The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park

Join EHFOP's Redd Griffin at the March IPCC Luncheon meeting!

Date: Thursday, March 15, 2012 12:00 noon

Speaker: Redd Griffin, founding member Ernest Hemingway Foundation

Topic: Ernest Hemingway

Redd Griffin will explore how what Ernest Hemingway learned in the American heartland helped him write enduring literature for the world. While many influences of the Midwest affected Hemingway’s writing, he paid special tribute to his early work in journalism, which began at Oak Park and River Forest High School and continued at the Kansas City Star. Griffin’s program shows how through half a century on four continents Hemingway’s heartland writing led to writing for “the land of the heart.”

RSVP today, Register online, or contact Lee Salberg by email at leesalberg@gmail.com or by phone - 847-965-0240.

Location: Union League Club
65 W. Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, IL

Questions? Call or e-mail The International Press Club of Chicago
Tel: 847-965-0240 or (312) 834-7228

Celebrate Boxing Day with the Hemingways!

Join The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park in celebrating the Hemingway Family’s tradition of generosity on December 26th!

On the day after Christmas, nobles presented gifts to their servants and people outside their manors.Their gifts, intended to welcome outsiders as family, were presented in boxes, hence the name of the day.

Traditional English music and food will be provided at the Museum and the Birthplace Home. Games for children include pictures with the Hemingway family and coloring your own Hemingway six-toed cat. Young artists will earn chocolate mice just like those Hemingway children received in their stockings at Christmas!

The Foundation will be collecting donations of food for the Oak Park and River Forest Food Pantry. Bring a non-perishable food item and receive $2 off your admission!

Admission: Family of Four: $45 / General Public: $25 / Senior/Youth $20

All events take place Monday, December 26th from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Hemingway Museum, 200 N. Oak Park Avenue, and the Birthplace Home, 339 N. Oak Park Avenue. Advance reservations are not required. Tickets may be purchased at the door. For more information call (708) 848-2222.

 

Hemingway's HOT Havana: A Benefit for the EHFOP

On January 14, join the Hemingway Foundation in celebrating Hemingway and Cuba with Hemingway's HOT Havana!

Hemingway’s HOT Havana is a superb one-actor show that will make you believe that Ernest Hemingway is standing right there in front of you.

These are the stories of Hemingway’s HOT Havana:

Life and crime in Havana
The “Maestro” and the art of writing
Jane Mason – kiss and tell
Baseball and Ava Gardner
The great, blue river (the gulf stream)
La Floridita
Pirates of Havana Harbour
Shark Attack
Lions, bears and banderillas
Drinking with Hemingway
Attacking Nazi U-boats
Black Dog Fights the army
Shock treatment

Actor Brian Gordon Sinclair brings the legendary writer to life, as he has done to praise across the country and internationally.

”Brian portrays Hemingway On Stage with such brilliant form as to rival Hal Holbrook's Mark Twain," says Lorian Hemingway.

The play begins at 7 p.m. at the Hemingway Museum, 200 N. Oak Park Avenue, Oak Park, IL. The performance in the upstairs auditorium will be followed by Cuban music, food and drink in the lobby and self-guided tours of the Museum. Enjoy the warmth of the island amid the cold Chicago winter.

 

Prices

Member $25.00 USD Non-Member $35.00 USD 2 Member $50.00 USD 2 Non-Member $70.00 USD

Please Join Us Nov. 3 with Sandra Spanier and The Hemingway Letters

Please join us on November 3 for:

Sandra Spanier, editor of The Hemingway Letters, Volume 1: 1907-1922, will read from this first publication of all the surviving letters of Ernest Hemingway.

The letters reveal a more complex person than Hemingway's tough guy public persona would suggest: devoted son, affectionate brother, infatuated lover, adoring husband, spirited friend and disciplined writer. Unguarded and never intended for publication, the letters record experiences that inspired his art, afford insight into his creative process and express his candid assessments of his own work and that of his contemporaries.

This event begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Hemingway Museum, 200 N. Oak Park Avenue, Oak Park, Illinois.

Admission is free and these events are open to the public. Advance reservations are not required.

For more information, call (708) 848-2222.

Summer 2011 Hemingway Despatch Available

Download EHFOP.Hemingway.Despatch.01

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)

Nancy's Cuba Blog: Day Two

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 TWO: June 16 is the first day of the 13th Coloquium Ernest Hemingway. This international conference is attended by Hemingway scholars from around the world, and during the first day I meet people from Brazil, Argentina, Japan, Italy and Canada as well as from the U.S. and Cuba. The group is friendly and shares the common bond of interest in the life and work of Ernest Hemingway. The purpose of the conference is to promote the exchange of information among similar specialists and institutions related to the writer, commemorate the 5oth anniversary of his death, the 50th anniversary of handing over of Finca Vigia, Hemingway’s Cuban residence, to the Cuban people, and the 85th anniversary of the publication of The Sun Also Rises.

The conference is held at The Ambos Mundos Hotel in Old Havana. I am in room 503. Hemingway was in residence in Room 511 from 1928 to 1939 and received correspondence there from 1940 to 1952. Room 511 is now a small museum. His room is actually quite similar to mine, simple, with shuttered doors opening to a small balcony with views of Old Havana.

The morning and afternoon are filled with presentations by Hemingway scholars. The presentations are mostly given in Spanish with simultaneous translation into English. In the afternoon the group walks from the Ambos Mundos Hotel to some of Hemingway’s favorite places, including La Bodeguita del Medio and the Floridita Bar. In the evening, as a member of the board of The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park, I am privileged to attend a small gathering of people who represent foundations and institutions that promote and preserve the life and work of Hemingway. My role is to present the mission of our Foundation, our preservation projects and educational events. The honor and responsibility of being caretakers of the Oak Park Hemingway treasures is both understood and respected by the group. As the evening progresses, it becomes clear that the foundations and institutions represented all share the same mission of preserving the life, the legend, the personal artifacts and written materials of the iconic writer; they also share the same burdens of funding and maintaining deteriorating buildings and materials.

Our evening meeting is held at Finca Vigia. Hemingway’s Cuban home is now a museum, but the public is only allowed to view the interior by looking through the open windows. I, however, receive a personal tour of the interior and see every room of the house filled with his belongings … so there’s his typewriter, his large and varied collection of books, his hunting trophies from Africa, his clothes, his shoes, and the bathroom scale on which he weighed himself daily.

Nancy's Cuba Blog: A Hemingway Travelogue

On June 14, EHFOP Board Member Nancy 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.

DAY ONE: June 14 and 15 are travel days, flying to Miami and then on to Havana in a chartered plane. Both airports are chaotic, filled with excited families anxious to return to Cuba with American purchased goods. Luggage lines are filled with large plastic wrapped bags and boxes containing TVs, medicine cabinets, shower rods and more.

Because travel to Cuba by U.S. citizens is limited I was required to obtain a specific license from the U. S. Department of Treasury to travel to Cuba. The embargo against Cuba has been in force since 1963, and virtually no American could visit Cuba until 1977. Currently, specific licenses are issued to persons traveling for certain humanitarian projects, free-lance journalists, athletes traveling to compete in international competitions, persons traveling to complete research on behalf of an educational institution, attend specific professional meetings on behalf of private foundations or for other specific reasons.

“People-to-people” cultural trips are being planned for the summer of 2011; however, this avenue for travel was not available at the time of the Colloquium.

For complete information see the U.S Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control website: http:www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/programs/cuba/cuba.pdf.