Eighty-five people attended the 20th annual Hemingway weekend in Petoskey, eighteen of them first-timers. The sun shone on visitors from Connecticut to California Oct. 16, 17, and 18, adding its good cheer to an agenda of talks, tours, and renewed friendships.
Conference headquarters was the Odawa Hotel, and conferees reported all A’s on generous buffet meals, comfortable conference facilities, helpful staff, convenient parking, and shuttle service to downtown Petoskey.
A 20th birthday cake was cut on Friday, commemorating the years of Hemingway weekends in Petoskey since the Perry Hotel hosted the first event in 1990. Founders Ken Marek, Fred Svoboda, and Audrey McMullen were recognized for their ongoing contributions to what has become the Michigan Hemingway Society. Nancy Nicholson read a list of some of the conference themes developed over the two decades.
President Mike Federspiel introduced Robert Trogden, Hemingway Society and Foundation Board member, who announced that MHS has been chosen to host the 2012 International Hemingway Conference in the Petoskey area. Dr. Trogdon will be program chair for the event. The conference will take place from Sunday, June 17, through Friday, June 22, 2012, with the possibility of an add-on tour to the Upper Peninsula on Saturday, the 23rd. We are very enthusiastic about this conference and hope to see many of our annual participants at this event. Federspiel also acknowledged MHS members who will be organizing local arrangements and fund raising for the prestigious conference.
Friday’s speaker was Ken Marek, who had planned to share the podium with artist Jerry Gates. Gates was unable to attend due to last minute health issues, so Ken filled both sides of the ticket. He set four criteria for someone to be considered an artist, one of which was the ability to invent and imagine. Marek read portions of “Big Two Hearted River” and illustrated where Hemingway’s prose took creative liberty with the facts of the landscape. He then showed slides of fine art selected by Gates, speculating on what Hemingway might have liked or disliked about each. Each conferee was given a note card featuring a reproduction of one of Gates’ paintings.
Saturday afternoon conferees attended a special reception at the Little Traverse History Museum to view the newly expanded Hemingway exhibit that MHS helped fund. Artifacts and new interpretive text help the visitor to a better understanding of Michigan’s influence on Hemingway’s life.
Saturday the audience was treated to presentations by Hemingway family members. John and Judy Sanford spoke about the relationship between Grace Hall Hemingway’s paintings and Ernest’s literary art.
Sean Hemingway told about his efforts to create a “restored edition” of Hemingway’s posthumous A Moveable Feast, to which he added entries based on a typed manuscript with original notations in Hemingway’s own hand. Saturday afternoon Sean was present for a book signing at the McLean & Eakin bookstore, which sold out of his books early. Sean then autographed book plates which will be placed in books ordered online (www. mcleanandeakin.com).
Keynote speaker Colette Hemingway, author of in his time: Ernest Hemingway’s Collection of Paintings and the Artists He Knew, showed slides of the artwork acquired by Hemingway and discussed its importance in his own creative process. During her presentation, she said Hemingway believed that painters were essential in learning how to see, hear, think and write. She said Hemingway learned to write landscapes by studying Cézanne, who “broke things down into swatches of pure color that together give a true feeling for his subjects.” Hemingway acquired much of his collection from contemporaries and friends, as Gertrude Stein recommended. His writing and their art alike reflected how work by the “lost generation” sought to reach beyond traditional means of expression.
Patricia Innes, who holds her master’s degree in fine arts, judged the entries in MHS’s first photography contest which was on exhibition Sunday morning. Nearly 30 photos were entered, evoking the spirit of Hemingway’s art. First prize went to first time conferee Harry Gordon of California for his portrait of Gregorio Fuentes. Second and third prizes went to Audrey McMullen and Cecil Ponder. Innes then told about her 15 years’ work on the Michigan Legacy Art Park at Crystal Mountain, which focuses on Michigan arts and culture and has a strong Hemingway representation.