One True Podcast

For this fascinating discussion, we welcome the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian A. Scott Berg, author of Max Perkins: Editor of Genius, to discuss Perkins’s role in Hemingway’s life and career.Berg talks about the research and writing of his biography, the difference between Perkins’s approach to editing and promoting Hemingway and Fitzgerald, and the editor's collaborations with other writers such as Thomas Wolfe, James Jones, and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Berg also offers his “one true sentence” from all of Hemingway’s work. We hope you enjoy this episode with one of America’s leading biographers!

We welcome Valerie Hemingway to share her memories of her father-in-law and the thrilling Spanish summer of 1959. We draw from her wonderful memoir Running with the Bulls to hear stories about Hemingway’s later years, his writing process, and the stark difference between the dangerous summer of 1959 and the grim crises of 1960. Ms. Hemingway recollects her own Irish childhood and her development as a young journalist thrust into the exhilarating role as Hemingway’s secretary. She also looks back at her relationship with Papa, which was unlike any other in Hemingway’s life.Join us for our conversation with this brilliant and charming raconteur about her crucial role in Hemingway's life and legacy. 

Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog, Townie, and Gone So Long, talks about his one true Hemingway sentence from "Hills Like White Elephants."

One True Podcast takes a deep dive into Joan Miró’s masterpiece and Hemingway’s beloved possession, The Farm.  We welcome art historian Alex Fernandez de Castro and journalist Hugh Eakin to discuss the meaning, history, and legacy of this powerful and infinitely mysterious painting. In our two-part interview, we cover Miró’s evolution as an artist, his similarities and differences with Hemingway, and the crucial importance of this painting in his storied career. We also learn the mythology of how Hemingway bought The Farm, and ultimately, how it has now come to be housed in Washington, DC, at the National Gallery.  Join us in our travels to Miró’s Farm!

Amanda Vaill takes us to the French Riviera of the 1920s, drawing from her definitive book, Everybody Was So Young, to describe who Gerald and Sara Murphy were and what they meant to the artists they knew. Vaill discusses Fitzgerald’s poor behavior, Hemingway’s ambivalence to the rich, and Gerald’s own artistic efforts. Along the way, she suggests what gave the Murphys the enchanting quality that drew so many important figures into their circle. This episode was recorded on May 17, 2021.

Hideo Yanagisawa shares his choice for Hemingway's one true sentence, which comes from a letter to Charles Scribner about The Old Man and the Sea.

We welcome aboard Paul Hendrickson for a discussion about his poignant book on Hemingway’s beloved Pilar, the best-selling Hemingway’s Boat: Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost.Hendrickson explores Pilar as a significant constant in Hemingway's life and as an illuminating metaphor for Hemingway's work.  During the interview, he also talks about the fascinating process of writing this searching book, one that includes a twenty-year gestation period, a meeting with Hemingway’s brother, and a pep talk from a former One True Podcast guest.This episode was recorded on March 26, 2021.

We welcome Mark Salter, who served as Senator John McCain's advisor and speechwriter, to discuss the senator's lifelong passion for the works of Ernest Hemingway. From his first encounter with For Whom the Bell Tolls to his final consideration of the elegiac “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” Salter speaks movingly about Senator McCain's engagement with Hemingway’s writing and how it informed his ethics. Along the way, Salter talks about the art of speechwriting, Senator McCain as a potential literature scholar, and the way For Whom the Bell Tolls’s Robert Jordan emerged as a fictional character that was completely alive for the senator. Join us for this fascinating conversation!This episode was recorded on November 23, 2020.

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Elizabeth Strout shares her one true sentence from Hemingway's "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place."

We celebrate the new PBS documentary Hemingway by discussing this historic three-part series with its directors, Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. Our conversation covers Hemingway’s singular gifts as an artist, his burden of celebrity, his many complicated relationships, and the tragedy that coursed through his life. Burns and Novick describe the challenges of bringing such an outsized life to screen, from the gathering of rare footage to assembling the distinct voices that illuminate his life and work. They also explain the process of selection, as well as the things left out. As a perfect companion to your viewing of Hemingway, join us for this revealing interview with its filmmakers.This episode was recorded on February 8, 2021.