A richly illustrated collection of stores about Ernest Hemingway and his love affair with Cuba as narrated by his niece Hilary Hemingway, featuring unpublished photographs and never before seen material.
HEMINGWAY IN CUBA is at once a literary journey for the armchair traveler and a rich companion guide for Hemingway aficionados touring Papa’s haunts in Cuba and in neighboring Bimini and Key West. Hilary gives new insight into her uncle’s life in Cuba, relating tales of his renowned passion for big game fish, the women who competed for his affection, and the people who came to inhabit stories such To Have & Have Not, Islands in the Stream. In 2002, the Cuban government granted permission to a select group of scholars to examine a cache of Hemingway’s papers untouched since his death in 1961. Hemingway In Cuba will feature revelations from the never before seen letters, marginalia, and other documents uncovered in the restoration effort at Finca Vigia, Hemingway’s home in Cuba.
Not intended as an in-depth biography, this book is a thoroughly enjoyable read put together by Ernest Hemingway's niece (his brother Leicester's daughter) Hilary Hemingway, and Carlene Brennen, an editor and publisher.
The fishing stories are mesmerizing and Ernest's brilliant way with words shines through most of the related conversations (although he does "growl" maybe once too often). In Chapter 11, the encounter with a shark who is blown up by swallowing a grenade lobbed into his mouth had to have inspired the much later "Jaws."
Real life events and people that influenced and later appeared in specific writings are connected throughout the book.
Perhaps the most fascinating chapter is "Castro and Hemingway" wherein Castro provides his thoughts and opinions on Ernest, the man and the writer, a man whom he met just once.
Photographs and anecdotes are plentiful, and this publication will be a welcome addition to anyone's Hemingway library.
A must read for Hemingway lovers. The photographs, maps and visual material is the strongest part of the book. The stories and text while well written do not all cohesively blend in the whole. The chronology is at time disjointed.
Still a fascinating if esoteric view of a small portion of Papa's life.
Got this coffee table book on sale, just out of curiosity. Hemingway lived up to his legend-for good and bad, and this is a chronicle of the man at his peak, living in Cuba and winning the Nobel Prize for literature. Amazing stories and photos, chronicling everything from his deep sea fishing to his pursuit of Nazi subs off Cuba. Seriously.
Episodic coffee table book captures look and feel of old Cuba in telling the stories of Hemingway's time in Cuba in the 1930 through the 1950s. Rich thick paper and beautiful black and white photographs are surrounded by short accounts of key events written by Hemingway's niece.
Interesting sidelight is that Hemingway's home of two decades in the outskirts of Havana was given to Cuban government in 1961 by his last widow (this book speaks of four wives and at least two separate affairs) and is maintained exactly as it was left, complete with Hemingway's personal belongings, furniture, thousands of letters and photograph, and his 9,000-book library, many with personal notes in the margins.