First of all, I would like to thank John Thatcher ('44) and his Foundation for the generous grant I received to study the early years of Ernest Hemingway in Michigan this summer.
I have studied Hemingway for years, but had never been to his youthful stomping rounds in and around Petosky, Michigan. After seeing where he played and worked, and after hearing the many stories surrounding the legendary writer, I have a much clearer picture of the man who wrote of his youthful summer days. I hesitate to write what would amount to a travelogue, but there are some places that took me back to the days of the early 1900s.
The Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad station was a history museum devoted to Ernest Hemingway. He used it as a model in "The Torrents of Spring."
The Perry Hotel was built in 1899 and is still in operation today. Of course, I sat on the veranda and pretended to be the young EH. He stayed there with a friend for .75 cents a day in 1916.
The Annex, which is now The City Park Grill, inspired the story "A Man of the World." Evidently, Hemingway went there to watch men in bare-knuckle boxing matches out back.
Jesperson's Restaurant was a highlight. I sat at the lunch counter where Hemingway often sat and had pie, according to the waitress. (Everybody had a Hemingway story.) It matches the description of the diner in his great story "The Killers."
Evelyn Hall in the Bay View Association is a lecture hall where Hemingway gave a lecture about his WWI memories. He so enthralled a crowd of ladies that the Connoble family offered him a job in Toronto, which led to his working for the Toronto Star newspaper.
The village of Walloon Lake wasn't too exciting, but one could get a good look at the lake where the Hemingways had their summer home, which is still in the family. Sunny's only son, Ernest Miller Main, lives there, and he is very private.
We visited Shangri-La, the location of EH and Hadley's wedding reception. It is a seven-bedroom home open to the public for rent.
The village of Horton Lake and the Horton Bay General Store were a real treat. The Red Fox Inn was just fantastic. EH and Hadley bought vegetables there and often ate the family-style dinners served there. It is now a bookstore that specializes in Hemingway titles and memorabilia. The owner, James Vol Hartwell, is a descendant of the owner in Hemingway's time, and has a ton of stories and transcripts of interviews of people who knew EH. The most interesting was an interview with an Ottawa historian who told the true stories of the Boultons and their relationship to the Hemingways. Evidently Prudence was quite a young beauty when she met Ernie. I also learned the true story of Marjorie and her friendship with Ernie.
My best time was talking to Chris Stubble, president of the Michigan Ernest Hemingway Society. He spent several hours with me and loved talking about EH's youth. He also showed me hundreds of pictures that are not available to the public which he plans on putting in a book which I look forward to owning.
All in all, I had a great time and I learned a great deal. I look forward to teaching "In Our Time" in the spring, as I have new insight into what I have taught often. As Sherwood Anderson said, "Ernest went to Paris to write about northern Michigan." Now I understand.
