Camping Out With Ernest Hemingway By: Chris Carlson Spring 2009 Semester HNR 312: Hemingway in Michigan Professor: Dr. Swartzlander

Introduction

When most people think of Ernest Hemingway and the outdoors they often think about his fishing and hunting experiences as he travelled all over the world.  However, if it had not been for his education about natural history and outdoor survival at a very young age many of these later experiences would have never happened.   From his teachings in his hometown of Oak Park, Illinois to his summer vacations to Northern Michigan, Hemingway spent much of his childhood learning about nature, how to interact with it, and how to survive.  When looking at Hemingway as a naturalist we must study his childhood because this is when he learned the most important lessons about living in the wilderness.  It is important that we know about Hemingway’s knowledge of nature and wilderness survival because he used his knowledge and real life experiences to accurately detail his characters actions in his short stories such as, “Big Two-Hearted River.”  Michigan continued to inspire Hemingway throughout his writing career because nature continued to be a major theme in many of his works such as, “Green Hills of Africa”.  However, the most information we have about Hemingway’s personal camping knowledge and experiences are best summarized in the 1920 essay, “Camping Out”, which Ernest Hemingway wrote while working for the Toronto Star.  This essay was basically a miniature survival guide for those with little camping experience and details the most important parts to surviving in the wilderness.  My goal here is to study what Hemingway learned about the outdoors and where he learned it and combine it with research about available camping equipment available during the first 20 years of the twentieth century to expand on Hemingway’s original survival guide.  Learning about Hemingway’s camping knowledge that he gained early in his life is the key to understanding his descriptions and use of nature in his writings.

Young Hemingway and the Outdoors

As a young boy Ernest Hemingway learned a lot about nature from his time spent up in Michigan during the summers.  However there were also many other influences on Hemingway the most important of which were people he knew or books written by famous naturalists.  His earliest encounters with learning about nature began at a vey young age when he was taught by his father about birds and fish.  In, My Brother, Ernest Hemingway, Leicester writes about when Ernest was only two years old his father took him fishing with him and taught him to catch small fish and identify catches.  Leicester also talks about how their father used books to teach Ernest to teach him about bird species saying, “He had learned more than two hundred and fifty of the Latin names” (24).  Even at an early age Ernest Hemingway had knowledge and abilities far beyond his years.  It seems like that, even as a child, he was always destined to be successful which enthralled his mother who was known to brag about her son’s accomplishments as a young scientist.  “When Ernest was nearly four years old, she would write, ‘He is a natural scientist loving everything in the way of bugs, stones, shells, birds, animals, insects, and blossoms’ (Eye and Heart 61).   From his mother’s description we conclude that even at an early age Ernest was heavily infatuated with the outdoors, long before he began his attempts at serious writing.

Hemingway and the Agassiz Association

The importance of learning about nature was obviously very important to the Hemingway family.  According to Reynolds, it all began with Hemingway’s grandmother, Adelaide, who taught Ernest’s father Clarence about flowers and their Latin names and even the stars (Reynolds 30).  This was quite similar to how Hemingway’s parents taught Ernest as a young child.   Clarence sought to pass on the knowledge he learned, not just to his son, but to as many people as possible and while attending Oberlin College started up a new chapter of the Agassiz Association, a group dedicated to the teachings about naturalism (Reynolds 30). Even as Ernest entered school and began to pursue knowledge in new subjects, he continued to study nature as a member of the local chapter for the Agassiz Association his father had created.  For Hemingway and his father, the whole idea of the Agassiz Association was to go out and find nature and learn about it through the experience rather than sticking to learning about books.  Ernest and his father must have believed that the pursuit of knowledge served no purpose if it could not be used to become a more resourceful camper.  According to Beegel, “Photos of the Agassiz Club in the field show children with their hands full of leaves and wildflowers, abandoned bird nests, collecting baskets, jars of insects and pond scum, and notebooks.  Ernest glows with enjoyment” (69).  Once again it is clear that Ernest found great pride and enjoyment being outdoors becoming a man capable of surviving and interacting outdoors later in life.  According to Reynolds, Hemingway was a successful member of the association and while serving as assistant curator learned another valuable lesson from his father.  According to the account, Hemingway asked his father if it was wise to spend money on an albatross foot for the club, which his father replied by saying that it was only worthwhile if he bought something he had no doubt was authentic.  Hemingway instead chose to buy a swordfish bill because it was a better way to spend money (Reynolds 30-31).  Hemingway learned from these club experiences that the key to a happy and successful life is going out and living life to the fullest and finding pleasure in the experiences themselves and making sure that the experiences he does have are authentic so that he could achieve as much as possible in life.

Hemingway and Theodore Roosevelt

While Hemingway learned much from his father about nature as well as morals, there is little doubt that it was Theodore Roosevelt who held responsibility for inspiring Ernest to seek a strenuous life filled with adventure.  During this time period people chose to follow the example of Theodore Roosevelt who embraced natural history, physical fitness, the importance of hard work and pushed for exploration of new frontiers and the pursuit of knowledge.  According to Michael Reynolds, Hemingway was immediately influenced by Roosevelt after seeing his movie about his African Safari and reading about his exploits.  “In National Geographic, he devoured Roosevelt’s account of the hunt, complete with pictures of dead animals and half-naked women” (Reynolds 28).  These exotic tales filled Ernest Hemingway with excitement and it soon became his dream to travel to these new frontiers.  To explore these new frontiers and areas of wilderness Hemingway knew that physical strength and endurance would be key if he wished to explore these frontiers.  Hemingway and Roosevelt were very similar in regards that they were both very out of shape as children.  However, this did not stop Ernest from competing in a wide array of high school sports including cross county, football, swimming, track, and even boxing for a time (Reynolds 26-27).  The reason Ernest insisted on participating in athletics, despite his lack of size, was because he wished to become a man capable of surviving and overcoming any challenge by oneself.  However Ernest did manage to continue to find success in academics as he had in his early childhood.  This was something that the very competitive and hard-working Ernest Hemingway was all too willing to reach for and even pledged:

I desire to do pioneering or exploring work in the 3 last great frontiers Africa, central South America or the country around and north of Hudson Bay.  I believe that science, English, and to a certain extent the Latin that I am now studying in the high school will help me in this object.  I intend to specialize in the sciences in college and to join some expedition when I leave college.  I believe that any training that I get by hiking in the spring or farm work in the summer or any work in the woods which tends to develop resourcefulness and self reliance is of inestimable value in the work I intend to pursue. I have no desire absolutely to be a millionaire or a rich man but I do intend to do something toward the scientific I  interests of the world" (Reynolds 29-30).

From this pledge Ernest made we can tell that he did not always plan on being a writer.  From his many years in school and Agassiz Association Hemingway had become aware that his work and other physical activities were pointless if they did not teach him something new about the world or how to become resourceful and self reliant as an outdoorsmen.  While he did not hold on to his dreams of becoming a scientist and instead chose to become a writer, but at the same time held on to his beliefs in the exploration of new frontiers, the advancement of science, and the resourcefulness and self reliance needed for survival in the wildest remaining regions of the world.

Other Reporter’s Views on Camping at the Time

Before turning to Ernest Hemingway’s essay on camping I wish to look at a couple similar articles from the early twentieth century that he may have encountered during his childhood.  A popular outdoors magazine of the time called Field and Stream provided information for outdoor enthusiast through articles about fishing, hunting, and camping as well as provide opinions, stories, editorials, and advertisements for the latest outdoors gear.  In the June 1909 issue there was an article titled, “One Way of Going Light but Right,” which provided a suggested list of items and strategies for an extended camping trip.  One helpful trick in the article is a way of waterproofing a tent by using a mixture of two parts parrafine one part beeswax, mixed in Naphtha (Hatton 143).  Waterproofing is especially useful if you are traveling near or on the water as one accident could ruin a trip if all supplies became soaked.  The article also includes pictures suggesting different ways of pitching a tent including wall style, baker style, and a third unnamed style.  One can only wonder though if it possible that Hemingway ever used any of the tent styles described in this article.  Like Hemingway’s article on camping, it also ends on the subject of food by providing a list of suggested foodstuffs for maximizing nutrition and minimizing complexity.  Their suggested list of food includes the following:  Flour, corn meal, beans, bacon, salt pork, spaghetti, rice, eggs, sugar, tea, coffee, baking powder, various fruit, and spices with emphasis on salt (Hatton 148).  We know for a fact that Hemingway would have brought many items from this list including beans and spaghetti which he describes in his story Big Two-Hearted River: Part I.  “Nick was hungry.  He did not believe he had ever been hungrier.  He opened a can of pork and beans and a can of spaghetti into the frying pan” (The Short Stories 215).  And so this article provides more insight into the style of camping during this generation and is similar to Ernest’s views on camping as it emphasizes making smart decisions and maximizing efficiency. Another article from the same issue titled, “Camp Science as a Woman Views it,” focuses on making a camp more focused on comfort rather than efficiency.  Because this was the beginning of the era of the automobile it was now possible for people to bring much more than they could previously.  One of the main points of the article is focused on making a campsite that is as scenic and homely as possible.  Specifically they state that for extended stays it is ideal to use boards to for makeshift shelving for storage of items (120).  Of course it is pretty difficult to do without proper materials and not ideal for the type of camping Hemingway preferred.  Also instead of traditional camp bedding the article favors the use of air mattresses, once again valuing comfort over efficiency.  Other topics covered by the article include using a collapsible Dutch oven, building a proper fire, and finding enjoyment setting up camp.  While this isn’t necessarily the type of camping done by Ernest Hemingway, it is an interesting look into a more leisurely style of camping during the era.

Hemingway and the Toronto Years

Now that we have explored the origins of Ernest Hemingway as both a writer and an outdoorsman we can see how everything he learned as a child culminated in him as a young adult.  It was not long after the Great War that he got his job working for the Toronto Star and was a crucial point in his life as he started his journey as an adult.  Having now been exposed to life in Europe and having seeing exotic places he had previously only read about in books, he had become vastly more knowledgeable about the world and soon sought to return to Europe.  His writing’s for the Toronto Star provide us a unique look at Ernest because it gives us a more direct insight into his mind because he wrote only wrote about that which he was knowledgeable of and backed up his arguments with information and experiences he gathered from the first 20 years of his life.  This is in contrast to his short stories and novels which are fiction where he tends to let the reader interpret his stories as they wish.  Although, it should be pointed out that many details in stories such as “Big Two-Hearted River” were somewhat autobiographical and many of the finer details in the narratives are based on his personal knowledge and experiences.

Hemingway and Camping Efficiency

The reader may be surprised to see that the first thing Ernest Hemingway says about camping that it serves as a good alternative to city life simply because it is much less expensive.  Immediately we get the sense the Ernest Hemingway is mostly concerned with saving money and getting away from the city.  One will right away think back to the lesson his father taught him about getting the most for his money.  This is a point the Ernest Hemingway continues to make throughout the essay by making suggestions to make the most efficient use of your equipment.  For example, he suggests putting the majority of bedding underneath you instead of over you to maximize comfort without the need of lugging around a huge cot.  He also suggests using bacon to baste fish while cooking as a way of minimizing cooking time and maximizing taste.  Another idea he tells us is to use a stew kettle for both cooking and washing dishes.  Efficiency is especially critical while camping to a backpacker because one must carry around all of their items and minimizing weight without sacrificing comfort is ideal for the successful camper.

Finding Enjoyment in Camping

The other main point in his essay on camping is that the experience must be enjoyable.  This no doubt comes from Hemingway’s belief that one must live life to the fullest and make the most of your experiences.  In the second paragraph, however, Hemingway points out that such an experience is easily ruined if one goes in blindly without the knowledge or self reliance to survive.  Hemingway knew that in order to survive in the wilderness one must be confident in ones physical ability and skill to gather the necessary food through hunting and fishing.  For if one comes in with not enough food then they will surely starve.  Hemingway also points out that no one is immune to the annoyances of nature such as bugs and that no one can fight them off despite how tough you are.  For a solution he suggests both mosquito netting and citronella which could be purchased from stores of the time.  He points out that one must also be smart when camping and make the most out of tools to protect you from the elements.  Next he talks about the importance of sleep while camping.  He is quick to point out that sleeping can become a challenge if one does not remain warm.  Hemingway knew that even if one was tough and self reliant that it wouldn’t matter if they could not regain their energy with a good nights sleep.  His final suggestion to the reader, and the one he actually spends the most time on, is the art of cooking while camping.  The biggest mistake he points out amateur campers make are those who cook there food over flames instead of hot embers. 

On his critical list of tools he suggests bringing a frying pan, stew kettle, and coffee kettle.  Another suggestion he makes is to use a camp cooker to bake things one does not necessarily associate with camping such as pie.  In order to have energy Ernest knew that it was critical to eat and eat well.  But he also points out there is no need to eat simple and boring food just because your camping and with a little creativity and minimum effort, you can make food even better than you would at home. 

Camping in Big-Two Hearted River and Final Thoughts

All in all, Ernest’s article on camping shows us that above all, he desires for people to find the same enjoyment in camping as he did as a child while living in Michigan.  But in order to find enjoyment of camping you must harness your self reliance and take control of nature and not let it get the best of you.  For if you do let Mother Nature get the best of you will become bitten, hungry, and weary.  This is the central theme in “Big Two-Hearted River” as Nick struggles to keep himself stable, physically and emotionally, while fishing in the river. Critic Fredrik Chr. Brogger argues, “To Nick, mastering the simple tasks of camping and fishing certainly evokes a sense of harmony, but enjoying nature is a not a matter of competence only; it is a matter of accepting and tolerating the other side of its pulsating heart, its unexpected snarls and entanglements, as represented by the swamp” (Brogger 27).

We can conclude once one learns how to complete simple tasks while camping they can the one can find great peace within oneself within the complexity of their soul which is mirrored in “Big Two Hearted River” by the beauty and complexity within nature that man can only do so much to control.  But once it becomes an enjoyable experience one will return to their previous life from the trip happier and healthier than before.  This is why Hemingway wrote this article, to educate others about the finer points of camping so that they two may find happiness and relaxation without it. Camping is truly an exciting experience and Hemingway would have hated to see people to become disinterested.  Unfortunately Hemingway lived during a time in which we saw a major transition from rural life to city life.  But we can also thank Hemingway for reminding us the importance of nature and of going out in the wilderness to become more self-reliant. Without a doubt, Hemingway found this to be one of his greatest passions and used his experiences in many of his fictional works and to survive in all sorts of new frontiers, even long after he left North America to live abroad in the last great frontiers.

Works Cited

Beegel, Susan F.  “Eye and Heart”.  A Historical Guide to Ernest Hemingway.  Ed. Linda Wagner-Martin.  Oxford:  Oxford U.P., 2000.

Bell, Brenda C.  “Camp Science as a Woman Views It.”  Field and Stream.  June 1909: 119-122.

Brogger, Frederik Chr.  “Whose Nature?: Differing Narrative Perspectives in Hemingway’s “Big Two-Hearted River”.  Hemingway and the Natural World.  Ed. Robert F. Fleming.  Moscow, Id: University of Idaho Press, 1999.

Hatton O. P.  “One Way of ‘Going Right but Light”.  Field and Stream.  June 1909: 143- 49.

Hemingway, Ernest.  “Camping Out”.  Dateline: Toronto:  The Complete Toronto Star Dispatches, 1920-1924. Ed. William White.  New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1985.

Hemingway, Ernest.  “Big Two-Hearted River: Part I”.  The Short Stories.  New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2003.

Hemingway, Leicester.  My Brother, Ernest Hemingway.  Cleveland, OH:  World Publishing Company, 1962.

Reynolds, Michael.  The Young Hemingway.  New York: Basil Blackwell Ltd, 1986.