In the past year or so several new Hemingway related books have been published. I found Valerie Hemingway's fascinating. I bought it as an E-book, so I cannot reference it. I think the title is: With the Hemingway Men....something like that.

The new edition of A Moveable Feast was much better than the one edited by Mary in the 60's. They seem like two totally different books. I think Hem looked back on his Paris years with Hadley and "Bumbi" as some of his happiest. They didn't have a dime and lived in a one room flat over (next to?) a saw mill!

I have an old edition of Death in the Afternoon which I love for its title if nothing else. I've just started it for the third or fourth time. Can't get thru it.

The new novel of Hadley and Hem in Paris is written in Hadley's voice. Interesting. She lived for quite a while after she and Ernie split. I think she remarried.

In Valery's book she writes about the Calder painting. I think I have seen a picture of it. Do you know where it is today?

I enjoy comparing Hemingway with Ruark. They almost met in one of Hem's favorite Cuban bars. Ruark wrote about walking in there and seeing Ernie working away at editing on a rear table. He didn't have the nerve to bother him. I wonder if the two men would have gotten along? Somehow I doubt it.

Read Hotchner and Baker's bios of the man. If I could go back to anyplace in time, it may have been on board the Pilar searching for U-Boats.

The story of Gregory Hemingway is a troubling one. Valerie met him at Ernie's funeral. They married. He had been a secret cross dresser when even a child. Ernie finally figured out what his son was doing and severed all ties with him. Valerie said that Gregory, called Gigi, was the best shot of the boys. They had several children and then divorced. He eventually had the sex change done and changed his name to Gloria. His drinking got worse. He died in a cell in a women's prison.

The spectre of being one of Ernie's sons held sway over all of his children to one degree or another. Insanity ran in strains through Hemingway's family and reared it's head throughout generations.

Here is a link to some period footage of Hemingway and pals hunting in Idaho.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDs3lg5ZoCs


Patrick

Parkers and Model 32 Remingtons, but what else? Did anyone notice that last pair of skeet doubles?

You want to have fun? Take Hemingway's A Movable Feast to Paris. Read it and go to all the places that he mentions and have drinks, food etc. You'll have a ball, I kid you not. Been there done that and would happily do it again!!

That does sound fun! I think we all dream of doing such a thing as we read "A Moveable Feast". Valerie Hemingway mentions doing just that, but with Hem himself in the late 50's.

Are most of the places still there? Unchanged?

New book "To Have and Have Another" by Greene describes what Hem drank, which was just about everything with lime in it.

I read somewhere that all real men either want to be like Hemingway, or be liked by him. He did man stuff. He womanized, hunted big game and birds, loved bull fighting, participated, to one degree or another, in wars. He wrote about heroes who sold their lives dearly and were adored by beautiful women. He was a man's romantic.

Women who wrote about such things penned that he wasn't much of a lover, and his children and children's children said he wasn't a very good, loving or attentive father. He, pretty much, failed as a husband. Loyalty to his bride was not his long suit.

I think that Hem liked people who loved him. Nor do I think he handled criticism with aplomb, rather he rankled. Hem was deeply in love with Hemingway. Eventually his carefully crafted self image faultered, either from the booze or a series of concussions he suffered in two back to back plane crashes in Africa. He was not very old, but looked ancient. He did not like the image he saw reflected in the mirror and believed that he had lost his knack to write. He was always first and foremost a writer. So, he blew his brains out. It made quite a mess.

Today American men are hurting for a role model. The so called modern women claims that masculinity is old hat. I heard one say that testosterone is a poison. So they want little boys to play like little girls. No more toy guns and if they do make one it is yellow or pink. Can't play dodge ball or tag at school. Too aggressive. Boys want to be aggressive and we should encourage them to be so. It is what men do.

Ironically, no matter how hard they try not to, women still are attracted to masculine men. They are becoming harder and harder to find. Some go man hunting in Australia. Amercian men go to the same place to find feminine women. (Yes, I know that I am generalizing, but you get my drift.)

I see a resurgence in Hemingway's popularity, maybe because American men are searching for a masculine role model. Failed or no, Ernie provides that.

Now I'm trying to figure out who is going to "pen" their descriptions of my sexual prowess. Hopefully, my feminine contacts will not be as you describe as "women who wrote about such things". We seldon think that these things will be recorded in writing.

Of course, somethings are best kept private. I cannot recall the source for my original statement. I read a lot about Hemingway and it was in that lot someplace. No matter how hard I try to avoid him, I still find him fascinating. I eagerly read his books, stories and the well known bios of the man.

I don't like to consider myself a fan of anybody. However, I find some folks more interesting than others (Goes without being said!). Hemingway was interesting and thru his books, which are of course, personal, we can try to crawl inside his head in an attempt to get to know, or at least to understand the man.

I keep asking myself if whether or not I would have liked him if we had met. I have no idea, and I find the question compelling. If I met him and genuflected he would probably have liked me and if not, then not.

Isn't, or wasn't, one of his sons a member here? I think Patrick is still living and Jack recently passed. He was the father of the two beautiful daughters, one a suicide. Bipolar.

When we did the Movable Feast trip to Paris in 1982 all the places were there. We even went to Paris from Stuttgart on the then version of the Orient Express. We were usually smashed by 3 p.m. It was a blast. Can't do that stuff any more.

What a trip! Knocking about Europe when young is wonderful. I did it just after I returned from the VN War. Did it solo, mostly by rail in Britain and the Continent. Paris, Rome, Barcelona, Pompeii, Florence, Pisa. Survived on bread, wine, mustard, and cheese. It would have been a nicer trip with a beautiful women, but then what isn't?

Bill, I hope the lovely Linda pens your descriptions or you might be in trouble. Will I find it in the fiction or non-fiction section of the library?:)
(Sorry, I just could'nt help myself).

Hemingway, who did not have the best eyesight, as did TR, hated scopes. He removed one from his Griffin and Howe '03 30/06, a rifle that he loved, and shot for the remainder of his life. As the story goes it was stolen from Jack's home in Ketcham, Idaho.

I like peep sights too and while I have a scope, a Leupold 4 pwr on my Ruger 77 in .257 Rbts, I like to shoot thru or over iron sights. Most game is shot close. No need for a scope.

Patrick; that was great.

Thanks for pointing it out.

Larry

I purchased a Parker VHE 20 ga. with a Miller trigger in Alabama a few years ago. The shield read EH. The authors of Hemingway's Guns did their research but could not find any reference of him ever owning such a Parker. I was also told that two Parkers once owned by him were sold from the family but don't know anything of what they were or who purchased them. Anyone know of any way to add to the mystery of the EH 20 ga.? I probably need to order a letter on it.

Yep, you probably need to order a letter on it.

Not "Jack" but Patrick had the G&H 30-06 Spfld.
 

John Hadley Nicantor Hemingway, first and only son born to Ernest and Hadley Hemingway- aka- "Bumby" and of course Jack- in his later adult years he lived near the Salmon River area in Idaho and was a factor in TU and fisheries conservation. He was an avid fly fisherman all his life, even parachuted into Nazi occupied France with the OSS with a 3 piece fly rod in case strapped to his backpack, a gift from hotelier Charles Ritz.

Patrick, first born of the two sons Pauline Pfeiffer Hemingway (heiress to the Richard Hudnut cosmetics fortune) provided husband Ernest, was the avid hunter, like his father, and later became a PWH in Africa, under the guidance of Phillip Percival. Page 81- Hemingway's Guns: "Two years after his death, Papa's treasured .30-06, G&H Serial No. 956, was one of the two rifles and two shotguns that Mary (Welsh) Hemingway consigned to A&F to be sold. The A&F ledger indicates that its selling price would be $!50. However, Mary withdrew the Springfield two weeks later and then kept it at the house in Ketchum until she finally gave it to Patrick. ---- It was stolen from his home in Montana in the late 1970s."

There were a lot of guys with the initials EH besides Ernest Hemingway. I've got an uncle named Estel Hoffard, maybe it's his gun......


DLH

You're killing me! If Mr. Hoffard would like a Parker with his initials already engraved and some swamp land in North Texas, I can make him a sweet deal.

EH owned many guns and traded a bunch off. He gave some away. Some that were given to Patrick were stolen in the 70's. Or was it Jack? Not sure. How many of EH's guns do we have that have been authenticated? I read the tale of his Model 12 being given to A & F to be sold. A college kid bought it..cheap. He claimed upon interview, that it was worn slick. I am sure it was. I think, the famous G & H '03 Springfield would be the Holy Grail of EH guns. As the story goes it was stolen and ended up in the IRA which seems kind of bazaar to me.

EH casts a spell over American hunters, fisherman and his literary fans. I am a victim.

Alfred, what is the serial number of your EH Parker?

235879.

Dragging up an old thread...I just bought the Hemingway's Guns book and was surprised at how well written it is.

I particularly like that the authors played it right down the middle when it came to Hemingway's exploits. For example, they could have said, "what a great man he was to have killed a full grown rhino at 300 yards with an iron sight 30-06!" but they in fact note that his claim is highly dubious.

I also wholeheartedly agree with Steve McCarty's comments earlier in this thread.

Anyway, for those who haven't seen this book, it's worth having. I paid less than $9, shipped, for mine on Amazon.

Thanks for the note. I still drag out his books and read from time to time. We can only hope to do a small bit of what he did but what a life and I know he owned Parkers, just can't verify which or where they went. He, like my Father, used guns as tools. They got a lot of wear, covered many miles. I have my Fathers' model 12 twenty, well worn but well oiled and I wouldn't change a thing about it.