact the Hemingway Foundation at (708) 848-2222.

Wednesday, February 10: Discussion of The Old Man and The Sea, led by Redd Griffin

Wednesday, February 24: Discussion of The Old Man and The Sea, led by Redd Griffin

Wednesday, March 10: Discussion of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, led by Herb Breidenbach

Wednesday, March 24: Discussion of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, led by Herb Breidenbach

Wednesday, April 14: Discussion of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, led by Herb Breidenbach

Wednesday, April 28: Discussion of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, led by Herb Breidenbach

Join Us for Boxing Day 2009!

Veterans Day Remarks Note Hemingway Connections

EHFOP Board Member Redd Griffin delivered the following remarks to veterans and friends at the Oak Park Arms on Nov. 22, 2009:

On Veterans Day we are grateful for what our veterans have done in war and peace across the years. Much can be learned from contemplating what their service was like and what it means to us today. There are many to learn from — 23.2 million as of 2008 — to be exact.

Wine Auction: Thank You!

The Ernest Hemingway Foundation held its annual wine auction benefit Oct. 4 at Pleasant Home in Oak Park. More than 75 people attended and bid on more than 100 bottles of wine to raise funds for the Foundation's educational and cultural programming. Thank you to all our participating organizations, donors, sponsors and friends for making this a successful event!

Auctioneer Jim Bohenstengel supervises the wine offerings prior to the auction.

EHFOP Board Member Lori McCarthy reads about the wines for bid.

Bidders watch the auction begin.  

2009 Benefit Wine Auction Will Be Held October 4th

A chance to taste and buy “one of the most civilized things in the world” will occur Sunday, Oct. 4, from 3 to 6 p.m. at a wine auction in Historic Pleasant Home, 217 Home Ave., Oak Park. The event, a benefit for The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park, will feature wine tasting, wines for bid, hors d’oeuvres and musical entertainment.

Proceeds from tickets and wine sales will support educational and cultural programs of The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park. Tickets for the benefit are $25. Send a check made out to The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park to:

2009 Benefit Wine Auction
The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park
P. O. Box 2222, Oak Park, IL 60303-2222

Tickets are also on sale at the Hemingway Museum, 200 N. Oak Park Avenue, or by phone at (708) 848-2222, Ext. 1#.

“This is an opportunity to sample some fine wines, bid on ones that you like, support local merchants, enjoy a few hours with friendly people, and support a worthy hometown cultural organization,” said Allan Baldwin, president of The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park.

“We see the wine auction as an event Hemingway would have approved of,” Baldwin added. “Good wines mattered to him.”

Author Mark Ott Reading at Hemingway Museum August 30th

 

A Sea of Change explores the importance of Hemingway's relationship to the waters of the Gulf Stream that transformed his imaginative work. Drawing primarily on Ernest Hemingway's handwritte and unpublished fishing logs and from published and unpublished correspondence and newspaper articles, Mark P. Ott structures this literary biography chronologically to tell the story of Hemingway's life as it becomes immersed in the Gulf Stream.

Ott will read from and sign copies of A Sea of Change on Sunday, August 30th at 2 p.m. at the Hemingway Museum, 200 N. Oak Park Avenue, Oak Park, IL. For more information please call (708) 848-2222 or e-mail ehfop(at)sbcglocal(dot)net .

 

2009 Hemingway Birthday Lecture

 

Photo: Debby Preiser

A man who let his own insides get eaten out by the diseases of fame had dreamed new books on this boat. He'd taught his sons to reel in something that feels like Moby Dick on this boat. He'd accidentally shot himself in both legs on this boat. He'd fallen drunk from the flying bridge on this boat. He'd written achy, generous, uplifting, poetic letters on this boat. He'd propositioned women on this boat. He'd hunted German subs on this boat. He'd saved someone (several someones) from shark attack on this boat. He'd acted like a boor and a bully and an overly competitive jerk on this boat.

He'd owned her, fished her, worked her, rode her, from the waters of Key West to the Bahamas to the Dry Tortugas to the north coast and archipelagos of Cuba. She wasn't a figment or a dream or a literary theory or someone's psychosexual interpretation -- she was actual.

-- From Paul Hendrickson's 2009 Hemingway Birthday Lecture, Looking for Ernest Hemingway through the Prism of the Pilar

Read about the Birthday Lecture in The Wednesday Journal of Oak Park.

Looking for Hemingway Through the Prism of the Pilar

 

Paul Hendrickson, a writing professor at the University of Pennsylvania, will speak on “Looking for Hemingway through the Prism of the Pilar,” based on his work-in-progress on Hemingway’s fishing cruiser, Pilar. Hendrickson will be at the Ernest Hemingway Museum, 200 N. Oak Park Avenue, in Oak Park for the 2009 Hemingway Birthday Lecture on Tuesday, July 21, at 7:00 p.m. Regular admission is $10; $8 for members and seniors. Following the lecture and discussion, guests will enjoy singing “Happy Birthday” to Ernest Hemingway who was born in Oak Park on July 21, 1899, some 110 years ago. For tickets, please call The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park at (708) 848-2222 or E-mail ehfop@sbcglobal.net.

 
In October 2008, Hendrickson spoke at the Michigan Hemingway Conference on what he called “watery antecedents.” His program reviewed Hemingway’s boyhood experiences along the Des Plaines River near Oak Park and in Michigan. Some of the research was done in The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park Archives with assistance from board members Barbara Ballinger, Redd Griffin, and others.

Hendrickson received the 2005 Provost’s Award for Distinguished Teaching at Penn, where he conducts writing workshops in advanced nonfiction. His published books include Sons of Mississippi, winner of the 2003 National Book Critics Circle Award in general nonfiction and also the Chicago Tribune’s Heartland Prize. He is also the author of Seminary: a Search, (based on his study for seven years for the missionary priesthood), Looking for the Light: The Hidden Life and Art of Marion Post Wolcott (National Book Critics Circle Award finalist in 1992), and The Living and the Dead: Robert McNamara and Five Lives of a Lost War (National Book Award finalist in 1996).

Hendrickson was a journalist for more than 30 years, working for most of that time as a staff feature writer at the Washington Post. He has degrees in literature from St. Louis University and Pennsylvania State University. He lives in Havertown, Pennsylvania.

James Plath Book Signing

 

James Plath, author of Historic Photos of Ernest Hemingway, signs copies of his book for the EHFOP's Barbara Ballinger and others on Sunday, April 19.

 

The book is available for purchase in The Hemingway Museum Store, 200 N. Oak Park Avenue, Oak Park, IL 60302.

Author Visit & Book Signing April 19th: James Plath

James Plath, author of the newly published Historic Photos of Ernest Hemingway, will visit The Hemingway Museum Sunday, April 19th at 3 p.m. to speak about his subject and sign copies of his book.

 

When Ernest Hemingway won the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature, presenters called him "one of this epoch's great molders of style," praising his vivid dialogue and journalistic eye for "robust details to accumulate and take on momentous significance." But even the Swedish Academy could not separate Hemingway the writer from Hemingway the adventurer. They also cited his "manly love of danger and adventure, with a natural admiration for every individual who fights the good fight in a world of reality overshadowed by violence and death."
 
"There have been a number of books that incorporate photos of Ernest Hemingway, but none of them give such prominence to the images. Ernest Hemingway was suspicious of journalists and often gave conflicting answers during interviews, but it's hard to lie to a camera. That's why these photos, spanning a lifetime, collectively tell a story that feels different from all the other biographies," says Plath.
 
Historic Photos of Ernest Hemingway is part of Turner Publishing's Historic Photos series. These books, highlighting the history of the great cities, landmarks, events, and key figures across America, have been acclaimed as a staple in the collection of anyone who loves history.
 

The event is free and open to the public. The Hemingway Museum is located at 200 N. Oak Park Avenue, Oak Park, IL 60302.