The Ernest Hemingway Thread

[HadleyH]

I have that book too Hadley!

there you go! great minds think alike! lol

 

[Connery]

Getting around in the 1940s....



with jack Demsey

at the Stork Club

with 3rd wife Martha

Very nice !!!

 

[HadleyH]

Very nice !!!

Connery, thank you!!!

 

[HadleyH]

Some magazine covers ....

 

[HadleyH]

“Coop is a fine man; as honest and straight and friendly and unspoiled as he looks. If you made up a character like Coop, nobody would believe it. He’s just too good to be true.”

-Ernest Hemingway on Gary Cooper.


A fascinating friendship, from 1940 right up to their deaths a mere seven weeks apart in 1961. Cooper starred in two film adaptations of Hemingway novels: A FAREWELL TO ARMS (1932) and FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS (1943) and it is said Hemingway fashioned the leading character in For Whom the Bell Tolls, Robert Jordan after his friend Coop.

At the "Floridita" in La Habana

The caption says:"Writer Ernest Hemingway helps his friend, actor Gary Cooper, into something more comfortable and appropriate, after his arrival in Cuba as the author's guest. Hemingway is putting a "guayabera" shirt on the lanky movie star."

 

[Connery]

Ernest Hemingway on Josephine Baker, "The most sensational woman anybody ever saw, or ever will."


It is said her most successful song, "J'ai deux amours" (1931) and became a muse for contemporary authors, painters, designers, and sculptors including Langston Hughes, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, and Christian Dior.

Joséphine Baker - J'ai deux amours
[video=youtube;xHrCvzj0MiQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHrCvzj0MiQ[/video]

’Ai Deux Amours
(by Vincent Scotto and Geo Koger; performance by Josephine Baker and Adrien Lamy)

On dit qu’au delà des mers
Là-bas sous le ciel clair
Il existe une cité
Au séjour enchanté
Et sous les grands arbres noirs
Chaque soir
Vers elle s’en va tout mon espoir

J’ai deux amours
Mon pays et Paris
Par eux toujours
Mon cœur est ravi
Ma savane est belle
Mais à quoi bon le nier
Ce qui m’ensorcelle
C’est Paris, Paris tout entier
Le voir un jour
C’est mon rêve joli
J’ai deux amours
Mon pays et Paris

Quand sur la rive parfois
Au lointain j’aperçois
Un paquebot qui s’en va
Vers lui je tends les bras
Et le cœur battant d’émoi
A mi-voix
Doucement je dis “emporte-moi!”

J’ai deux amours…

Translation (approximate, of course )

I Have Two Loves

It is said that above the seas,
Over there under the clear sky,
Exists a city, where the stay is enchanted,
And under the big black trees,
Every evening,
Towards it tend all my hopes.

I have two loves
My country and Paris.
By them always
Is my heart ravished.
My savannah* is beautiful,
But why deny that
what puts a spell on me is Paris,
Paris in its entirety.

Seeing it one day
Is my pretty dream.
I have two loves,
My country and Paris.

(Repeat)

My savannah is beautiful,
But why deny that
what puts a spell on me is Paris,
Paris in its entirety.
Seeing it one day
Is my pretty dream.
I have two loves,
My country and Paris.

When at the distant shore
I sometimes see a ship depart
To him I extend my arms
And heart beating with excitement,
Whisper softly, I say, “Take me!”

I have two loves…

 

[HadleyH]

Ernest Hemingway on Josephine Baker, "The most sensational woman anybody ever saw, or ever will."

That's what he said of all the women he liked and loved! and he had many! ... Papa was Papa! [huh]

 

[Connery]

That's what he said of all the women he liked and loved! and he had many! ... Papa was Papa! [huh]

I realize he had very nice and close relationships with several women. He may have well loved them all in his way. Nevertheless, he had no "relationship" as such with Josephine Baker, indeed, it seems he was inspired by the woman. In other words he was the recipient of whatever charms she had to bestow on his creative soul. That kind of woman is rare indeed and never placed in the stable of mere acquaintances or even those he considered close, but, held in higher regard as he has done here.

 

[Tomasso]

A fascinating friendship, from 1940 right up to their deaths a mere seven weeks apart in 1961.

You have to wonder how much Coop's death influenced his decision to check out.

 

[HadleyH]

You have to wonder how much Coop's death influenced his decision to check out.

Absolutely A.C. Lyles, yes!

"Severely depressed after Gary Cooper's death and his own fading powers, Hemingway returned to his Ketchum, Idaho home after a long stay at the Mayo Clinic. One night, shortly after his return, he had dinner with his wife, and later, while he brushed his teeth, she sang him an Italian folk song. The next morning at 7 a.m., he went downstairs in his pajamas, took a 12-gauge hunting gun from the rack, put the barrel in his mouth and pulled both triggers."

and that was that.

 

[Tomasso]

with Josephine Baker, indeed, it seems he was inspired by the woman. In other words he was the recipient of whatever charms she had to bestow on his creative soul. That kind of woman is rare indeed and never placed in the stable of mere acquaintances or even those he considered close, but, held in higher regard as he has done here.

I think you're reading way too much into one glowing comment.

 

[Connery]

I think you're reading way too much into one glowing comment.

I am taking the plain meaning of what he said rather than injecting my own interpretation. To do otherwise would be a foolhardy exercise.

 

[Tommy]

I think it is interesting he choose to live in Key West.
Will probably read Death in the Afternoon or short stories next.

of the books I've read, quick thoughts:

The Sun Also Rises - second favorite Hemingway novel I've read, classic roaring twenties European style.
A Farewell to Arms - my least favorite of the novels I've read. struck me as cold and distant.
To Have and Have Not - script-like reading, which had me wishing there was more meat to the story when I finished it.
For Whom the Bell Tolls- my favorite one, engaged me the whole way through, characters and story seemed super real, and ending is great.
Old Man and the Sea - ok
A Moveable Feast - Meh.

 

[Tomasso]

I think it is interesting he choose to live in Key West.

How so?

 

[HadleyH]

It was absolutely natural for Hem to chose Key West, " ... Key West afforded Hemingway the opportunity to enjoy the sport fishing that he loved so much. He sailed his boat, Pilar, around the Keys and fished the Gulf Stream extensively. Many famous images of Hemingway picture him standing dockside in the Caribbean, the catch of the day hanging beside him."

Ernest & second wife Pauline enjoying a lighter moment in Key West.

Ernest Hemingway in Key West with a shark.

displaying his latest trophy.

 

[Connery]

Absolutely A.C. Lyles, yes!

"Severely depressed after Gary Cooper's death and his own fading powers, Hemingway returned to his Ketchum, Idaho home after a long stay at the Mayo Clinic. One night, shortly after his return, he had dinner with his wife, and later, while he brushed his teeth, she sang him an Italian folk song. The next morning at 7 a.m., he went downstairs in his pajamas, took a 12-gauge hunting gun from the rack, put the barrel in his mouth and pulled both triggers."

and that was that.

This excerpt from an article by Paul Anthony, from Photoplay magazine, 1961 is an interesting piece which romanticizes Hemingway's mental state and is the only published piece which offers this theory. Nevertheless, more recent revelations have been rendered by those who actually knew Hemingway.

For example, AE Hotchner, a friend and collaborator of Hemingway and author of Papa Hemingway and Hemingway and His World, said he believed that the FBI's surveillance "substantially contributed to his anguish and his suicide", adding that he had "regretfully misjudged" his friend's fear of the organisation."

In the 1980s, however, Hemingway's FBI file was released following a Freedom of Information request by Jeffrey Myers, an academic then at the University of Colorado. The file demonstrated a keen interest in Hemingway, including his wartime attempts to set up an anti-fascist spy network called the Crook Factory, and the interest persisted until he entered the Mayo Clinic in 1960.

Indeed, in January 1961, the special agent tasked with following him dutifully reported to Hoover in January of 1961 that Hemingway "was physically and mentally ill".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/03/fbi-and-ernest-hemingway

Naturally this only adds to the mystique regarding his death but it renders a more in depth view as to who Hemingway and what plagued him.

 

[Connery]

It was absolutely natural for Hem to chose Key West, " ... Key West afforded Hemingway the opportunity to enjoy the sport fishing that he loved so much. He sailed his boat, Pilar, around the Keys and fished the Gulf Stream extensively. Many famous images of Hemingway picture him standing dockside in the Caribbean, the catch of the day hanging beside him."

Thanks for your wonderful contributions regarding Cooper and Key West. This thread is so informative such fun!!!

 

[Tomasso]

Yep, blame it on the FBI. Now how about the suicides of his father, siblings and granddaughter.................

 

[Connery]

Yep, blame it on the FBI. Now how about the suicides of his father, siblings and granddaughter.................

What about them? If you something substantive to add I would be interested in reviewing your findings. After a careful reading it only shows that the FBI's activities added stress to an already sick man. The FBI ceased their activity in 1960 and rendered their report in January 1961 finding Hemingway "was physically and mentally ill".

 

[Tommy]

How so?

I just think Key West is an interesting, neat location, probably the most exotic and non U.S.-like location in the continental U.S., especially at that time. It makes sense that he would choose a place like that.