In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

CHAPTER 4 Ernest Though Ernest Hemingway called Oak Park, Illinois, home, visits to Walloon Lake near Petoskey, Michigan, helped shape his early years. Ernest made his first trip there before he could walk. His parents, Clarence and Grace Hemingway, had discovered this remote retreat the summer before his birth, when they visited a relative’s cabin with their seven-month-old daughter, Marcelline. A few canoe trips on the pristine lake convinced them to find a place of their own. They found their spot on the north shore of the lake on a strip of sandy beach with a dock nearby, ideal for swimming, boating, and fishing. Woods around the lake abounded in hiking trails and hunting prospects. Before the Hemingways returned home after their first visit, they purchased four lots, totaling one acre. Throughout Grace’s pregnancy with Ernest, she planned the new summer cottage. Just seven weeks after his birth in Oak Park on July 21, 1899, the family returned to Walloon Lake and finalized plans. This served as Ernest’s introduction to a place that provided a deep well from which he drew inspiration for much of his writing. Completed by the following summer , the cottage was christened Windermere by Grace, changed by family usage over the years to Windemere. The name came from a famous lake in England, birthplace of Grace’s ancestors. Ernest Hall, father of Grace Hall Hemingway, came from England with his parents and other siblings in 1855, about the same time that Heinrich Pfeiffer and his bride emigrated from Germany. Like Heinrich and his family , the Halls settled in Iowa and became farmers. Ernest Hall, later called Abba by his grandchildren, from the biblical word for “father,” served in the First Iowa Volunteer Cavalry during the Civil War. After returning home, he married Caroline Hancock on November 6, 1865. Caroline had also moved with her family from England to Iowa, albeit by a more circuitous route. Her mother died when she was ten, and her 29 sea-captain father took Caroline and her younger sister and brother around the world on his cargo ship, the Elizabeth. He realized, however, that life at sea poorly suited his children, so he sold the ship. After a brief stay in Australia, they moved to Dwyersville, Iowa, in 1854, at the urging of English friends. Abba and Caroline Hall settled in Chicago after their marriage, where he established a cutlery business with his sister’s husband. The business prospered, as did the family, including Grace, born June 15, 1872, and her brother Leicester, born two years later. Music was the key to harmonious family relationships, and Caroline’s prize possession, a melodeon given to her by her father, went everywhere with her. Other members of the family often joined her in performing at public gatherings. Caroline sang soprano, Abba baritone, and Caroline’s brother Tyley tenor. When Grace grew old enough, her contralto voice rounded out the family quartet. Grace’s parents immediately recognized and cultivated her musical talents , and she seemed destined for a life in the grand opera. Her parents twice took her to Europe for exposure to fine performances. As Grace grew up, her mother excused her from household chores and learning to cook. “You tend to your practicing,” she said. “There is no use any woman getting into the kitchen if she can help it.”1 When Grace was fourteen, her family moved from Chicago to the suburb of Oak Park, Illinois. Anson and Adelaide Hemingway lived across the street with their six children. The oldest of the four boys, Clarence Edmonds Hemingway, one year older than Grace, knew her casually in high school. Not particularly impressed with Clarence, or Ed, as people called him locally, Grace thought him a thin, gawky boy whose clothes did not fit.2 Clarence’s father, Anson, had come with his parents to Chicago from Connecticut as a child. After service in the Union Army during the Civil War, Anson entered Wheaton College, where he met Adelaide Edmonds and her sister Cordelia. In spite of Adelaide being three years older, Anson married her on August 27, 1867, and they settled in Chicago, where he founded the Chicago Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) and served as its general secretary for a decade. When it became clear that Anson’s salary would not support the education of their children, the Hemingways moved to Oak Park, and he established a real estate business. Science rather than music bound...

Share