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My Life with the Hemingways

November 8, 2004
Askold Melnyczuk director, creative writing, UMASS Boston

After more than 40 years of virtual silence, Valerie Hemingway, the confidante of Ernest, shares stories of her years living and traveling with Ernest and Mary Hemingway.

Her new book, Running with the Bulls: My Life with the Hemingways, was provoked by an editor's discovery of uncataloged papers, manuscripts and letters rotting in the basement of the Hemingways' former home in Cuba. Valerie, having put the papers in the basement to begin with, agreed to sort through them and prepare them for deposit at The Kennedy Library. The process spurred her finally to write the memoir that she had started repeatedly but had never been able to complete. The critical response to Ms. Hemingway's book is that it has been well worth the wait.

WGBH
John F. Kennedy Library Foundation
Image of Running with the Bulls:  My Years with the Hemingways
Author: Valerie Hemingway
Publisher: Ballantine Books (2005)
Binding: Paperback, 325 pages