Thanks, but Colonel-with all due respect to your rank- It is Hemingway were are admiring, NOT Hemmingway. He had a solid work ethic, at least through his "The Old Man and The Sea" and the Nobel Prize that followed- after that, booze, 4 wives, one son that went gay, plane crashes in Africa, all took their toll-and his periods of the"Old Black Ass" as he referred to his depression episodes-well we all know what a loss his death was, at least to the older order when men ruled the free world, and women were more in the Kipling mode-- "A thousand women like Maggie are willing to bear the yoke, but a woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke. What other writer of his era had the flair for titles- both for his novels and his short stories? None, IMO anyway=
A few of his best, for example, if you will allow me: (1) "White powder on top of a large mountain in Kenya" vs- "The Snows of Kilimanjaro"-- "Society [censored] offs her chickenshit spouse on Safari" vs- "The Short Happy Life of Francis MaComber"- by the way- my vote for his two all-time best short stories-ever- Written at the peak of his budding career, with the comfortable life during the Great Depression, assured by the financial support of second wife, Pauline Pfeiffer- whose rich uncle Gus (Richard Hudnut cosmetics and a St. Louis chemical Co.) liked Ernest and financed their: African Safari, Home in Key West, the Wheeler fishing boat named Pilar and other expensive luxuries, when most Americans were living from hand-to-mouth.
My favorite of his novels? I like them all, but I love "Islands In The Stream" as it details richly, through his alter ego, the painter Thomas Hudson, his relationship with his three sons-
Years ago, when I was heavily into fly fishing, I attended a FFF Convention in West Yellowstone- 1988 maybe- my memory moorings may have slipped, but I recall meeting oldest son Jack Hemingway--spoke with him a bit, mainly about his exploits in WW11 in the OSS (Jedberghs?)- He later thanked me for not asking about his father's demise-he said too many "hangers on" wanted to hear all the gory details of that tragic event. Lots of good photos and details of Jack (now gone) in the book "The Idaho Hemingway"-- I highly recommend it to you. RWTF
Last edited by Run With The Fox; 04/06/16 08:43 PM.
