Hemingway in New York in 1950

Recently read Lillian Ross's Portrait of Hemingway, published as a Profile in a 1950 issue of The New Yorker and reproduced in a Modern Library paperback in 1999. (79 pp. including an introduction and afterword).

Ross spent two days in New York with Papa and his last wife Mary and she makes us feel we're there too with them in the Sherry Netherland hotel suite, drinking champagne, schmoozing with Dietrich, helping Papa buy a coat at Abercrombie (he didn't own one)., and revisiting some of his favorite pictures at the Met He wanted to see the two Brueghels again but the room was closed for repainting. His favorites were some Renaissance canvasses and Cezanne. He compared his writing techniques with the mountains in Cezanne's works.

Ross had already visited Hemingway at his home in Ketchum, Idaho before she met him and Mary at Idlewild Airport in New York. (Oh why oh why did they let that lovely name go when they renamed it JFK.) In 1950 I too arrived at Idlewild--named for the flower growing in the nearby marshes. Not the same day or time as Papa unfortunately.

Perhaps it's the way Ross captured Hemingway's speech patterns that brought him to life. Interesting that she and he came in for criticism from readers after the profile appeared. They didn't like the honest portrait of him. One thing I didn't like and attitudes have changed over the past 50 years is the talk of hunting. Seems a shame that after gallantly enduring the long migration to Cuba a duck has to be shot out of the air for fun. Even mink coats and elephant heads on the wall seem repugnant.

Ross is still alive and still writing short pieces for the New Yorker. She must be 85 or more. I wonder if any current New Yorker profile ever can match those written by Lillian Ross.