Traverse City Record-Eagle

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December 21, 2007

Hemingway returns to TC

By Vanessa McCray

TRAVERSE CITY -- Several area locales boast they hosted Ernest Hemingway when he roamed northern Michigan during the summers of his youth.

The heralded author will return to the region today through Jan. 7 when the Traverse Area District Library holds an exhibit featuring Hemingway's Michigan ties and his book, "The Nick Adams Stories."

The collection of short stories is the first selection of The Great Michigan Read, a program of the nonprofit Michigan Humanities Council that urges residents statewide to read the same book together.

A traveling exhibit "Up North with the Hemingways" will criss-cross the state and incudes discussion and photographs of Hemingway. Those in the Cadillac area can view the display at the Cadillac Wexford Public Library from Dec. 14-29.

Additional events are planned in Traverse City to prop up the reading program. Ken Marek, who taught literature at Northwestern Michigan College, will give a talk on Hemingway at 7 p.m. Jan. 16 at the library. He said Nick Adams remains relevant because of its "timeless themes" of love, war and loss.

"... I think his experiences in northern Michigan influenced and inspired all of his writing," Marek said.

"The Nick Adams Stories" was chosen for the reading program partly because of the writer's connection to the state.

Hemingway was born in 1899 in Oak Park, Ill. and died in 1961. He spent many of his summers as a youth near Petoskey, where his family retreated to "Windemere," a cottage on Walloon Lake.

This collection of stories was assembled after Hemingway's death. Fourteen of the Nick Adams stories take place in northern Michigan.

Summers spent here taught the author about the natural world. That played into his other works, said Marek, who particularly admires Hemingway's treatment of nature.

Other related events include an April 28 visit to Traverse City from Valerie Hemingway, who worked as Hemingway's secretary and married his son. She wrote a memoir titled "Running with the Bulls." Details of her Traverse City appearance are still being arranged, said Scott Hirko, public relations officer for the humanities council.

Also in 2008, the City Opera House plans to show Hemingway-based films, said Karen Smith, a council board member from Traverse City.

The Nick Adams book perked her interest in Hemingway, and Smith found it a fitting selection for The Great Michigan Read.

"I think they made a really good choice. Though he isn't a Michigan-born person, he obviously has great and loving ties to northern Michigan," she said.

For more information about the reading program, the book and Hemingway visit www.greatmichiganread.org

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