Hemingway’s Life in Michigan Documented in New Historic Treasure
Ernest Hemingway grew up in northern Michigan, a process his mother lovingly documented for him, and for all her children through a series of family scrapbooks. One of those remarkable scrapbooks, created for Ernest’s sister Ursula, was recently added to the many Hemingway items found in Central Michigan University’s Clarke Historical Library.
The over 100 page album is entitled, "Ursula Hemingway, Book IV from July 1st 1913 to July 1st 1916, Eleven years 2 months to Fourteen years and 2 months old". The 121 original photographs found in the album, virtually all carefully annotated by Grace Hall Hemingway, document the family through images of children partying, family dinners, group images at the Walloon Lake summer cottage in northern Michigan that the family loved and that was so much a part of the Hemingway life, as well as their Oak Park, Illinois home. The album offers a thorough and fascinating insight into the cottage life of a typical family in northern Michigan at the beginning of the twentieth century. A typical summer family with one unusual characteristic; a child who would win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
For those interested in Ernest Hemingway there are approximately 21 images showing the young Ernest, many in group family shots, some individual pictures with him as the young fisherman holding trout, playing on the waterfront in and around boats and canoes. One small portrait photo is a wonderful image of the young Ernest. Another wonderful photograph is labeled as “the 6 children taken together for the first time,” and includes a smiling Ernest and everyone in their Sunday best, photographed with the family’s newest (and as it happened) last infant child. Another photograph shows Grace and Dr. Hemingway’s 19th wedding anniversary with all six children together. The album also includes many letters including notes to “Ernie.”
Ursula’s album joins an extensive collection of material documenting Ernest Hemingway’s life in northern Michigan that is found in the Clarke Library. These include four letters written by Ernest Hemingway in or about northern Michigan, unpublished, original material written by the young Ernest, a large existing collection of Hemingway photographs and an extensive collection of printed works, including such iconic volumes as Asa Gray’s Manual of the Botany in the Northern United States given to Clarence Hemingway by his wife Grace, kept at the cottage, and likely frequently consulted to answer questions raised by Ernest and the other Hemingway children.
The acquisition of the album was made possible by the Michigan Hemingway Endowment, a fund created in the Clarke Library to support acquisition of material about Ernest Hemingway’s Michigan years, a generous gift by the Michigan Hemingway Society, the Friends of the CMU Libraries, and other private contributions.
For more information about the album or the other Hemingway material in the Clarke Historical Library, contact Frank Boles at boles1fj@cmich.edu boles1fj@cmich.edu or by phone at 989.774.3352.