Ernest Hemingway, July 21, 1899-July 2, 1961, this is not your typical genealogy story.
Nobel Prize winning author Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, IL, where the childhood home still stands. Situated on a quiet, tree filled lot, the building is maintained in the sedate, gingerbread style of the era. One imagines children running across the porch amongst the rocking chairs on a hot summer day pigtails askew. This being about an hour from where I currently reside, a road trip was in order for photos.
Hemingway’s stories, novels, and poems are all easily accessible on the internet. Much of his correspondence still survives in various forms, the Hemingway Letters Project stands at three volumes, with 6000 items reflecting his life, loves, and passion for writing.
I never imagined my humble script would have a common element with this man. Fate being a fickle mistress, and genealogy being my vice, I do have a bit of a story to tell.
Tucked away in a Vermont family archive are 2 bits of correspondence from Ernest Hemingway to my great aunt, Bonnie. One is a letter, the other is something else altogether. While Wimbledon was engaging, it wasn’t anything like the tennis match I read about, mentioning his nome de guere, the Hoboken Horror.
The time of the letters falls somewhere between his return from WWI 1919, and prior to his first marriage, September 1921. Hemingway worked for the Toronto Star September 1919 to June 1920. His stories from the WWI Italian front and serving with the Red Cross ambulance service pepper a majority of his writing. (Jstor) In Reynold’s ‘The Young Hemingway‘, he references Bonnie’s correspondence, along with Ernest’s other girls of summer, Marge Bump, Katy Smith and Irene Goldstein. But it is only a reference, as the letters being in private hands have never been published. Until today.
One of Hemingway’s many talents was taking bits of life and manufacturing an entertaining moment. His looks and gift of gab made him a favorite dinner party guest among the society families of Toronto. The “Tennis Match” correspondence rambles on in a sports news reporting style, mentioning the Duke of Aosta, commander of the Third Army in Italy during the time of Hemingway’s tour, when he was known as the Undefeatable Duke.
Battling Bonnie Bonnell is challenged to a tennis grudge match. The conditions of the contest are that the games take place on new courts, the players must be masked, there will be no referee, no horses, no weapons, and boredom is no excuse. The stakes being “the losing contestant shall bind him or herself to do whatever cruel and unusual thing(s) the winner shall demand. The loser is honor bound to go through with his, or more probably her, part of the bargain.”
Bonnell does not name her conditions, however “Hemingway’s Suggestions (are) every dance”, and that “Miss Bonnell will also be honor bound to make a formal or informal proposal of marriage to Mr. Hemingway in any place Mr. Hemingway may select.”
The missive is dated Toronto, May 7.
The second letter, filled with corrections, is the style one would expect in personal correspondence. Sent from “The Same Shack, June 2nd.”
“Carina Mea,
For translation of above see any wop or figure it out yourself. Carina is nicer than Carrissima. Carrissima is supposed to be the best there is.
Well anyway Bon this isn’t going to be a letter. Lots of inclination but no time.”
He goes on to tell about someone with a bottle of scotch wrapped in a newspaper article he had written. “Thus is fame. To be wrapped around a quart of scotch. Aren’t you proud to bum around with one whose writings are wrapped about a quart of scotch? No one could wish for a nobler end to his work. Usually you see my masterpieces end up in the barrel in the basement. Sometimes, of course they fill a useful roll to start the furnace fire.”
“Which brings me to the subject that I’m going to harp on until you are drove gibbering into a photographers. When do I get a picture? Gosh Bon old dear here am I absolutely without pictures of you except infinitesmable (sp) snap shots. Some of which it is true are good of your various sweaters, habits etc. but none of which give any kind of a likeness of the Bonnell that I am crazy about. “
“I want one of the kind that will reduce me to bankruptcy to find a fitting frame for. One that I can put on the dresser at camp and say good night to. And put it so that when the moon streams in through the windows it will flood it and and I’ll wake up look at you in the moonlight and be very darned happy the Lord made Bonnie Bonnell.”
“Well so long old dear and shoot the odd letter north.”
Ernest Hemingway married Hadley Richardson, 1921, and Bonnie married in 1923, giving birth to my Aunt Beverly. Once a debutante darling of Toronto and member of the Bathurst Hunt Club, Bonnie’s life became typical for a house wife of the era. Publication of these letters was denied by her husband after several requests from various authors. But as reputations fall to tatters with the passage of time, Battling Bonnie Bonnell and Hammering Hem Hemingway are now only a fond memory, and a tiny part of the Hemingway legendary history.
I hope you enjoyed this story about my genealogy research, and my great Aunt Bonnie. May your research prove just as rewarding.
Cheers!
MJ
Resources:
The Young Hemingway, Michael S Reynolds.
Hemingway’s Italy: New Perspectives, edited by Rena Sanderson.
Apartment where Ernest Hemingway Lived, Victoria News, April 9, 2019.
The Hemingway Letters Project, the Hemingway Society.
Passport photo of Ernest Hemingway, detail of Ernest Hemingway’s 1923 passport, from the “Ernest Hemingway: Between Two Wars,” Morgan Library. From the archive of Ernest Hemingway Photograph Collection, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
Photos of Hemingway House and letters, author’s own.
Special Thanks to Carl.
Photo edit Jannah Clark.