"Just the Little Things": Newly Discovered Sources for Hemingway's 1941 Manila Stay

Newly-weds Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn started out from San Francisco on the S.S Matsonia on the first of February 1941, spent several days in Hawaii, and then took Pan-Am's China Clipper to Hong Kong, making an overnight stop on Guam and then a longer stop-over in Manila. A passing reference in the Philippine Magazine and a somewhat more substantial piece in the American Chamber of Commerce Journal tell us something about what Hemingway did during his short stay at the Manila Hotel, finding time, for instance, to address the Philippine Writers League, and visit with (Basque) jai-alai players. The June 1941 issue of the monthly American Chamber of Commerce Journal ran several paragraphs about the famous American author's last night in Manila under the rubric "Just Little Things"—material reprinted here in its entirety.