Michigan: Where Ernest Hemingway came of age

David Shribman has written a wonderful article for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about Northern Michigan – where Ernest Hemingway came of age and where he learned to love fishing, hiking and camping. Shribman pointed out that:

And so it was with Hemingway and this place. You may think that his place was Cuba, or Key West, or Paris or Spain, or Idaho -- for in truth so many places are associated with Hemingway, and he with them -- but it was here, on the tip of the mitt of Michigan, that he became the Hemingway we know, here that he was Ernest and not yet Papa.

Moreover, Shribman wrote that:

If you believe that Nick Adams was Hemingway's alter ego, then in the Nick Adams stories you learn a lot about Hemingway, a lot about Michigan and a lot about what Hemingway learned about life from Michigan.

To learn more about Ernest Hemingway in Michigan, be sure to check out the new "Picturing Hemingway's Michigan" by Michael R. Federspiel, a Central Michigan University historian who is also the president of the Michigan Hemingway Society.

How to make an Ernest Hemingway Daiquiri or Papa Doble

Dave from Citizen Wine Cheese and Chocolate Bar shows how he makes an Ernest Hemingway Daiquiri or Papa Doble

Here is one Hemingway Daiquiri recipe:

6 tablespoons fresh grapefruit juice
2 ounces white rum
1 teaspoon maraschino liqueur (or maraschino cherry juice)
1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
½ cup crushed ice
Slice of lime
In a blender, blend all ingredients at high speed until thick. Serve in chilled martini glass, garnished with slice of lime.
From Eating Cuban
Nutrition facts per serving: 168 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 9 g carbohydrates, 0 g protein, 1 mg sodium, 0 g fiber

Here is a second Hemingway Daiquiri recipe from when Hemingway drinks with A. E. Hotchner in his book Papa Hemingway: A Personal Memoir:

2 jiggers Bacardi or Havana Club rum
(1 jigger = 1 1/2 ounces)
Juice of 2 limes
Juice of 1/2 grapefruit
6 drops of maraschino (cherry brandy)
Fill a blender one-quarter full of ice, preferably shaved or cracked. Add the rum, lime juice, grapefruit juice and maraschino. Blend on high until the mixture turns cloudy and light-colored (See Islands in the Stream, page 281 for a more Hemingway-esque description).
Serve immediately in large, conical goblets

Ernest Hemingway: The Old Man and the Sea

Readings from The Old Man and the Sea, plus interviews with Cubans who knew Ernest Hemingway, including Ernesto Garcia Gutierrez. This excerpt is from the “Ernest Hemingway: Rivers to the Sea" which originally aired on TV as part of the PBS series. "American Masters."

Michael Palin's Hemingway adventure in Milan (Italy)

Michael Palin explores Milan, although much has changed since Ernest Hemingway’s ambulance driving days.

A tour of Ernest Hemingway’s Finca vigia in Cuba

Another tour of Ernest Hemingway’s home, Finca vigia, in Havana, Cuba (the narration is in French).

How to make a Mojito Cocktail, Ernest Hemingway’s favorite drink

Ashley Rowley explains how to make one of Ernest Hemingway’s favorite drinks, a Mojito Cocktail.

TasteofCuba.com has also posted this original and authentic Mojito recipe from Havana Cuba:

1 teaspoon powdered sugar
Juice from 1 lime (2 ounces)
4 mint leaves
1 sprig of mint
Havana Club white Rum (2 ounces)
2 ounces club soda

There are countless Mojito recipes, but the above version is for the one Ernest Hemingway himself enjoyed at the Mojito's place of birth: La Bodeguita del Medio in Havana, Cuba.

Key West: Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum tour

Take a peak inside the Ernest Hemingway residence and check out descendents of his famous 6-toed cat. The home also features a pool that was the largest in South Florida when it was first installed in the 1930s.

Ernest Hemingway in Michigan

Until his early 20s, Ernest Hemingway would spend most summers in Michigan. This short three-minute video segment from the Michigan Humanities Council and the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs features The Great Michigan Read and The Nick Adams Stories.

Michael Palin's Hemingway adventure in Cuba

In this segment, Michael Palin meets 101 year old Gregorio Fuentes in Havana and talks to him about Ernest Hemingway's views on Castro, the political future of Cuba and much more.

Finca vigia: Ernest Hemingway's house in Cuba

Ernest Hemingway lived just outside Havana for more than 20 years. However, his home is now falling into disrepair and has become a center of a political battle between the USA and the Castro regime.

A tour of The Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum in Key West, Florida

Ernest Hemingway lived at this home in the Florida Keys for some 9 years and during this time, he completed more than 70% of his literary works.

The home is located at 907 Whitehead Street in the heart of Old Town Key West.

Ernest Hemingway talks about “The Fifth Column”

Ernest Hemingway talks about writing “The Fifth Column” under enemy artillery fire during the Spanish Civil War.

 

The Ernest Hemingway Museum and birthplace in Oak Park (Illinois)

Here is a a quick view of the Ernest Hemingway Museum and Birth place in Oak Park, Illinois that was put together by the Ernest Hemingway Foundation.

Ernest Hemingway’s La Bodeguita del Medio

Another look inside Ernest Hemingway’s favorite Havana pub, La Bodeguita del Medio (The narration is in French).

The cats at the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum in Key West Florida

In 1935, Ernest Hemingway received a cat named "Snowball" while living and writing in Key West, Florida. "Snowball" had paws featuring six toes and became the first of a long line of felines that continues to make the Hemingway Home and Museum one of the most popular visitor attractions in the Florida Keys. Today, around 50 cats remain on the property.

Inside Ernest Hemingway’s home (Finca vigia) in Cuba

It has been seventy years since author Ernest Hemingway first moved to Cuba. However, his home there where he wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls and the Old Man and the Sea is now in the process of being restored.

Michael Palin's Hemingway adventure in Havana: El Floridita and the Hotel Ambos Mundos

Michael Palin visits Ernest Hemingway's old drinking haunts (El Floridita) and where he used to stay (Hotel Ambos Mundos) during his visits to Havana, Cuba, in the 1930s.

Great Museums of Havana: Curious about Cuba

Produced for Public Television by Great Museums TV, the episode “Curious about Cuba” not only featured the museums of Cuba and the City of old Havana, it also featured an exploration of Ernest Hemingway’s life at the Hemingway House Museum, Finca Vigia, which was his home from 1940 to 1960.

Ernest Hemingway's papers arrive at the JFK Library

Despite the strained relations between the USA and Cuba, the curators of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and the Castro regime have managed to find common ground over Ernest Hemingway. In fact, the Boston Globe noted in an October 29, 2009 article that Cuba has shared copies of 3,000 letters and documents from the Hemingway archives at the country’s Ministry of Culture. This material filled a hole in the library’s collection, which probably contains the most comprehensive body of Ernest Hemingway’s writings.
The Boston Globe further noted that:

The initial collection of the author’s work made its way to the library after Hemingway’s fourth wife, Mary, received permission from the Kennedy administration to travel to Cuba after Hemingway committed suicide in 1961 in Idaho, three months after the disastrous assault at the Bay of Pigs helped usher in the decades-long pall over US-Cuban relations. The Cuban regime had told Mary that they intended to make the house Hemingway left just outside Havana, known as the Finca Vigía, into a museum. They allowed her to visit and ship his many papers and artwork on a shrimp boat to Tampa.

The entire Boston Globe article can be read here.

A tour of the Ernest Hemingway Birthplace and Museum.

In this episode of Chicagoland's Comcast Community Connection, the Ernest Hemingway Birthplace and Museum is featured.