One True Podcast
129 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 14 hours ago - ★★★★★ - 88 ratingsOne True Podcast explores all things related to Hemingway, his work, and his world. The show is hosted by Mark Cirino and produced by Michael Von Cannon. Join us in conversation with scholars, artists, political leaders, and other luminaries. For more, follow us on Twitter @1truepod. You can also email us at [email protected].
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Episodes
in our time, chapter 6: "They shot the six cabinet ministers"
April 18, 2024 10:00 - 49 minutes - 33.7 MBWelcome to the sixth of our eighteen shows celebrating the centenary of the Paris edition of Hemingway’s book of vignettes, in our time. The scene depicts the execution of six Greek officials toward the end of 1922. In this episode, we discuss the history of that trial and execution, the journalistic coverage of events, and Hemingway's fictional treatment of the execution. We also relate this vignette to other works, such as A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and even Tintoretto'...
in our time, chapter 5: "It was a frightfully hot day"
April 15, 2024 10:00 - 50 minutes - 35 MBWelcome to the fifth of our eighteen shows celebrating the centenary of the Paris edition of Hemingway’s book of vignettes, in our time. This scene of a barricade and a retreat continues Hemingway's brilliant depictions of Battle of Mons. In this episode, we explore some historical aspects of that retreat, compare the narrative voice and point of view to chapter four, and much more. As always, we examine how these first five vignettes are cohering into a larger project. Join us as we expl...
Ahmed Honeini on William Faulkner
April 01, 2024 10:00 - 1 hour - 42.6 MBThe two great titans of twentieth-century American literature – Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner – never met. They corresponded only a time or two; however, they were always on each other’s minds. Their hyper-awareness of the other’s recent work led sometimes to envy, sometimes to awe, and frequently to catty comments. To help us learn more about these two men and their fraught relationship, we invite Prof. Ahmed Honeini of Royal Holloway, University of London, to the program. Honeini ...
Stephen Koch on the Breaking Point with John Dos Passos
March 18, 2024 10:00 - 50 minutes - 35 MBThis episode will focus on the Spanish Civil War and how one particular incident – the murder of accused Fascist spy José Robles – ruptured the relationship between Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos. To sort out the many moving parts to this chapter of Hemingway’s life, we welcome Stephen Koch, the author of The Breaking Point: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and the Murder of José Robles. Koch takes us through the complicated relationship between Hemingway and Dos Passos, what ended it, and how ...
in our time, chapter 4: "We were in a garden at Mons"
March 07, 2024 11:00 - 43 minutes - 30 MBWelcome to the fourth of our eighteen shows celebrating the centenary of the Paris edition of Hemingway’s book of vignettes, in our time. At 75 words, this short scene describes the Battle of Mons. To Ezra Pound, Hemingway would refer to this conflict (from August 1914 at the very beginning of the First World War) as "clear and noble." In this episode, we discuss the historical aspects of the battle, Hemingway's friendship with the British soldier Eric Edward “Chink” Dorman-Smith, and the m...
in our time, chapter 3: "Minarets stuck up in the rain"
March 04, 2024 11:00 - 53 minutes - 36.6 MBWelcome to the third of our eighteen shows celebrating the centenary of the Paris edition of Hemingway’s book of vignettes, in our time. In this scene, Hemingway describes the minarets rising over the landscape overlooking the harrowing evacuation at the Greco-Turkish War in 1922. Hemingway distills the vast scope of inhumanity into the expression of one scared child. We discuss how this scene intersects with his biographical experiences, his journalism, and how the first three vignettes ar...
Mark Whalan and Karen Leick on American Modernism
February 19, 2024 11:00 - 1 hour - 41.8 MBAmerican modernism is a concept that is so slippery that even scholars don’t always agree on its definition. Is it a historical era, or a literary technique? Was Ernest Hemingway even a modernist? If so, which of his works are most modernistic? For this discussion, we turn to Mark Whalan, editor of the compendious new volume, Cambridge History of American Modernism, and Karen Leick, one of its contributors, who places Hemingway in a conversation with other American modernists including Stei...
One True Sentence #34 with Mark Kurlansky
February 05, 2024 11:00 - 25 minutes - 17.4 MBMark Kurlansky, the author of dozens of books of fiction, nonfiction, and children's literature (including Cod, Salt, and The Importance of Not Being Ernest), shares his one true sentence from Hemingway's story "In Another Country."
in our time, chapter 2: "The first matador got the horn"
January 26, 2024 11:00 - 46 minutes - 31.9 MBWelcome to the second of our eighteen shows celebrating the centenary of the Paris edition of Hemingway’s book of vignettes, in our time. In this scene, Hemingway puts us into a chaotic bullfighting scene, with gorings, hooting crowds, and a kid who tries to save the day. We discuss how this early sketch prefigures Hemingway’s career-long fascination with the bullfight and the problem of depicting it. Just two chapters into this year-long read of in our time, patterns are beginning to eme...
in our time, chapter 1: "Everybody was drunk"
January 22, 2024 11:00 - 54 minutes - 37.6 MBOne True Podcast reads in our time! Welcome to the first of our eighteen shows celebrating the centenary of Hemingway’s book of vignettes. Starting with the unforgettable opening salvo -- “Everybody was drunk” -- chapter one describes a kitchen corporal in a chaotic battery on the way to the Champagne during World War I. We explore these 112 words and what they reveal about Hemingway’s experimentation, his challenging style, and his attitude about war as a young man. As Hemingway writes, “...
Verna Kale on Hemingway in 1924
January 08, 2024 11:00 - 56 minutes - 38.9 MBWhat was Ernest Hemingway doing in 1924? Where was he? What were his important relationships? What were his challenges? What was he writing? The excellent Verna Kale -- Hemingway biographer and Associate Editor of the Hemingway Letters Project -- joins us to trace Hemingway’s experiences one hundred years ago, walking us through his biography, his letters, his finances, and even some of his poetry. According to Kale, Hemingway wasn’t quite Hemingway yet, but he was right on the cusp. We ...
Suzanne del Gizzo on "A North of Italy Christmas"
December 25, 2023 12:00 - 48 minutes - 33.6 MB‘Tis the season! And it wouldn’t be the holiday season without welcoming Suzanne del Gizzo to discuss a seasonally appropriate Hemingway work. In this episode, we examine “A North of Italy of Christmas,” a raucous article he wrote for the Toronto Daily Star one hundred years ago. Del Gizzo – the celebrated editor of The Hemingway Review -- discusses the absurd humor in the piece, all the mistletoe, old favorite Chink Dorman-Smith, and Hemingway’s early writing style. She unpacks the curious...
One True Sentence #33 with Cristen Hemingway Jaynes
December 14, 2023 12:00 - 37 minutes - 25.6 MBCristen Hemingway Jaynes, author of the short story collection The Smallest of Entryways and Ernest's Way: An International Journey Through Hemingway's Life, shares her one true sentence from her great-grandfather's story "Big Two-Hearted River."
Charles Scribner III on the House of Scribner
November 27, 2023 11:00 - 57 minutes - 39.9 MBThe longest and most mutually beneficial relationship of Ernest Hemingway’s life was with the Charles Scribner's Sons publishing house, a partnership that continues to the present day. Charles Scribner III joins the show to discuss his family’s legacy in publishing, the storied history of Scribner, and Hemingway’s history with the company. We discuss Scribner III’s new book, Scribners: Five Generations in Publishing, which describes the history of the publishing house, including its relatio...
One True Sentence #32 with Tim O'Brien
November 16, 2023 11:00 - 50 minutes - 34.9 MBTim O'Brien, the author of The Things They Carried, Dad's Maybe Book, and America Fantastica, shares his one true sentence from The Sun Also Rises. Toward the end of the episode, we also reflect on Tim's riveting speech at Dominican University during the 2016 Hemingway Society conference in Oak Park, Illinois.
Michael Kim Roos on Rinaldo Rinaldi in A Farewell to Arms
November 06, 2023 11:00 - 1 hour - 42 MBJoin us for a special episode devoted to Lieutenant Rinaldo Rinaldi from A Farewell to Arms! On this episode, scholar Michael Kim Roos (co-author of the essential Reading Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms) explores the many dimensions of this beloved character. We discuss Rinaldi’s role as Frederic Henry’s best friend, his development over the course of the novel, Hemingway’s historical inspiration for this character, and the way Rinaldi, a man of science and sensualism, represents one of the ...
Ian Marshall on "The Porter"
October 16, 2023 10:00 - 55 minutes - 38.3 MBHave you ever read “The Porter”? In this episode, we take you to a seldom-visited corner of Hemingway’s short story catalogue to discuss this fascinating outtake from his discarded novel about a father-son train trip across the United States into Canada. For guidance over this unfamiliar terrain, we turn to the great Ian Marshall, who explains the racial, class, and historical elements of this tale. We discuss how Hemingway captures the American landscape, the father-son relationship, where...
David Wyatt on Grace Under Pressure
October 05, 2023 10:00 - 59 minutes - 40.9 MBHemingway coined the phrase “grace under pressure” in a 1926 letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald. Since then, the phrase has been repeated like a mantra to describe Hemingway’s attitude toward life and death, his definition of courage, and is regularly used as a lens through which to view his fiction. On this episode, scholar David Wyatt joins us to discuss the significance and legacy of “grace under pressure.” Over the course of the interview, we apply the model of “grace under pressure” to var...
One True Sentence #31 with Dennis Lehane
September 25, 2023 10:00 - 52 minutes - 35.8 MBDennis Lehane, author of Mystic River and Small Mercies, shares his one true sentence from A Moveable Feast.
Carl Eby on The Garden of Eden Manuscript
September 04, 2023 11:00 - 1 hour - 43.1 MBIn this episode, One True Podcast takes on the white whale of Hemingway studies: the unpublished manuscript of The Garden of Eden. Although the published version we know may be shocking, the sprawling manuscript reveals even more dimensions of this challenging text and the many complexities of its author. For this discussion, we turn to Hemingway Society President Carl Eby, who shares what he’s learned about the manuscript through more than thirty years of studying it and many, many hours i...
One True Sentence #30 with Oscar Hokeah
August 24, 2023 14:00 - 39 minutes - 26.9 MBOscar Hokeah, winner of the 2023 PEN/Hemingway Award for Calling for a Blanket Dance, shares his one true sentence from The Old Man and the Sea.
Lucy Hughes-Hallett and Lauren Arrington on Italian Fascism
August 14, 2023 10:00 - 1 hour - 50.3 MBWe take a look at Hemingway’s intersection with Italian Fascism by examining two of its most volatile figures, Gabriele D’Annunzio and Ezra Pound. In this episode, we talk to Lucy Hughes-Hallett, D’Annunzio’s award-winning biographer, who discusses this notorious firebrand’s military career, love affairs, and artistic legacy. Hughes-Hallett also suggests D’Annunzio’s unspoken role in Hemingway’s most famous passage from A Farewell to Arms. Next, Lauren Arrington, author of The Poets of Rap...
The Lost Suitcase
July 24, 2023 10:00 - 1 hour - 49.2 MBFor our 100th episode, One True Podcast investigates the legend of the lost manuscripts! In December 1922, Hemingway’s first wife Hadley, misplaced a suitcase filled with the young Hemingway’s unpublished writing. Since then, this episode has invited intense speculation: Was this early work stolen? Did it end up in the garbage? Did Hadley subconsciously want the work to be stolen? In order to explore the unknowable, we turn to four novelists who each use this mysterious episode as the in...
One True Sentence #29 with Robert Pinsky
July 13, 2023 10:00 - 43 minutes - 30 MBRobert Pinsky, U.S. Poet Laureate from 1997 to 2000 and author of The Figured Wheel and Jersey Breaks: Becoming an American Poet (among other highly acclaimed works), shares his one true sentence from Hemingway's Paris Review interview.
Judith Fetterley on A Farewell to Arms
July 03, 2023 10:00 - 57 minutes - 39.2 MBThe legendary feminist critic Judith Fetterley joins us to discuss her brilliant and incendiary work on A Farewell to Arms, a piece from 1978 that has endured as one of the definitive feminist critiques of Hemingway. Prof. Fetterley discusses protagonist Frederic Henry’s self-pity and self-absorption, Catherine’s obsequiousness, and Hemingway’s design of the novel that leads Fetterley to conclude that Catherine “dies because she is a woman.” We go on to discuss Hemingway’s style, the th...
Nathaniel Philbrick on Herman Melville
June 12, 2023 10:00 - 48 minutes - 33.6 MBWe head into the heart of the sea with award-winning historian Nathaniel Philbrick to discuss Hemingway, Melville, and where these American writers share a vision and where they part. Philbrick discusses The Old Man and the Sea and Moby-Dick as American classics that overlap and speak to each other across the years. He also covers the short story "After the Storm" as an essential narrative of Hemingway's vision of the sea. Throughout, Philbrick examines how Hemingway and Melville have beco...
One True Sentence #28 with Kerri Maher
June 01, 2023 10:00 - 32 minutes - 22.6 MBKerri Maher, author of The Paris Bookseller, shares her one true sentence from Hemingway's A Moveable Feast.
Mackenzie Astin on In Love and War
May 22, 2023 10:00 - 54 minutes - 37.5 MBActor Mackenzie Astin joins us to discuss the 1996 movie In Love and War, the narrative of Hemingway’s wounding in World War I and subsequent romance with nurse Agnes Von Kurowsky. Directed by Richard Attenborough and starring Chris O’Donnell, Sandra Bullock, Emilio Bonucci, as well as Astin, this war epic depicts the upheaval that World War I created in the life of the teenaged Hemingway and others. Astin discusses Attenborough’s benevolent presence on the set, the performance of the st...
James Nagel and Dimitri Villard on Hemingway in Love and War
May 22, 2023 10:00 - 51 minutes - 35.6 MBErnest Hemingway’s Red Cross experience in Italy during World War I was short, but it changed the course of his life and his writing. From being wounding in July 1918 to the abrupt end to his relationship with nurse Agnes Von Kurowsky, Hemingway would revisit those traumas for the rest of his life and write about them for his entire career. This pair of tumultuous experiences led to a fascinating book – Hemingway in Love and War – co-written by Hemingway’s hospital roommate Henry Serrano Vi...
Barbara Will on Gertrude Stein
May 01, 2023 10:00 - 48 minutes - 33.5 MBOne True Podcast continues our exploration of the always complicated world of Hemingway’s volatile “friendships” with an episode devoted to Gertrude Stein. We turn to scholar Barbara Will who discusses the things Miss Stein instructed Hemingway about, both personally and professionally. We cover Stein’s background and education, her depiction in A Moveable Feast, her role in Modernism, her politics during World War I and World War II, the way things ended between her and Hemingway, and som...
One True Sentence #27 with Jay McInerney
April 20, 2023 10:00 - 37 minutes - 25.8 MBJay McInerney, (bestselling author of Bright Lights, Big City, Ransom, How It Ended, and most recently Bright, Precious Days) shares his one true sentence from Hemingway's story "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place."
John Hemingway on Strange Tribe
April 10, 2023 10:00 - 48 minutes - 33.4 MBJohn Hemingway - grandson of Ernest and son of Gregory -- shares his remarkable story with us. We explore John's important book, Strange Tribe: A Family Memoir, his revealing and unsparing account of his life as a Hemingway. We cover Ernest's volatile relationship with John's father, a history that includes affection and intimate understanding, but also correspondence filled with recriminations. Our discussion of the Ernest-Gregory relationship leads to an illuminating examination of father...
Russ Pottle on "Hills Like White Elephants"
March 20, 2023 10:00 - 59 minutes - 40.9 MBIs “Hills Like White Elephants” Hemingway’s greatest short story ever, or only his most famous? Bolstering the case for “Hills Like White Elephants” as the G.O.A.T., esteemed scholar Russ Pottle joins us to explain the story’s composition, imagery, historical and biographical contexts, and unforgettable dialogue. Pottle helps us read between the lines in the ways Hemingway characterizes Jig and the American through their dialogue and their silence, and through their actions. We figure ou...
One True Sentence #26 with Ilan Stavans
March 09, 2023 11:00 - 38 minutes - 26.6 MBIlan Stavans, publisher of Restless Books and author of numerous works including Quixote and What is American Literature?, shares his one true sentence from Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Gioia Diliberto on Hadley Richardson
February 27, 2023 11:00 - 50 minutes - 35 MBFor an episode devoted to Hadley Richardson, we are proud to welcome Gioia Diliberto, esteemed writer and author of many books, including Paris Without End: The True Story of Hemingway’s First Wife. We explore Hadley’s difficult childhood, her time in Paris with Hemingway, the dissolution of their marriage, the loss of Hemingway’s manuscripts, the famous “100-day separation” pact, and the rest of their legendary relationship. Diliberto discusses the revelations of the Sokoloff tapes, Hadle...
Martina Mastandrea on "In Another Country"
February 06, 2023 11:00 - 57 minutes - 39.8 MBThe great Italian scholar Martina Mastandrea discusses “In Another Country,” one of Hemingway’s finest short stories. After Mastandrea treats us to an Italian rendition of the famous opening paragraph, we explore the many treasures of the story: Why did F. Scott Fitzgerald admire the first sentence of the story so much? Is this a Nick Adams story? What does it tell us about Hemingway's perspective on war? What's the difference between our protagonist and the hunting hawks? Why is the major...
One True Sentence #25 with Naomi Wood
January 26, 2023 11:00 - 33 minutes - 23 MBNaomi Wood, author of Mrs. Hemingway, shares her one true sentence from a letter Hemingway wrote to friends Gerald and Sara Murphy after the death of their son, Baoth, in 1935.
James M. Hutchisson on Hemingway in 1923
January 16, 2023 12:00 - 48 minutes - 33.7 MBHappy New Year from One True Podcast! We usher in 2023 with our new year's tradition of wondering what Ernest Hemingway was doing one hundred years ago. In 1923, what was Hemingway writing? Where did he live? Who were his friends and enemies? How was his marriage going? And what was on the horizon? To answer these questions, we turn to his biographer, James M. Hutchisson, emeritus professor at The Citadel and author of Ernest Hemingway: A New Life. Hutchisson describes Hemingway’s trajec...
Suzanne del Gizzo on "The Christmas Gift"
December 23, 2022 11:00 - 59 minutes - 41.2 MBWe welcome back Suzanne del Gizzo to ring in the season with a discussion of “The Christmas Gift,” Hemingway’s account of his 1954 plane crashes in East Africa. Del Gizzo, editor of The Hemingway Review and widely published scholar, guides us through this extraordinary piece originally written for Look magazine, its role in Hemingway’s self-mythologizing, its examination of his near-death experience, its representation of Mary, and how the article both reveals and obscures what actually ha...
One True Sentence #24 with Michael Mewshaw
December 15, 2022 11:00 - 31 minutes - 21.7 MBMichael Mewshaw, author of numerous novels and nonfiction works (including Year of the Gun, The Lost Prince, and the forthcoming My Man in Antibes: Getting to Know Graham Greene) shares his one true sentence from Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms.
Jackson Bryer on the Hemingway Code
December 05, 2022 11:00 - 54 minutes - 37.2 MBWe are joined by legendary scholar Jackson Bryer, who explains the origins and implications of a notorious concept: the Hemingway code. When the code was introduced in the 1950s by influential scholar Philip Young, what did he intend it to mean? What is a "code hero"? What is a "Hemingway hero"? What did Hemingway mean by “grace under pressure”? Bryer helps us explore the impact and legacy of the code, its relevance today and its limitations, ultimately suggesting how it might enrich our e...
Don Daiker on The Nick Adams Stories
November 14, 2022 11:00 - 59 minutes - 40.8 MBWe welcome prolific scholar Don Daiker to help us celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of The Nick Adams Stories. We discuss the volume’s impact and legacy, Philip Young’s controversial editorial decisions, the sequencing, and the characterization of Nick himself, in all of his various phases. Which stories does Daiker consider underrated? Is Dr. Adams unjustly criticized as cold and unloving? What is the role of “The Last Good Country,” the longest story in the volume? Is...
One True Sentence #23 with Joshua Ferris
November 03, 2022 10:00 - 29 minutes - 20 MBJoshua Ferris, winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award for his novel Then We Came to the End, joins us to discuss his one true sentence from The Sun Also Rises.
Hariclea Zengos on "On the Quai at Smyrna"
October 24, 2022 10:00 - 52 minutes - 35.9 MBOne hundred years ago, in September 1922, Turkish forces torched the port city of Smyrna in a hellish episode towards the end of the Greco-Turkish War. The ensuing evacuation, with its chaos and grisly violence, inspired Hemingway’s journalism as well as his short fiction. Hemingway’s most enduring effort to capture this atrocity is "On the Quai at Smyrna," which would become the first story in his collection In Our Time. This masterpiece of irony with its memorable narrative voice has int...
Kirk Curnutt on "After the Storm"
October 19, 2022 10:00 - 58 minutes - 40.3 MBWe are asking the entire One True Podcast community to contribute to the Hurricane Ian relief effort. Our production studios are in Fort Myers, Florida, which took the brunt of the storm, so we want to do anything we can to lend a hand. This episode honors the recovery effort by urging our listeners to go to www.communitycooperative.com and give generously to provide direct help to those who suffered from the hurricane. Fittingly, we will devote this One True Fundraiser to a lively discuss...
One True Sentence #22 with Kawai Strong Washburn
September 18, 2022 10:00 - 27 minutes - 19 MBKawai Strong Washburn, winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award for his novel Sharks in the Time of Saviors, joins us to discuss his one true sentence from "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place."
Timothy Christian on Mary Welsh Hemingway
September 12, 2022 10:00 - 52 minutes - 36.4 MBTimothy Christian, author of Hemingway's Widow: The Life and Legacy of Mary Welsh Hemingway, joins us for a conversation about Hemingway's fourth and final wife. Our wide-ranging interview covers Mary's life before, during, and after Hemingway. We explore Mary's family, her early life and education, including her impressive career as a journalist. We cover her first encounter with Hemingway in London during World War II, the development of their sometimes-volatile relationship, and her cru...
Thomas Neil Knowles and Erika Robuck on the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane
August 22, 2022 10:00 - 1 hour - 44.2 MBOne True Podcast examines the deadly category 5 hurricane that ravaged the Florida Keys over Labor Day weekend in 1935, both from a historical perspective and a fictional treatment. We first hear from historian Thomas Neil Knowles, author of Category 5: The 1935 Labor Day Hurricane, who describes the deadly weather system, its devastating toll on the veterans stationed along the Keys, the bureaucratic inefficiencies, and its legacy. Next, we are joined by Erika Robuck, award-winning auth...
One True Sentence #21 with Billy Collins
August 11, 2022 11:00 - 49 minutes - 34.1 MBBilly Collins, the author of numerous collections of poetry and the U.S. Poet Laureate from 2001 to 2003 , shares his one true sentence from "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place."
John Sutton and Chris Warren on Hemingway's Rockies
August 01, 2022 10:00 - 48 minutes - 33.6 MBIn this live interview from the 19th Biennial Hemingway Society Conference in Sheridan, Wyoming, we talk with John Sutton and Chris Warren about Hemingway's summers spent in Wyoming and Montana and how his experiences in the American West left their mark on his stories and novels. John Sutton is the director of the NEH “Creating Humanities Communities along Wyoming's Hemingway Highway” Grant project. Chris Warren is the author of Ernest Hemingway in the Yellowstone High Country. During thi...