Picturing Hemingway's Michigan

by Michael R. Federspiel

In the early 1900s, the Little Traverse Bay area in northern Michigan was transitioning from a sparsely populated lumber region to a hotspot for tourists. Looking to enhance dwindling freight business, the region’s railroad and steamship companies mounted elaborate and effective marketing campaigns to lure tourists from as far away as St. Louis, Kansas City, and Louisville to experience the area’s pristine natural beauty and abundant leisure activities. Ernest Hemingway’s family was among those who vacationed "up north" in this era; his parents built a cottage on Walloon Lake near Petoskey to summer away from their home near Chicago. In Picturing Hemingway’s Michigan, author Michael R. Federspiel introduces readers to the Hemingway family, who were typical of many that vacationed in the area. He also paints a picture of life in northern Michigan between 1900 and 1920 and traces the many connections between the area and Hemingway’s body of work. In chapters that incorporate candid family photographs from the Hemingways’ own collection, historical images of the region, and archival excerpts from Hemingway’s letters, journals, and stories, Federspiel shows that the region left an indelible mark on the young writer. To reveal the connections between northern Michigan and Hemingway’s fiction, Federspiel examines not only Hemingway’s famous Nick Adams stories, which were set in the area, but also later works like A Moveable Feast. With more than 250 images, Picturing Hemingway’s Michigan leads readers on a tour of the people, places, and activities that deeply influenced one of America’s most famous authors during his twenty-two summers in northern Michigan. Anyone interested in Michigan history, the life of Ernest Hemingway, or the culture of the early twentieth century will enjoy this beautiful volume.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, History

216 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2010

Reviews

[Kristen]

What a gorgeous book! Hardly a straight up biography, it is something far more fascinating, capturing the feel of a time and place. The Author provides a wonderful snapshot of the Northern Michigan of Hemingway's childhood and this book is just as much about 'Up North' as it is about young Hemingway's summers spent there. At times the first quarter of the book does feel as if the material is stretched a bit too thin when author goes on and on about hotels, ships and trains that Hemingway may have patronized but it's all a valid attempt to show how the those industries created the tourism boom that drew countless families including the Hemingways to northern Michigan. As a Michigander I certainly enjoyed those digression but I can see how some one not as interested in Michigan history might thinks it's overkill.

Hemingway spent most of his boyhood summers on Walloon Lake just outside of Petoskey. His industrious doctor father and art/music loving mother (who ironically discouraged his early writings) build a charming cottage they filled with art when young Hemingway was just an infant, and which still remains in the family to this day. They would later buy a farm across the lake where teenage Hemingway worked beside the tenant farmer, and used as an convenient way to get away from his mother and sisters.

As you would expect the book is filled with tales of young Hemingway's love of hunting and fishing, for instance a 5 day hike from Traverse City to Petoskey with a friend surviving solely on what they could catch along the way, which more than any other experience informed his Nick Adams stories. Yet, this book is as much about the people, locals and summer visitors who would later be used as models in his writing. The towns and neighbors are major characters in this book, as important as Hemingway himself. The story of the time his father decided to drive his Model T to the cottage rather than using the ships and trains they had always traveled by was my favorite. What is now a 5 hour trip took over five days with an average speed of 8 mph. His regular visits ended soon after his first wedding in Petoskey, yet the influence of his time in northern Michigan would remain with him the rest of his life.

The book also includes many Tourism ads, news clipping, personal family letter, entries of his baby book, excepts of The Nick Adams Stories and the Torrents of Spring pair with photos of the places that influenced those writings. And the photos. This is above all a photo book and it is more than worth its $40 price just for the wonderful photo's. Baby Hemingway floating around the lake in a tub. And what Hemingway fan wouldn't adore 1 year old Hemingway herding sheep with a stick.

More than anything this reminded me of my childhood trips Up north.



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The most perfect book one can possibly read before a trip up north!
Will write a proper review when I return.

[Dave Schaafsma]

Great book I bought when I went to the Petoskey Historical Museum (which has a great Hemingway collection! Very much worth the visit, for those in the midwest, especially, or serious Hem fans). Gorgeous photographs you won't see anywhere else. As a Michigander, I am of course happy to know he was perhaps happiest for much of his early life here... it maybe especially helps you appreciate his Nick Addams, up in Michigan, fishing stories... and for me, having spent every summer for decades myself in the U.P., I like it for that, too. In these pictures and with Federspiel's text we see the softer side of Hemingway, in these early years, as his connections with nature were being formed. After he went to Europe he almost never came back; the war, the Paris of the Lost Generation, the booze, all the women, all changed him, and maybe depend him. This Hemingway is a more innocent, a youthful one.

[Mark]

An interesting picture book about the young Ernest Hemingway and his family and their summers in northern Michigan that I found in McClean & Eakin. I enjoyed the history of the development of tourism in the area and pictures of Hemingway as a child and a young man. There are a few excerpts from the Nick Adams stories, and although one might notice the local sources for the details in Hemingway's stories, I think it is more striking that the importance of Hemingway's writing is completely independent of these things.

[Karla]

This book is simply amazing

Loved the rich narrative connecting one of my favorite authors to the state where I’ve been born and raised

Can’t wait to see the area in person now having a greater understanding of the historical context

[Phillip Aho]

A beautiful book in all its ways. Even the text seems a tad Hemingwayesque.

[Gregory Tait]

Very mich enjoyed this book. Loved the pictures and how Northren Michigan formed Hemingway and his writings.

[Sarah]

I picked this up on a whim at the library, and I had no idea how much I'd love it! I found myself wanting a copy to keep at home. Having lived my whole life in Michigan, the photos of up north are so interesting, not to mention the completely fascinating man who is in many of the photos!

[Liz]

Signed by the author, Michael Federspiel.

[Laura]

Beautiful photos.