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FOUND HIM
Friday Oct. 30, 2015
Understanding – reading Hemingway’s work, storied public life, seeing documentaries, can anyone know who he was and why he was the way he was?
I found parts …
In the lobby and corridors at Sun Valley Lodge (awesome for any buildings aficionado: poured-in-place concrete exterior walls. Forms were rough-hewn timber which imprinted their grain. Acid washed to look rusty-brown … in 1936, stunning). Walls covered with celeb photos, recent ones. And long ago ones, some featuring Hemingway.
Nearby along Sun Valley Road overlooking Trail Creek I found his monument – plaque and bust.
I found Hemingway’s section at Iconoclast Books – purchased For Whom The Bell Tolls (1940) which he wrote here, and his first novel The Sun Also Rises (1926).
And, I visited him.
I found no reference to where. One on-line reference said he was near his friend Gene Van Guilder (I found Hemingway’s eulogy of Van Guilder – reputed as fore-telling Hemingway's own ending). Found him. Coffin sized marble slab. Name, dates and dash – covered in leaves. Covered in coins. Writings, books too, left there – under stone. Near him, half as large, other Hemingways’ slabs.
Few paces away, under those trees – Van Guilder’s bronze plaque attached to a rock. In the ground, close by in death, as they were in life.
Walking cemeteries is not familiar for me – I read headstones nearly to the point of exhaustion – walking among so many people who were here when he was, so many who would have known him. Near him still. I found that thought and the brilliant sunshine of the day, and finally arriving at the right spot, a moving experience I’ll not soon forget.
Mark Kolke
P.S.: I’ve read about Ezra Pound, his once friend, born eleven miles away in Hailey. Seems Pound went crazy, got arrested for bad-deeds in war time and spent time in an insane asylum. I wonder if Pound’s friendship with Hemingway had anything to do with Hemingway coming here. I’m sure, if I’d bought more books in that store one of them might contain an answer to that question …
written / published from Ketchum/Sun Valley, Idaho
morning walk: -1C/30F, clear, light breeze, fabulous stars and moon, early walk (leaving early – lots of driving to do today), on main street – good light, good footing, zero traffic … awesome quiet. I miss my dog, miss the gym, much work awaits … time to head home.
Reader feedback:
IN SEARCH OF UNDERSTANDING
Its great to see you follow your passion, and share it with us. Continue to stay alert to the "unfolding". When I first read your comments about going, for some reason U 2's song "but I still haven't found what I am looking for" filtered into my brain. However, your lines breath with excitement and anticipation, so I "feel" You will find "it". Soak it all in, JB, Canmore, AB
Are you going to Cuba and Key West too?, AN, Calgary, AB
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