Hemingway Birthday Lecture Focuses on Early Influences

On what would have been Ernest Hemingway’s 112th birthday, Oak Park residents gathered in the at the to celebrate the early influences of one of the great American writers.

“I’ve been trying to build the case that there’s more to find about the education of a young man that’s been found before,” journalist Steve Paul said after his Thursday evening lecture, “‘I Am Trying to Make Speed’: Hemingway, Journalism and the Path to Writing.”

Paul is a senior writer and arts editor at Hemingway’s first employer, The Kansas City Star. After editing a commemorative section in 1999 about the author for the newspaper, Paul became interested in the world of Hemingway and how journalism influenced him.

Shortly after graduating from , Hemingway left to join The Star as a cub reporter until he became an ambulance driver in Italy during World War I.

Though Hemingway’s time at the newspaper only lasted about six months, Paul said he quickly moved up from obituary writing, then to editing letter submissions and then to working the police beat. When he wasn’t at his desk or pounding the pavement, Paul said Hemingway would sift through incident reports at Police Station No. 4.

One of Hemingway’s stories, “At the End of the Ambulance Run,” detailed the intake area of the local hospital, and showed early glimpses of Hemingway’s future novels, Paul said. It’s difficult to know which stories Hemingway actually wrote, because stories weren’t bylined at that time and many times were phoned in to a writer in the newsroom.

Paul said Hemingway learned from the writing style at The Star, including writing short sentences, simplicity and narrative freedom.

Later, one coworker he met at the paper, Ted Brumback, led to his service during World War I. The pair met in 1917 after Brumback returned to Kansas City from the war, where he drove ambulances in France.

A few months later, the men left together to drive ambulances in Italy, an experience that would later become the basis for Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms.

Scott Schwar, former executive director of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park, said he’s happy Paul’s work is bringing new interest in Hemingway's life.

Hemingway’s early career was “very influential” and his “maturation and initial start” were largely thanks to his journalism background as well as his Chicago-area days, Schwar said.

After Paul’s speech, Virginia Cassin, former village clerk and board member of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park, presented a toast to the author who was born and raised in Oak Park.

This year marks 50 years since Hemingway’s death by suicide at age 61 in Iowa.