Writer Paul Hendrickson’s new book focuses on the one constant in Ernest Hemingway‘s life from his pinnacle as the reigning monarch of American letters until his suicide in 1961:
A new book focusing on Papa’s beloved fishing cruiser, the Pilar
His beloved fishing cruiser, the Pilar.
Drawing on previously unpublished material, including interviews with Hemingway’s sons, Hendrickson makes a convincing case that the boat was Papa’s one true love.
Click to enlarge: motoring from Havana Harbor, August 26, 1951; courtesy Ernest Hemingway Collection/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston
In Hemingway’s Boat, Hendrickson writes, from Key West to Paris, to New York, Africa, Cuba, and finally Idaho, the author returned to the cherished craft “to exult in the sea, to fight the biggest fish he could find, to drink, to entertain celebrities and friends and seduce women”.
‘To fish, drink, to entertain celebrities and friends and seduce women’
But as he “began to succumb to the diseases of fame”, he notes, Pilar was also where the author “cursed his critics, saw marriages and friendships dissolve, and tried, in vain, to escape his increasingly diminished capacities”.
Click to enlarge: Key West, c. 1934 or 1935; courtesy Ernest Hemingway Collection/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston
In addition to being a great read, the book features some excellent photographs of Papa doing most of the above.
Pictured off Cuba in the summer of 1934 reeling in a big one
Above, he’s pictured off Cuba in the summer of 1934 reeling in a big one.
After which he presumably went to El Floridita and reeled in a few daiquiris….
- Posted October 11, 2011
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- Courtesy Ernest Hemingway Collection/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum
