Hemingway book lets readers trace author’s steps around the world, from Paris to Idaho
There are several biographies about Ernest Hemingway released annually, and there is a reason for this. It is because he revolutionized the reading experience with his short, declarative sentences and his iceberg technique, in which he reveals 20 percent of the story, forcing the reader to become enmeshed in the action. The first Hemingway biography of the 2019-2020 year is written by his great-granddaughter, Cristen Hemingway Jaynes.
In her book, “Ernest’s Way: An International Journey Through Hemingway’s Life,” she pinpoints Hemingway’s favorite restaurants, cafés, bullrings and fishing areas — from Oak Park, Illinois, to Havana. In describing Oak Park, Hemingway’s birthplace, Jaynes highlights his relationship with his Victorian mother, Grace Hall Hemingway. Jaynes takes the reader inside his childhood home on North Kenilworth Avenue, where her in-depth research reveals the fact that, during his sophomore year of high school, Hemingway “began walking home with fellow classmate Dorothy Davies,” the first time he showed interest in girls. She writes about Walloon Lake in northern Michigan, where he obtained the inspiration for his Nick Adams stories, many of which are featured in “In Our Time.”
After graduating from high school in 1917, Hemingway worked as a cub reporter for the Kansas City Star, covering the hospital and police beat, before volunteering as a Red Cross ambulance driver in Italy. On July 8, 1918, in Fossalta di Piave, as he was delivering chocolates to the front line, an Austrian mortar exploded next to him, scattering shrapnel throughout his legs. While convalescing at the Red Cross Hospital in Milan, he met Agnes von Kurowsky, the inspiration for Catherine Barkley in “A Farewell to Arms.” Jaynes urges travelers to visit the Grand Hôtel des Iles Borromées in Stresa on Lake Maggiore, which makes a memorable appearance in “A Farewell to Arms.”
After World War I, Hemingway returned to the U.S., and Jaynes wisely dedicates passages to Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley, meeting Sherwood Anderson in Chicago. It was Anderson who “advised Ernest that Paris was the best place for a writer to live.” Jaynes provides key sites for Hemingway fans to visit in the Windy City, including Ernest and Hadley’s apartment on North Dearborn Street, The Art Institute of Chicago (where Grace Hemingway took her children) and The Newberry library, which houses Hemingway papers.
When Hemingway arrived in Paris in December 1921, he carried with him letters of introduction from Anderson to Sylvia Beach, Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein, and Jaynes provides the addresses of the landmarks and residences associated with these luminaries and their contemporaries. Among these are the original and current locations of Beach’s Shakespeare & Company — a very important site, as Beach and Hemingway remained loyal to each other for more than 40 years.
Moreover, Jaynes focuses on the cafés that Hemingway frequented, and where his characters followed suit: “Jake Barnes drinks (at La Closerie des Lilas) with Lady Brett Ashley in ‘The Sun Also Rises’ and Hemingway repeatedly mentions the café in ‘A Moveable Feast’ as a place where he worked and socialized.” At Les Deux Magots, one of the Parisian haunts where Hemingway enjoyed cocktails with James Joyce, readers can order Le Petit Déjeuner Hemingway, which includes ham and eggs.
Jaynes is adamant that Hemingway fans and scholars should focus on Toronto: “Toronto is such an overlooked city in Hemingway studies. Although he lived there for less than a year, it was a formative place for him. Ernest wrote his first feature articles for the Toronto Star — which gave him his first job as a foreign correspondent — and his first son, Jack ‘Bumby’ Hemingway, was born in Toronto.”
She writes about Ernest moving in with the Connable family in January 1920. Hemingway had met Harriet Gridley Connable during a presentation about his war experiences in Italy, and she was so impressed with Ernest that she hired him to mentor her son, Ralph Jr., so that he might learn from Ernest’s heroism. Toronto denizens and visitors can visit the Connable home, the building that houses the Toronto Star, Ernest and Hadley’s apartment on Bathurst Street, and Massey Hall, where Ernest brought Ralph Jr. to teach him the nuances of boxing.
Jaynes then takes the reader to Key West, where she describes the house on Whitehead Street where her great-grandparents, Pauline and Ernest, lived, as well as Sloppy Joe’s Bar, where Hemingway met his third wife, Martha Gellhorn, in 1936. The famous Hemingway watering hole is also where the annual Hemingway Look-Alike Contest — which will celebrate its 40th anniversary this year — is held. In fact, Jaynes — who has been helping to judge the competition since its inception — will help past winners judge the 2020 contest. Josie Russell, the original owner of Sloppy Joe’s, was the inspiration for Harry Morgan, the rum runner in “To Have and Have Not.”
Jaynes moves the reader to Madrid, captured in Hemingway’s story “The Capital of the World,” for some sherry tasting at La Venencia and to the Hotel Florida, where Hemingway and Gellhorn “took up residence.” Jaynes recommends a visit to Museo Nacional del Prado, “considered to have one of the greatest collections of European art in the world,” including works by Francisco Goya, whom Hemingway admired and Jaynes reveres. In fact, she has a tattoo of the troubadour from the Goya piece “A Pilgrimage to San Isidro” on her arm.
After Madrid, the reader experiences Cuba through Ernest’s eyes, starting with Hotel Ambos Mundos, where Hemingway edited “Death in the Afternoon” and worked on early chapters of “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” Room 511 is open to the public, and the lobby features Hemingway photographs and memorabilia. Jaynes recommends that Hemingway fans sample a “Papa Doble” daiquiri at Hemingway’s favorite Havana bar, El Floridita, before heading to Finca Vigía, Hemingway’s home 9 miles outside of Havana. “The house contains thousands of Hemingway letters, papers, books, paintings, jazz and opera records, as well as his beloved Pilar, which is dry docked on the property.”
In “Ernest’s Way,” Jaynes highlights another underserved city in Hemingway studies — London, where the author met his fourth wife, Mary Welsh, at The House of Hô (formerly the White Tower restaurant). Hemingway was in London in 1944 reporting on the war for Collier’s, while Mary, also a reporter, resided with her husband in the city on the Thames. Jaynes said, “You can get a sense of where he met Mary when you visit the cozy upstairs bar at The House of Hô.” Jaynes points to the Dorchester Hotel — where Hemingway awaited word to cover D-Day — and The Savoy, where he enjoyed drinks with close friend Marlene Dietrich.
When the reader rounds their way to Idaho, Jaynes advises readers to stop in at the Regional History Museum in Ketchum to view its collection of Hemingway items, which includes the Royal typewriter Hemingway took with him on his 1954 trip to Italy. Visitors to the area can also view a sculpture of the author looking out over the meadow at the Hemingway Memorial in Sun Valley before dining at Michel’s Christiania and Olympic Bar, where Hemingway had his last meal.
There are too many places to write about in one review, but Hemingway fans and scholars will enjoy “Ernest’s Way” for its accurate research and ease-of-read, and because they can take it with them around the world, tracing Ernest Hemingway’s every step.
This story was originally published February 1, 2020 at 5:00 AM.