One True Podcast

Welcome to the second of our eighteen shows celebrating the centenary of the Paris edition of Hemingway’s book of vignettes, in our time.

In this scene, Hemingway puts us into a chaotic bullfighting scene, with gorings, hooting crowds, and a kid who tries to save the day. We discuss how this early sketch prefigures Hemingway’s career-long fascination with the bullfight and the problem of depicting it.

Just two chapters into this year-long read of in our time, patterns are beginning to emerge. Join us as we explore in our time before it became In Our Time!

One True Podcast reads in our time! Welcome to the first of our eighteen shows celebrating the centenary of Hemingway’s book of vignettes.

Starting with the unforgettable opening salvo -- “Everybody was drunk” -- chapter one describes a kitchen corporal in a chaotic battery on the way to the Champagne during World War I.  We explore these 112 words and what they reveal about Hemingway’s experimentation, his challenging style, and his attitude about war as a young man. As Hemingway writes, “It was funny going along that road.”

Join us as we explore in our time before it became In Our Time! 

What was Ernest Hemingway doing in 1924? Where was he? What were his important relationships? What were his challenges? What was he writing? 

The excellent Verna Kale  -- Hemingway biographer and Associate Editor of the Hemingway Letters Project -- joins us to trace Hemingway’s experiences one hundred years ago, walking us through his biography, his letters, his finances, and even some of his poetry. According to Kale, Hemingway wasn’t quite Hemingway yet, but he was right on the cusp.

We hope you enjoy one of our favorite traditions, spending our first show of the new year by going back one hundred years to explore Hemingway’s life, work, and world. Happy New Year!

‘Tis the season! And it wouldn’t be the holiday season without welcoming Suzanne del Gizzo to discuss a seasonally appropriate Hemingway work. In this episode, we examine “A North of Italy of Christmas,” a raucous article he wrote for the Toronto Daily Star one hundred years ago.

Del Gizzo – the celebrated editor of The Hemingway Review -- discusses the absurd humor in the piece, all the mistletoe, old favorite Chink Dorman-Smith, and Hemingway’s early writing style. She unpacks the curious title, offers some unexpected background on the origin of the mistletoe tradition, and places the article in its biographical  context. We end the interview with del Gizzo’s thoughts on the state of Hemingway studies as 2023 draws to a close.

And as a special treat to our listeners, we begin the episode with a reading of “A North of Italy Christmas” by former guest Mackenzie Astin, star of The Facts of Life, The Magicians, and In Love and War, where he played the young Henry Villard opposite Chris O’Donnell’s Hemingway and Sandra Bullock’s Agnes von Kurowsky.

Thanks for a great 2023, everybody! Enjoy!

Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, author of the short story collection The Smallest of Entryways and Ernest's Way: An International Journey Through Hemingway's Life, shares her one true sentence from her great-grandfather's story "Big Two-Hearted River."

The longest and most mutually beneficial relationship of Ernest Hemingway’s life was with the Charles Scribner's Sons publishing house, a partnership that continues to the present day. Charles Scribner III joins the show to discuss his family’s legacy in publishing, the storied history of Scribner, and Hemingway’s history with the company.

We discuss Scribner III’s new book, Scribners: Five Generations in Publishing, which describes the history of the publishing house, including its relationship with legendary authors and its iconic editor, Maxwell Perkins.

Join us for this fascinating look at Scribner from the inside! 

Tim O'Brien, the author of The Things They Carried, Dad's Maybe Book, and America Fantastica, shares his one true sentence from The Sun Also Rises. Toward the end of the episode, we also reflect on Tim's riveting speech at Dominican University during the 2016 Hemingway Society conference in Oak Park, Illinois.

Join us for a special episode devoted to Lieutenant Rinaldo Rinaldi from A Farewell to Arms!

On this episode, scholar Michael Kim Roos (co-author of the essential Reading Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms) explores the many dimensions of this beloved character. We discuss Rinaldi’s role as Frederic Henry’s best friend, his development over the course of the novel, Hemingway’s historical inspiration for this character, and the way Rinaldi, a man of science and sensualism, represents one of the novel’s most important themes. In addition, we cover Rinaldi’s iconic appearance as Nick Adams’s audience in Chapter VI of In Our Time. 

“How do you like that, baby?”

Have you ever read “The Porter”? In this episode, we take you to a seldom-visited corner of Hemingway’s short story catalogue to discuss this fascinating outtake from his discarded novel about a father-son train trip across the United States into Canada.

For guidance over this unfamiliar terrain, we turn to the great Ian Marshall, who explains the racial, class, and historical elements of this tale. We discuss how Hemingway captures the American landscape, the father-son relationship, where this story fits into Hemingway’s career, and even how “The Porter” relates to Johnny Cash’s “Hey Porter.”

Join us as Prof. Marshall helps us celebrate Hemingway’s achievements as a short story writer with this wonderful and illuminating discussion! 

Hemingway coined the phrase “grace under pressure” in a 1926 letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald. Since then, the phrase has been repeated like a mantra to describe Hemingway’s attitude toward life and death, his definition of courage, and is regularly used as a lens through which to view his fiction.

On this episode, scholar David Wyatt joins us to discuss the significance and legacy of “grace under pressure.” Over the course of the interview, we apply the model of “grace under pressure” to various examples from Hemingway’s career: A Farewell to Arms, “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and more.

Wyatt distinguishes “grace under pressure” from the simplistic descriptions of machismo that often burden considerations of Hemingway’s work. Join us for this illuminating conversation on a classic Hemingway theme with a renowned Hemingway scholar!