Hemingway in Africa : the last safari / Christopher Ondaatje.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ondaatje, Christopher.

Contributor:

Gotham Book Mart Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hemingway, Ernest, 1899-1961--Travel--Africa.

Hemingway, Ernest.

Hemingway, Ernest, 1899-1961.

Authors, American--20th century--Biography.

Authors, American.

Safaris.

Hunters.

Americans.

History.

Travel.

Africa.

Americans--Africa--History--20th century.

Africa--Description and travel.

Hunters--Africa--Biography.

Big game hunting--Africa.

Big game hunting.

Africa--In literature.

Safaris--Africa.

Literature.

Genre:

Biographies.

Reisebericht.

History.

Penn Provenance:

Gotham Book Mart (former owner) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copy)

Physical Description:

237 pages : illustrations, color maps ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Woodstock, NY : Overlook Press, 2004.

Summary:

Africa was an obsession for Hemingway throughout his life. Long before he wrote "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber," Green Hills of Africa, or his posthumously published novel, True at First Light (based on his final safari in 1953), he had been enthralled as a ten-year-old by news reports of the African expedition undertaken in 1909 by his boyhood idol, Theodore Roosevelt.

In writing Hemingway in Africa, Christopher Ondaatje, an explorer and adventurer himself, followed the trail of Hemingway's two major African safaris through Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, and analyzed Hemingway's writings to uncover a startling amount of new material -- documentary, literary, and photographic -- on this rarely discussed, vitally important aspect of Hemingway's life and work.

Hemingway in Africa is lavishly illustrated with rarely seen period photos from Hemingway's safaris, including: a photo of the actual leopard that inspired "The Snows of Kilimanjaro"; Bror Blixen (Isak Dinesen's husband, whom Hemingway admired as a hunter) posing with a slain water buffalo; photos of mid-century Mombasa and Nairobi; and the wreckage of the 1954 plane crash near Murchison Falls that nearly claimed Hemingway's life. These are complemented by Ondaatje's own stunning photos of Masai, Chaga, and Hadza tribe members, African wildlife, and the awe-inspiring landscape, including breathtaking aerial photos of Kilimanjaro.

With broad insight into one of the themes that defined Hemingway's career, Hemingway in Africa provides a compelling look into the life of the author for whom dangerous exploits were, as Ondaatje writes, "in the final analysis an effort to relieve the intensity of existing at the edge."

Contents:

Preparations

Hunting and writing

The fascination of fear

Life on safari

Art versus sport

Experience distilled

Out of Africa

The second safari

Fact, fantasy, and truth

Facing Mount Kilimanjaro.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-226) and index.

Local Notes:

Gotham Book Mart Collection copy has dustjacket retained.

Other Format:

Online version: Ondaatje, Christopher. Hemingway in Africa.

ISBN:

1585675393

9781585675395

OCLC:

54611412