Just reread Ernest Hemingway’s Green Hills of Africa. What a wonderful read and oh for the Springfield!

Just finished that book last week, I liked it. Now reading “True at First Light”, what’s called a fictional memoir written by his son from unpublished notes. Notes from safari in ‘53 I believe.

I finished Green Hills last month. My first time reading it. Most enjoyable.

Rex

I love that book and used to read it annually when I really had a thing for African hunting.

Tried to read True At First Light and it wasn’t nearly as excited about it. Can’t remember if I finished it.

A friend gave it to me a while back and I just started it.

Don't know how many times I've read Green Hills, but it's been quite a few.

True at First Light has some good passages, but Hemingway was getting more erratic by the time he wrote of the material.

Try,”The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”.

Fiction, but supposedly used the famous ph Bunny Allen as a model. He apparently and frequently “bedded” wives that accompanied the guided hunters. Maybe, bs, but it’s a good read.

I like Green Hills also. Currently reading Use Enough Gun by Robert Ruark. Highly recommend that also

I have the book and read it in my young days when I had dreams. Today Africa has become a place to just show off wealth, or piss away your retirement if you're poor and dumb. I'll have to stick with fishing for bream and trout from the bank and chasing southern whitetails.

By the way, he keeps calling his wife(I assume) P.O.M. Wtf does that stand for??

I never quite did understand why Hemingway became pretty much the only hunting writer who is also popular with people who are not hunters, but literature enthusiasts. I've only read Francis Macomber and Snows of Kilimanjaro as well as some of his non-hunting stories at this point, but I'm starting to think that the case can be made that (at least in these books) he didn't really intend to write about hunting, but something about the human condition and what have you. Is Green Hills of Africa similar in this regard or is it more sort of an account of actual hunts?

Poor old Marry

P.O.M.,Hemingway’s wife, Mary. “Poor old momma”

Huh?

I love Green Hills of Africa and have returned to it more than once. Wish I had never touched a copy of True At First Light. Hemingway lovers, and readers of English, should avoid like a moist pile of dog.

There was a reason Hemingway never finished TAFL - h couldn't figure out where he was going with it. Much of reads like a stream of consciousness or a collection of day dreams. Never could figure what the real deal with Debba was. This was set in 1953 Kenya, the same period as Tuarks Something of Value and both covered the Mau Mau insurgency in their own way. I like Ruark's much better.

For Whom the Bell Tolls is a great follow up.

As for True At First Light - it's not fair to judge the man's work when he never finished it and never got a chance to edit it himself. After all, he was the one who said the first draft of anything is [bleep].
At best it's interesting in passages, at worst it is an illustration of his working method I would say.

Green Hills of Africa, I read it a long time ago. I got tired of the campfire conversation criticizing other forgotten writers of the time.

I wish Hemingway had written more about his hunting in the states, elk hunts and what have you. But he wasn't really a hunting writer at all. He wrote about people. Meaning himself I suppose.

Carlsen, If you read "The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway" he has several fishing stories in there based on his childhood trips to Michigan. Some small game hunting to as I recall.

The area I live in is rich with Hemingway history. I helped build the house next to the historic Hemingway cottage on Walloon Lake, named Windemere, I believe. I cross over Horton Creek nearly weekly and have fished Horton Bay. I spent many hours this past winter fishing Walloon Lake. I worked in a house in Petoskey, Michigan that he is purported to have rented a room in and have dined in a restaurant that he frequented. I've fished upper peninsula streams that he wrote of.

I'm not name or location dropping, but only saying that while I appreciate all things Hemingway and being surrounded by Hemingway culture, I can recall being captivated by only one of his works, and that is, "The Short Happy Life Of Francis Macomber". Such a sad and poignant tale.

The short stories are excellent to keep in a pack pocket on a hunt where some sitting may be required.
My father in law has a good story about an english professor he had at Uconn before he left for the Army. The gentleman was a huge Hemingway fan and had done all sorts of dissection on his writing. He proudly showed his students a long letter he sent to E expounding on his thoughts about some of it, ....... and the reply that was short and to the point. "Your full of $hi%". " EH.

Monday night PBS documentary by Ken Burns on... Ernest Hemingway!

What do you base that on? My actual experience is completely different. The guys I hunted with are salt of the earth guys who are a pleasure to hunt with. They charge just enough to make a living and they are damn good at their job. The actual cost per animal is a bargain compared to US guided hunts, and the experience of seeing hundreds of animals every day is priceless.

And to the point, I just started reading Green Hills of Africa.

Boomer454-
You might consider some possible additions to the class of hunting writers who created works that were popular among non-hunters.

Zane Grey's writing were immensely popular. He was for a time the world's best selling author. Influential critics and literati didn't rate him highly, despite his major role in inventing the western genre. His books have been made into more movies than books from any other author's. Outside of westerns he was better known for writing about fishing than hunting, but he did produce hunting tales and wrote some articles for Sports Afield about firearms.

William Faulkner certainly belongs to this group. Faulkner was a hunting writer, and his hunting tale "The Bear", a deep consideration of human-nature relationships, is generally considered one of the finest, and frequently the finest hunting story ever written. He really did have to be talked out of his annual week at deer camp, in order to go to Stockholm to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature https://sportingclassicsdaily.com/do-you-write-mr-faulkner/.

There may be other authors who belong to this class also. Ruark? Steinbeck?

--Bob

Steinbeck didn't write much about hunting, but he liked to hunt. I recall reading about his first meeting with Faulkner--after the preliminaries they mostly talked about deer rifles!

In Steinbeck's book Travels With Charlie he mentions buying a new .222 Remington, as I recall in Miles City, Montana.

Not done Hemingway yet, but I've passed it several times in the thrift store stacks. Have been wading through volumes by Baldwin, Cummings, Patterson, Harris, Akeley, Selous, Oswell, Bell, and a host of others, as well as the more modern day script of Roosevelt. Several of those authors express a bit of sorrow for folks coming to Africa with only 3 or 4 months available for their hunts. Seems one can't really get the flavor of the place in such a limited time. Many feel the continent was pretty well shot out by about 1875.

Some truly amazing stories from those wandering the continent with ox drawn wagons and packing double cap lock 4-bores as weapons. Took quite a bit of time for the smoke to clear before one could see the results of his shots.

Would love to go and can easily afford the hunts. My desire, however, to return with ones trophies make it cost prohibitive. Too many agencies wanting a slice of the pie for no effort on their part.

This might be of interest to those baffled by some of the later works...

https://www.enotes.com/topics/true-at-first-light

Green Hills is not my favorite Hemingway book. Although it has some interesting parts, I found it a bit uneven. Still, it's worth reading.

While on the African topic, another book I enjoyed was “HUNTER” by J.A. Hunter. Been awhile since I read it so it may be time again.

I picked up an older hardcover copy of this book around 25 years ago at an estate sale and have read it a few times. It's definitely a good read and like you, I think I'm due to read it again.

Finished Green Hills a bit before this thread started and am rereading Use Enough Gun, then will tackle Uhuru.
Funny how the older books are a great read and the contemporary ones seem to contain excess, with too little literature.
Also interesting to note the depth of absorption and digestion the authors had of their immediate surroundings and especially the people. The reciting of same seems to be the ingredient to encapture the reader.
It does me........

If you liked reading Green Hills of Africa you might think about listening to it in an audiobook format. I've found it makes a 17 hour flight or a 26 hour drive go just that much quicker. The introduction to the version I have is a bit embarrassing with the excuses for the subject matter but the production is well done and very enjoyable. That goes for most of his other titles as well. Too bad I haven't found any Ruark titles as audiobooks.

The Old Man and the Boy is only one I've seen.

Great book!

Sort of what MD alluded to concerningt "True at First Light," some pf the passages are amazing. You think "He really nailed it." Much of the rest is just reading to find another remarkable passage. For me it was worth it.

I found it interesting that the three true short stories that Burns focused on are the three I remember best, "Up in Michigan," "The Indian Camp" and "Hills Like White Elephants." I confess the reason I remember "Hills..." is I was very young when I read it and I read it twice, as I had no idea what it was about. That came years later.

As for "Green Hills of Africa," I tried reading it in the fifth grade at camp. It was the only book my mother sent with me. I couldn't get into it. A few years later I tried it again. Amazing.

I should rephrase that. Oh, I'm sure there's lots of great guys that can afford it. But for most it's out of reach. Your retirement will get partially pissed away.

Now, If you are the type that will finance a $70,000 truck, or even buy it cash without a couple million in the bank, then you won't understand my thoughts on money.

I read lots of the greats before I was 25. Ross Seyfried made me want to be a PH like him. I never got rich so there's that.
I also met 3 guys over the years that traveled the world hunting and had massive trophy collections. You wouldn't want to meet or hang with any of them I promise.