'Ernest Hemingway: Rivers to the Sea'

The Documentary is Part of the "American Masters" Series on PBS

Featuring the life and career of author Ernest Hemingway, the American Masters film "Ernest Hemingway: Rivers to the Sea" aired on PBS on Wednesday, Sept. 14, at 9 p.m. ET (check local listings).

More than 40 years after his death, Hemingway is one of the most widely read, and widely written about, American authors. An enormous critical success, his major works -- "The Old Man and the Sea," "A Farewell to Arms," "The Sun Also Rises," "For Whom the Bell Tolls" -- are still in print, some in as many as 20 languages. It is the literature that forms the heart of the American Masters film, and the point of departure from which Hemingway's life and work are uniquely explored. Kate Burton is the storyteller.

Valerie Hemingway, author of "Running With the Bulls" who was married to Earnest Hemingway's son Gregory for twenty-one years, and Susan F. Beegel , adjunct associate professor of English at the University of Idaho and editor of "The Hemingway Review," were online Thursday, Sept. 15, at 1:00 p.m. ET to discuss Hemingway's life and work, as well as the American Masters documentary that features the author.

Valerie Hemingway, a native of Dublin, Ireland, was a working journalist in Madrid when she interviewed Ernest Hemingway in 1959. Soon after, she became his personal secretary, working with him in Spain, France, and Cuba from 1959 through 1960. After the author's death, Valerie, employed by the Hemingway estate, sorted and organized the papers, letters, and manuscripts Hemingway accumulated during his lifetime. She was married to Hemingway's son, Gregory, with whom she had four children, in addition to his four from previous marriages, from 1966-1987. A freelance writer and editor, Valerie's articles have appeared in The New York Times, Ski Magazine, Saturday Review, Outdoor Photographer, The World and I, Martello (Dublin) and VSD (Paris).

Susan F. Beegel holds a Ph.D. from Yale University. An adjunct associate professor of English at the University of Idaho, she is editor of The Hemingway Review, an academic journal about the life and work of Ernest Hemingway celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary. Beegel has published two books on Hemingway and another on John Steinbeck, as well as more than 70 articles on aspects of American literature and history. She serves on the board of the Hemingway Society, an organization bringing together hundreds of Hemingway scholars and enthusiasts from around the world.

The transcript follows.

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Susan Beegel: Hello, Everybody--

I'm Dr. Susan Beegel, editor of The Hemingway Review, a publication of the Hemingway Society and the University of Idaho. I'm a scholar and have been studying Hemingway since the 1980s when I did my doctoral dissertation on his short stories. I'm very excited to be here today with Valerie Hemingway, and am looking forward to trying to answer your questions.

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Dar es salaam, TANZANIA-East Africa: Hi,

I am Tanzanian born 1970. I read some of his books, he was very talented man with marvelous work. is hard to find his books here in Tanzania, I had to order from South Africa. In 1988, I met a 96 yrs old man in Kilimanjaro region who met Hemingway, he told me about Ernest Hemingway. Is any possibility for you to corporate with American Embassy to do exhibition about Ernest Hemingway for East African countries?

Regard

Susan Beegel: Hello--

All the way from Tanzania, wow! Although I haven't got a specific answer for you about the possibility of an American Embassy exhibit, I do have a few ideas. You might want to consider joining the Hemingway Society. We are an organization of teachers, scholars, and enthusiasts from around the world, with members in 27 countries. You can learn more at our web site--hemingwaysociety.org. We hold international conferences every two years in places that were special to Hemingway; we will meet in Ronda, Spain in 2006. For many years, it has been a dream of ours to have an international conference in East Africa, but to date we haven't had members in the region to help us organize. If this is something that interests you, we'd love to talk about it, and you should feel free to e-mail me off this site at editor@hemingwaysociety.org. If you aren't careful, we might all come to visit!

Another thing that might interest you-- this month Kent State University Press will publish UNDER KILIMANJARO, the complete, unabridged edition of Hemingway's book from his 1953-54 safari.

Best wishes,

Susan Beegel

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Stony Brook, N.Y.: Just wanted to say hi to Susan Beegel, from a former Williams-Mystic student -- I still have fond memories of Nantucket and Key West. Sarah Nichols, S02.

Susan Beegel: Hi, Sarah--

It's great to hear from you. I'm glad to know you've kept up your interest in Hemingway. Of course, there's nothing like visiting the Hemingway home in Key West and sailing his Gulf Stream waters with Williams-Mystic to whet the appetite.

Cheers,

Susan

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Philomathean, Philadelphia, Pa.: You were more than Ernest Hemingway's daughter in law, you were also his secretary. What state are his papers, meaning has most material of interest to scholars been published, or are there still some hidden gems to be unearthed?

Valerie Hemingway: The majority of the Ernest Hemingway papers are housed in the Hemingway archives at the JFKennedy library in Boston. Very few of these have been published but they are available for scholars (and others) to view upon request. I think there is a great deal of material there. There are still a couple of people who have private collections and most of the letters to Hemingway are in the collections of such universities as Princeton and Yale.

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Charlevoix, Mich. (right near Horton's Bay): Which character do you think manipulates the conversation more in the story "Hills Like White Elephants"? I teach a HS American lit course and we discuss the text from a feminist literary perspective. My students hoped you'd weigh in. Thanks.

Susan Beegel: Hi--

"Hills" is a super story to teach--there's always lots of discussion and disagreement. From my perspective, I'd say that Jig, the woman in the story, has the moral ascendancy. She is in favor of life and love, of responsibility and keeping her pregnancy, she has the courage to consider a new life. The man, in turn, has always been a rather repulsive character to me, trying to manipulate Jig into having an abortion she does not want, lacking either sufficient love or moral courage to change. His telling her that it's "an awfully simply operation" especially gives me the willies. Your students I'm sure have considered that abortion was illegal in Catholic Spain during the 1920s, so we are talking about a dangerous back alley abortion here, and in an era before antibiotics to control any infection. But beyond that, I think it's important for students to realize that this classically modernist story has no easy answers. We don't know whether or not Jig will have the abortion. Critics have argued about it for years; Hemingway doesn't tell us. We do know that whatever happens, whether the couple marries and keeps the baby, or whether Jig has the abortion and they stay together or separate, the relationship is over. The man has betrayed that he doesn't love her, so they are at an impasse. That's my opinion, anyhow!

Susan

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Durham, N.C.: Did Hemingway read much William James, the Pragmatist philospher? That philosphy seems to resonate in Hemingway's work.

Susan Beegel: Yes, we know from surveys of Hemingway's reading that he owned two copies of William James's PSYCHOLOGY as well as a book of extracts from James's philosophy published in the early 1940s. And of course Gertrude Stein, one of Hemingway's mentors, studied with James at Harvard.

Susan

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Arlington, Va.: How would you describe Ernest Hemingway's personality? What was he really like to be around on a day-to-day basis? Thank you for the insight.

Valerie Hemingway: On a day to day basis, Ernest Hemingway was a wonderful person to be around because he was so alive, so interested in everything and in the people about him. He worked by himself in the morning. After lunch he checked his mail and read the newspapers. He corresponded with a wide range of friends and associates. In the evenings he enjoyed eating, drinking and good conversation. He always spent part of the day exercising. Mostly his temper was good but, with reason, he could lose it in a flash.

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Washington, D.C.: Do either of you have a favorite work by Hemingway?

Susan Beegel: This isn't a very satisfying answer, but my favorite work by Hemingway is always the book or short story that I reread most recently. His work has so many layers of meaning, that everything is new and fresh and fascinating each time I come to it! Most recently, I've been working on The Old Man and the Sea, a beautiful, lyrical novella. I think it's a shame most folks read it in high school when they aren't ready to appreciate it. So my advice this week would be for grown-ups to reread this gem--you'll be surprised.

Susan

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Ashburn, Va.: I missed the documentary last night on PBS, will it be replayed or is there anywhere I can purchase it?

washingtonpost.com: PBS says to check your local listings or call your local PBS station for more information. To purchase the DVD of the film, visit: http://www.shopthirteen.org/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDisplay?storeId=10552&catalogId=10101 and http://www.shoppbs.org/home/index.jsp.

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West Milford, N.J.: Did Hemingway write any works while he was living in Ketchum, Idaho?

Valerie Hemingway: To the best of my knowledge Hemingway wrote very little when he was in Ketchum certainly during his last couple of years. His habit was to write every day so he will have penned a certain amount but there is no actual work that one can say he wrote while in Idaho.

Susan Beegel: Hi--

Hemingway actually had three different periods in Sun Valley-- early, middle, and late. His first visits were in 1939, 1940, and 1941, and in 1939 especially he did a good deal of work on For Whom the Bell Tolls while staying there. Some of the area's terrain is featured in the novel; Robert Jordan is from the West; and he even thinks about living in Sun Valley with Maria after they are married. During his middle period there, just following WW II, he worked on The Garden of Eden. I'll let Valerie handle his late period as she was there! My own impression is that he was very ill and depressed, and may have tried to work on A Moveable Feast but was not successful.

Susan

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Bethesda, Md.: The Hemingway work I'm most drawn to is In Our Time, his first publication. To me, it's the purest evidence of his genius. It could stand alone as a short story collection but it's so much more, particularly as the stories are connected by the vignettes of Nick Adams' experience in WWI. I think it's quite revolutionary in its structure. How well has it stood the test of time, and where do you see its place among Hemingway's work? Also, can you shed some light on Gertrude Stein's influence in helping Hemingway create this work?

Susan Beegel: Hi--

Well, I think you've got super taste! In Our Time is certainly a revolutionary book. In it we see the birth of American literary modernism and the famous Hemingway style springing full-blown upon the stage. Almost everything we will see in later Hemingway is already present in this book; amazing to think that he was just 25 when he wrote it. Stein contributed a great deal to shaping the young Hemingway. He learned from her about automatic writing, stream of consciousness, and the use of repetition. She whupped him upside the head about his sophomoric tendencies and challenged him to cut remarks and digressions. In Our Time also owes a good deal to Joyce's Dubliners, another revolutionary shot story cycle.

Susan

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Memphis, Tenn.: I love everything I've read by Hemingway, except for True at First Light -- which in many places doesn't feel like Hemingway at all. Do you think this is due to the editing or the fact that the book was produced posthumously from a first draft? Thanks!

Susan Beegel: Hi--

You've got a chance to answer this question about whether editing spoiled True at First Light for yourself. The Ernest Hemingway Foundation and Kent State University Press are bringing out the complete, unabridged book as UNDER KILIMANJARO this month.

Susan

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Malibu, Calif.: Could either of you address the influence, if any, of the (Norwegian?) writer Knut Hamsun on Hemingway's style? Thanks much.

Susan Beegel: Hi--

I haven't read Hamsun so I can't answer your question about influence. But I can tell you that Hemingway owned and presumably read CHILDREN OF THE AGE and THE GROWTH OF THE SOIL, circa 1926. So, if you are a Hamsun fan and see influence, you have grounds to make a case.

Susan

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Chapel Hill, N.C.: Is there one biography among the many that have been written about Hemingway that you would recommend -- one newer one that approaches the achievement of Carlos Baker's? Thanks.

Susan Beegel: Hi--

No problem with a recommendation but you've got your work cut out for you. Michael Reynolds's five-volume life of Hemingway is unquestionably definitive. It's wonderful reading too.

Susan

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Glen Burnie, Md.: Susan,

The introductory blurb says you have written two books on Hemingway and one on Steinbeck. How would you compare the literary legacy of these two men? At the time Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize, many US critics were dismissing him as a relatively minor writer whose works would be largely forgotten after his death. Steinbeck acknowledged Hemingway as the best living American writer, and so far as I'm aware, Hemingway's critical reputation has never been in doubt. How have these writer's reputations changed or developed after their deaths? What do you think are the major differences in their works, and may these be attributable to differences in the men themselves?

Susan Beegel: Hi--

Well, of course I love both Hemingway and Steinbeck. At his best, Steinbeck's perspective is more American and Hemingway's more global (compare Grapes of Wrath and For Whom the Bell Tolls). Steinbeck is more concerned with communities and Hemingway with individuals. Steinbeck's work is--to me, anyway--kinder and gentler, more socially aware. Hemingway is the single most written about, taught, and criticized writer of the American 20th century. Steinbeck is, by comparison, quite neglected. Each influenced the other.

Susan

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Sterling, Mass.: As a young man, I find it easy to identify with many of Hemingway's characters. I am curious as women, what do you find most appealing in his work? Thank you.

Valerie Hemingway: I love the sheer poetry of it, which I think was illustrated in the movie. I love the simplicity, which of course was not simple at all. I love the way Hemingway cuts to the core of the matter. And I love the places he writes about, Paris, Spain, Italy. And much more.

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Freeport, N.Y.: The special was fantastic! Toward the end, there was mention of a manuscript Hemingway left with a Cuban friend at Vinca before leaving Cuba for good. I don't remember any further mention of the manuscript in the show -- do you know what it was? thank you!

Valerie Hemingway: I don't know exactly which manuscript. Rene Villareal had worked at the finca since he was twelve. He is still alive so it would be easy to find out. However, as I interpreted it, Hemingway gave the manuscript as a nest egg as it were because times were uncertain. My educated guess would be that it was a published manuscript and it was for the value of the physical object that the gift was given. It was highly unlikely that Hemingway would give away unpublished work.

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Los Angeles, Calif.: Hello, Thank you for taking questions. "For Whom the Bell Tolls" is the first book that ever made me cry. Many years later I wrote a short paper dissecting "A Soldier's Home," and through the process of writing that paper, really discovered the breadth of Hemingway's genius with sparse prose. I watched the show last night and was pleased to see it profiled a very human side of him I was unaware of -- teaching poor kids how to play baseball, etc. Seems the mythology of Hemingway has more to do with his swagger than his compassion. Your thoughts?

Valerie Hemingway: "For Whom the Bell Tolls" is one of my favorites too. I agree with you that the public Hemingway is quite different from the real man. Part of this is that only unusual or outrageous behavior is reported in the press. Hemingway was a very shy man and compassionate, but it is often his temper and intemperate actions that were reported. I think the film shows a side to him too rarely seen. For me, it is the writer who is most important.

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Harrisburg, Pa.: You describe your ex-husband as manic-depressive. Presumably this is an inherited trait, or would you disagree with that assessment? How similar or different was the depression between the two generations of Hemingways?

Valerie Hemingway: I lived with Gregory Hemingway for more than twenty years and learned a great deal about the manic depressive condition during that time. I do believe that it is an inherited trait. In the two years I was with Ernest and Mary, I was young and inexperienced, and unaware that Ernest's depression was caused by a medical condition (as was Mary Hemingway). Much less was known about such things forty-five years ago. Both father and son had compulsive personalities. Both were brilliant and when they enjoyed life, they did so with gusto. Both suffered from depressions. I would say that Greg's condition was much more acute and limiting than his father's.

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Kensington, Md.: Hello, I very much enjoyed last night's broadcast. I wonder if you have a recent update on the state of Hemingway's home in Havana. Is it under any historic preservation (don't know how the Cuban government regards this) and is it at all open to visitors? Thank you.

Susan Beegel: Hi,

The Finca Vigia is the single most visited cultural site in all of Cuba. It's very much open to the public, but to protect the contents, visitors view the house by walking around it from the outside and looking through the windows and French doors (this works very well, the house is small and has an open floor plan). It's an amazing museum--everything is in the house exactly as the Hemingway's left it, expecting to return-- books on the shelves, Mary's china and Venetian glass on the table.

The Rockefeller Foundation has given a generous grant to an American organization founded to help preserve the house and its contents. Work on the books and manuscripts is underway. However, the Bush administration has blocked American assistance for helping to repair and restore the house and Hemingway's boat Pilar, saying that they are tourist attractions and that would be giving "aid and comfort to the enemy."

However, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has recently declared the Finca one of America's most endangered historic sites, and that may improve our ability to give aid. You can imagine the toll that tropical heat and humidity have had on the house and it's contents, and how vulnerable the house, the boat, and the grounds are to damage in hurricanes.

If you visit Cuba, the Finca is a must see!

Susan

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Mt. Lebanon, Pa.: I've read both "A Farewell to Arms" and "The Sun Also Rises" in the last two years. I came away thinking that the first is the superior novel if nothing more than, to me, "he" isn't in the later. The Hemingway essence is present in both, of course.

That is to say, they both are Hemingway - superb writer - but the passion is missing in the later. I can't quite put my finger on it except to say that I was moved by the understatement of the sweeping moments in A Farewell to Arms. It came alive. It breathed even in the silent moments.

I was bored by the shallowness of the characters in "The Sun Also Rises." The bulls died gloriously, majestically in the ring but the humans were barely conscious. They live, but limp away towards a date with another pointless wounding. But, maybe that's genius, too.

What's the grand estimation of the literary crowd about these too now (once you beat them against it each other as we say in electrical engineering) since those novels were written in the 1920s?

A thoughtful program last night.

Thanks much.

Susan Beegel: Hi--

Hope you don't think this is a cop-out, but, truly, most literary scholars regard Sun and Farewell with equal esteem. I think there is consensus that they are his two greatest novels, with Bell and Old Man trailing by quite a bit.

Sun is a novel about the Lost Generation-- the characters are disillusioned, alienated, burnt-out cases, like many of the young people who saw the mindless mechanized slaughter of WW I. They are drinking, drifting, and seeking any sensation (including promiscuous sex) that might penetrate the numbness. So it seems to me that the lack of passion you sense in the novel is precisely right, and a tribute to Hemingway's artistry.

Susan

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Durham, N.C.: How accurate is McLendon's book on Hemingway's years in Key West? Would you consider this a particularly productive period for him? Thanks.

Susan Beegel: Hi--

Sure it was productive! We have DEATH IN THE AFTERNOON, WINNER TAKE NOTHING, GREEN HILLS OF AFRICA, TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT and the great African short stories, SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO and THE SHORT HAPPY LIFE OF FRANCIS MACOMBER-- plus all the ESQUIRE journalism.

For a view of this period you can count on, I'd refer you to HEMINGWAY:THE 1930S by Michael Reynolds.

Susan

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Harrisburg, Pa.: How do you both believe Ernest Hemingway's works will stand the test of time? There are some authors whose popularity wanes with time, yet I believe Ernest Hemingway, while writing period pieces, wrote with themes and sentiments that will continue to reach readers centuries from now. Which works in particular do you see being read far into the future?

Valerie Hemingway: I'm inclined to think that Hemingway's works will endure the test of time because he wrote of the condition of man. His observations on war are as fresh and pertinent today as they were when he wrote them. Even his journalism (which I reread recently before giving a talk in Toronto) stands up. It would be hard for me to choose.

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Minier, Ill.: Hi Susan - I was curious as to what you thought of the use of water as a connective image/metaphor in "Rivers to the Sea," and how the various moods of water are reflective or indicative of Hemingway's writing ... Cheers!

Susan Beegel: Uh-oh, Minier. Now who do I know in that town? I loved the use of water to connect that various stages of Hemingway's life and career in the documentary. One of my favorite lines from Hemingway is Nick's "The river was there." in "Big Two-Hearted River." And I have always thought that The Old Man and the Sea was a tragic love story about Santiago and La Mar. I think it was Thomas Mann who wrote that the sea is not a place, it is the landscape of eternity. I believe Hemingway felt that way about the sea, and rivers too, which are part of the natural cycle invoked in the film's title and in Ecclesiastes the epigraph to Sun-- "All rivers run to the sea, yet the sea is not full." And then we have his affection for the Gulf Stream, which he called The Great Blue River, and it is really an artery in the sea, part of the pulse of our ocean planet. So, what could be better? And to me, the director was smart in locating a common element to bind together such a disparate life.

Susan

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Alabama: Posting early -- I enjoyed the film but I thought Hemingway seemed a bit hysterical about Dos Passos' right-wing turn in the late 30s. It's unfair to let his attack on the author of "U.S.A." as a "fascist" stand without comment. No one will deny that Dos Passos' politics changed, or that his style suffered afterwards (whether one related to the other is unclear), but almost alone among prominent American intellectuals of the 30s, Dos Passos saw communism as a totalitarian philosophy hardly distinguishable from Fascism, and not the only thing standing between democracy and Hitler. Dos Passos himself was as staunchly anti-fascist as he was anti-communist, whatever Papa thought.

It's interesting to note that both Dos Passos and Orwell's sympathy with communism ended with the Spanish Civil War, after seeing the Trotskyite purge by the Republican government (though both men's communist sympathies were dying before they went to Spain). How did Hemingway's attitude toward communism evolve during the years? He seemed less than happy with Castro.

Valerie Hemingway: Hemingway tended to be a person of absolutes. When he liked someone, they could do no wrong. When he had a quarrel with someone, he rarely forgave them. Dos Passos had been a friend but when he changed his politics Hemingway was disgusted with him. But there were other things between them that soured the friendship.

I'm not an expert on Hemingway's attitude towards Communism. When I knew him he liked to keep out of politics and tend to his writing. It seemed to me that it was the plight of people not the ideology that interested him most. This was brought out in the movie. There were aspects of Castro that Hemingway admired but he did not want to involve himself in the politics of Cuba. He wanted to live and write in peace.

Susan Beegel: Hi--

There's a new book by Stephen Koch called The Breaking Point on Hemingway, Dos Passos, and the murder of Jose Robles (which is really what soured the friendship). Hemingway was a little more hardbitten than Dos Passos, and I believe he thought it was naive of Dos to think that a double agent would not be executed in the midst of a civil war. Hemingway had little patience with people who didn't understand that war involves playing with live ammo; he understood better than most what was at state, that the Spanish Civil War wasn't just a starry-eyed crusade. So, I think he was less disgruntled with Dos's politics than with his idealism and naivete. Dos thought Hemingway was simply callous. I'd recommend reading For Whom the Bell Tolls. While Robert Jordan fights for the Loyalist cause, the book also depicts Loyalist atrocities, as well as an upright and likable Fascist officer, Lieutenant Berrendo, whom Jordan must kill. Hemingway knew that the capacity for atrocity does not belong to any ideology or philosophy, but is universal to all mankind-- as is the capacity for human goodness. And that is the tragedy of war. He had no patience with zealots or ideologues. My understanding is that he felt revolution in Cuba was inevitable and that he supported it.

Susan

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Munich, Germany: One of the most vivid impressions that I have of Ernest Hemingway is from the memoirs of Morley Callagham, a Canadian author and journalist, in "That Summer in Paris", when Callagham describes his boxing match in Paris, 1929 with Ernest, with Scott Fitzgerald watching and keeping time.

When Callagham humorously writes about Ernest, "A man can only stand only so many mortifications in a single afternoon", it seemed to show that Ernest was much more patient than he was given credit for.

Callagham also painted a picture of Fitzgerald as being much more vulnerable than Ernest Hemingway. How influential in life and writing was the relationship between the two notable writers.

Susan Beegel: Hi,

The Hemingway-Fitzgerald relationship was very important and influential for both writers. I think there are at least three books on the friendship alone!

Susan

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Oxford, Miss.: Could you describe Hemingway's relationship with Faulkner? Either personal relationship or just what he thought about his Southern compatriot.

Valerie Hemingway: I don't know much about this but I'll give it a try. Hemingway recognized Faulkner's genius but he tended to be very competitive with writers of similar stature and very sensitive to criticism. In the papers there were couple of letters between the two writers. Hemingway read all of his "rivals" but he was also wary.

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Nashville, Tenn.: This question is for either Valerie or Susan:

I graduated from a MFA in Writing program last summer. Many times when I would mention Hemingway, eyes would roll. But I noticed that whenever examples were needed to show how to write correctly, Hemingway's work was always used as examples. Could either of you write a little on the view of Hemingway from the strong literary point of view/establishment versus from the popular readership. Thanks ...

Susan Beegel: Hi--

There's a certain sort of knee-jerk response from people who probably haven't read Hemingway and who have imbibed too much of an image created by Hollywood (so many movies made from Hemingway's works!) or even by an early all-male academic establishment, the WW II generation of critics who were having a locker-room conversation and for whom everything was about "code heroes" and "lollipop girls." The problems here are created by nonreaders accepting the opinions of bad readers--or taking a popular image as representative of a text.

Most people who actually make the commitment to read one or several of Hemingway's best books and short stories will usually be wildly surprised--and stimulated. There are more things in Hemingway than are dreamt of in our philosophy.

Susan

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Waldorf, Md.: I've always liked the Nick Adams Stories the most, along with Islands in the Stream, which often gets panned, but I liked it a lot.

Really liked the show last night, too. OK, down to business: I know you're both a bit biased (I am too, since I like him), but how do you think his reputation will hold up in 50 years or so?

Also, would you comment on his writing habits--used a pencil instead of a typewriter, revised like crazy, etc.

Finally, what do we know about those one or two lost stories in the suitcase? Do we know what they were about?

Thanks.

Susan Beegel: Hi--

Hemingway usually wrote a first draft in pencil or pen, correcting as he went along, and then typed the work up and made more corrections by hand before either typing final copy himself or giving it to a typist. He felt that writing in longhand and then typing gave you a second chance to get things right.

Like all writers, he made lots of corrections and improvements as he wrote, crossing words out and writing in better choices. What's interesting about his manuscripts is that he seems to have often gone with Gertrude Stein's tutelage on automatic writing, and would sometimes just write until he "arrived" at the story. This means that the manuscripts of his works are often much longer than the works themselves. They may have other characters, other incidents, and sometimes may even include real events with the names of real people left in. Then, he would cut this material and set it aside.

Hemingway wrote that the dignity of movement in a iceberg was due to seven-eighths of it being below water. He felt you could leave anything out of a story so long as you knew it was there and the reader would have a sense of it. This makes his manuscripts lots of fun to read and study. The majority of them are at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston. They belong to the people of the United States, and anyone can visit and study them.

Susan

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Chicago, Ill.: Is it possible to know how much of "A Moveable Feast" is factually correct, and how much of it was embellished? I'm thinking particularly of the episode with Fitzgerald -- the trip down to and back from Lyon.

Susan Beegel: Hi--

Well, it's probably not possible to know how much of A Moveable Feast is precisely accurate--not unless we could ride from Lyon with Hemingway and Fitzergald.

However, some scholars have made quite a start. If this interests you, you might want to get hold of Gerry Brenner's two-volume A Comprehensive Companion to Hemingway's A Moveable Feast-- over 1,200 pages glossing every single sentence in AMF!!! Or, if you're interested, but not THAT interested, I'd refer you to Michael Reynolds's Hemingway: The Paris Years, Matthew Bruccoli's Scott and Ernest, or Scott Donaldson's Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald.

Susan

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Los Angeles, Calif.: I'm a big fan, but as I get older and read more about Hemingway the man, I can't help but think that at least part of his macho image was a put on.

How much of Papa's public image was real and how much of it was for public consumption?

Thanks

Valerie Hemingway: The macho image to a great extent was invented by the media. It is true Hemingway was a good athlete. He enjoyed sports and encountering danger. He liked to be around courageous people e.g. bullfighters. He liked to challenge himself in areas of physical endeavor. But he did none of these things to show off. He did them because he enjoyed doing them and for personal fulfillment. He was deeply competitive. The image was created by the media and with each year it has grown. When he tried to discourage the media (by throwing a punch or smashing a camera) that became the story. I think Hemingway would like to be remembered as a writer more than as Macho Man.

Susan Beegel: Hi--

What Valerie said! The image is just that, an image. Yes, he was an amazing wing shot and broke Atlantic records with his deep sea fishing. Yes, he was under fire in three wars. he was a remarkable man, and the media and Hollywood gobbled him up. But the real Hemingway, the inner Hemingway, is in the fiction. That's where we see the intelligence, the sensitivity, the compassion. It's very sad what we Americans do to our celebrities, and especially sad how we like to cast them in destructive masculine and feminine roles. Think of Marilyn Monroe, for instance. Hemingway suffered a masculine version of her ordeal.

Susan

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Rego Park, N.Y.: Ms. Hemingway,

Hello, it's an honor to be "talking" to you. I'm curious to know your reaction to the film. Would you agree that it portrayed a side of Ernest Hemingway that few people ever knew? What did you think of the filmmaker's approach of using Hemingway's own words rather than scripted narration? Thank you.

Susan Beegel: Hi--

I really loved the film, and I especially liked the use of Hemingway's own words (as well as words of those who knew him) rather than a narration. DeWitt Sage was given unprecedented permission to use both published and unpublished work in the film, and I think it brought us closer both to the literature and the man. Besides, haven't we all had enough of being told what to think by narrations and lots of ya-da-ya-da-ya-da by talking heads? I also loved the imagery, especially some of the historic film footage, and the music chosen. I think the documentary gave more of a "feeling" for Hemingway than more conventional films.

Susan

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Murfreesboro, Tenn.: What are your views on the works published long after his death? Should they be read with the same frame of mind as the classics, or should one read the later material any differently because Hemingway never published them in his lifetime?

Valerie Hemingway: The works published after Hemingway's death, with the exception of A Moveable Feast were unfinished works. Hemingway did not feel they were ready for publication. They should be seen as works in progress and evaluated in that light. The Dangerous Summer was a different case because that was a magazine article which was not intended to be published in book form at the time of his death. He would probably had edited it for hardcover publication in a different way.

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Purcellville, Va.: Why did he agree to the shock treatments for depression, and how badly did they affect him?

Valerie Hemingway: I can only give an educated guess on this one. Hemingway was familiar with shock treatments. Two of his sons had had them with success. It was the accepted treatment at the time for severe depression. Clearly, in his case they did not work.

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Laurel, Md.: I've read that Mariel Hemingway is involved in projects for cinematic realization of one or more of her grandfather's works. Are any of them near fruition?

Susan Beegel: Hi--

Mariel Hemingway and her husband Steve Crisman produced a two-hour A&E documentary about Hemingway's life several years ago. I've heard rumors that they purchased options on one or more of Hemingway's books, and I think a rumor that they were considering a film on A Moveable Feast. But I haven't heard of any work in progress. Hollywood types often option books without actually getting to the point of selling a script to a studio or making a movie. Maybe we'll hear of something soon!

Susan

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Harrisonburg, Va.: Hemingway reportedly entrusted a manuscript to his assistant before leaving the Finca residence in Cuba. The assistant was told to guard this with his life. Which work is this describing?

Susan Beegel: Hi,

I don't really know the answer to this question, but I tend to think that the assistant may have been exaggerating his importance a bit. How likely is it that a writer would leave the sole copy of an unfinished book in a country hovering on the brink of civil war? Scholars who've had a chance to look at the Hemingway archives in Cuba haven't seen anything unexpected (that doesn't mean they would have been allowed to, though).

When Hemingway left the Finca Vigia for the last time, he was at work on A Moveable Feast. It's my belief that he had the manuscript with him in Ketchum, Idaho. After his death, his wife Mary was allowed to return to Cuba (despite the hostile relations after the Bay of Pigs) and retrieve any personal items and papers that she wanted to take. She of course published A Moveable Feast after her husband's death.

So I don't believe there's any mystery manuscript, although it's pretty to think so. But I don't want to underestimate the seriousness of Hemingway's departure from Cuba. The political turmoil was serious and real, and he knew he might not be able to return and that anything could happen. Consider him as telling his staff to guard EVERYTHING with their lives--the house, its contents, the boat, his pets, his manuscripts, his paintings.

Susan

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Susan Beegel: A note to say farewell to everyone! I've really enjoyed participating today, and want to you all for some interesting questions and the Washington Post for inviting us.

Happy reading!

Susan

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Mount Juliet: Would you share your thoughts of last night's PBS presentation on Hemingway? Is it what you expected?

Valerie Hemingway: I enjoyed the presentation very much because it relied heavily on Hemingway's own words, through his works and letters. I think this gave an excellent insight into the man's thinking. The visuals were apt and sometimes stunning an the music gave it a particular atmosphere. In any ninety minute period, a movie can only be very selective, so what you get is the first bite of the first apetizer of a banquet. I think Rivers to the Sea adds a little to the mass of material available on Hemingway.

I did not know what to expect, which made it all the more surprising. Obviously, the more background one has on Hemingway, the more one can benefit from the movie.

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Los Angeles, Calif.: I'm a big fan, but as I get older and read more about Hemingway the man, I can't help but think that at least part of his macho image was a put on.

How much of Papa's public image was real and how much of it was for public consumption?

Thanks

Valerie Hemingway: Hemingway's macho image was a media creation. There is no doubt that he was a sportsman who was competitive and loved dangerous exploits. He admired courage and bravery and tried to emulate it at times, sometime to the point of foolishness. However he did not create a macho image for the media. They created one for him. He was a successful writer who was handsome and lead a glamorous life. He was the perfect subject. When he was sick of being followed and photographed he lost his temper and let his fists fly or his tongue loose, and of course, that only made for a better story. His writing was what really mattered. He was very private about that. We still have the writing undiluted but the stories of the man continue to multiply.

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Valerie Hemingway: I am amazed at how often there is new material on Ernest Hemingway. Just when one thinks that everything has been said, another writer or moviemaker comes forth with another angle, another view of the man and the work. I was delighted to see DeWitt Sage's American Masters presentation last night on PBS. Thank you for your questions which I hope I have answered satisfactorily. In answering them, I realize that another book or two on Hemingway could be written without a problem. There is still so much to discuss. Till later. Valerie Hemingway

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washingtonpost.com: Next week's American Masters film "Finding Lucy" airs on Wednesday, September 21, at 9 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings). A Live Online discussion will follow on Thursday, September 22.

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Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.