One True Podcast

Timothy Christian, author of Hemingway's Widow: The Life and Legacy of Mary Welsh Hemingway, joins us for a conversation about Hemingway's fourth and final wife. Our wide-ranging interview covers Mary's life before, during, and after Hemingway. We explore Mary's family, her early life and education, including her impressive career as a journalist. We cover her first encounter with Hemingway in London during World War II, the development of their sometimes-volatile relationship, and her crucial role in shaping Hemingway's legacy and her own. Christian expertly guides us through the true history behind the story of Hemingway's widow.

One True Podcast examines the deadly category 5 hurricane that ravaged the Florida Keys over Labor Day weekend in 1935, both from a historical perspective and a fictional treatment. We first hear from historian Thomas Neil Knowles, author of Category 5: The 1935 Labor Day Hurricane, who describes the deadly weather system, its devastating toll on the veterans stationed along the Keys, the bureaucratic inefficiencies, and its legacy. Next, we are joined by Erika Robuck, award-winning author of Hemingway’s Girl, which uses the 1935 hurricane as a historical touchstone. She discusses her approach to fictionalizing Hemingway, how she researched the hurricane, her visits to the Keys, and a remarkable note she received from the housekeeper of the Hemingway house in Key West. This episode also features a reading from Hemingway’s scathing essay “Who Murdered the Vets?” performed by Benjamin Bravard. 

Billy Collins, the author of numerous collections of poetry and the U.S. Poet Laureate from 2001 to 2003 , shares his one true sentence from "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place."

In this live interview from the 19th Biennial Hemingway Society Conference in Sheridan, Wyoming, we talk with John Sutton and Chris Warren about Hemingway's summers spent in Wyoming and Montana and how his experiences in the American West left their mark on his stories and novels.John Sutton is the director of the NEH “Creating Humanities Communities along Wyoming's Hemingway Highway” Grant project. Chris Warren is the author of Ernest Hemingway in the Yellowstone High Country.During this interview, we explore the lack of critical attention on Hemingway's time in this part of the U.S.; friendships he made (and the friends he invited) out west; his likening of Wyoming to Spain, and Spain to Africa; key locations, such as Spear-O-Wigwam, L Bar T,  Pilot, Index, and much more; and, of course, numerous novels and stories, including A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, "The Gambler, the Nun, and the Radio," and "A Man of the World."  

Craig Johnson, author of the widely celebrated Longmire series, shares his one true sentence from "The Snows of Kilimanjaro."

In the lead-up to the Hemingway Society conference in Wyoming and Montana, we welcome Darla Worden to explore some fascinating connections between Hemingway and the American West.Worden is the author of the book Cockeyed Happy: Ernest Hemingway's Wyoming Summers with Pauline. She's also the founder and director of the Left Bank Writers Retreat in Paris and the Wyoming Writers Retreat. Although we may not associate Hemingway with the American West, Worden describes the importance of Hemingway's summers in Wyoming in the late 20s and 30s, his writing of A Farewell to Arms, his time with his second wife Pauline, and his love of the outdoors. Worden uses these Wyoming days to examine Hemingway's evolving persona, the complexities of his marriage and fatherhood, and the way Wyoming factors into his fiction. We even get the chance to discuss the obscure story from Winner Take Nothing, "Wine of Wyoming"!

Jennifer Haigh, author of Mrs. Kimble and Mercy Street, joins us to talk about her one true sentence from the short story "Mr. and Mrs. Elliot."

In 1986, twenty-five years after Hemingway’s death, Scribner’s published a coherent portion of his sprawling manuscript called The Garden of Eden. This publication changed the way we view Hemingway’s engagement with gender and sexuality, and remains his most daring novel ever.  In order to make that novel publishable, Scribner’s called on a gentleman named Tom Jenks to do the editing. Jenks hauled the manuscript home on the New York City subway in shopping bags and began his work, which was one of the most high-profile editorial jobs in the history of American literature. Jenks joins One True Podcast to discuss his efforts with The Garden of Eden – his editing strategy, assessment of Hemingway’s work, and thoughts about the book’s legacy. Since 1986, Jenks has discussed his Hemingway work only sparingly, so his frank discussion is a rare treat. 

Today’s episode investigates two largely forgotten figures from Hemingway’s past: Lewis Galantière and Guy Hickok. Galantière was a critic who befriended Hemingway in the early Paris years, and they maintained a friendship and correspondence for many years. Hickok was Hemingway’s journalist buddy who accompanied him through Italy for the notorious March 1927 trip that spawned “Che Ti Dice La Patria?”  To discuss these men and their respective relationships to Hemingway, we welcome their descendants and chroniclers: Mark I. Lurie, author of Galantière: The Lost Generation’s Forgotten Man, and Rufus Hickok, author of The Paris Bureau: How a Brooklyn Journalist Survived Jazz Age Paris with Help from Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound and his Family.Join us for our two conversations as we learn more about these friends of Hemingway and the relationships they fostered through the formative years of the 1920s. 

David Frum, staff writer at The Atlantic, author of numerous books including Trumpocracy and Trumpocalypse, and speechwriter for President George W. Bush, joins us to talk about his one true sentence from A Farewell to Arms.