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Valerie Hemingway will make four more stops on her Michigan tour:
Grand Rapids - 1 p.m. Saturday at the Grand Rapids Public Library. Free to the public.
Marquette - 2 p.m. Sunday at the Peter White Public Library. Free to the public.
Traverse City - 7 p.m. Monday at City Opera House. Tickets $10 per person.
Saginaw - 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Temple Theatre. Free to the public.
For more information about Valerie Hemingway's visits or The Great Michigan Read, visit www.greatmichiganread.org.
Source: Michigan Humanities Council
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Lansing - As a former secretary, friend and daughter-in-law to Ernest Hemingway, Valerie Hemingway has plenty of stories to tell.
She came to Lansing on Wednesday evening to share a few of those stories - and to set a few records straight.
"She gave a different aspect, the human side to Ernest Hemingway," Okemos resident Virginia Ederer said. "Actually I hadn't thought of that side of him before."
During her speech Wednesday at the Library of Michigan, 702 W Kalamazoo St., in Lansing, Valerie Hemingway talked about meeting Ernest Hemingway in Spain - she interviewed him for The Irish Times where she freelanced - and how he invited her to Pamplona to watch the running of the bulls a few months later.
"That week in Pamplona was the most animated, raucous, fun-filled, crazy week of my life," Valerie Hemingway told the 200-member audience on Wednesday. "From sunup to sunup, we watched the running of the bulls, ate and drank, danced and sang, picnicked by the Agra River, followed the corridas, drank and ate, sang and danced again until the next storm broke though."
That invitation turned into an entire summer of parties, friends, food and spirits. It resulted in Ernest Hemingway offering her a job as his secretary. She lived and traveled with him and his wife in Spain, the U.S. and Cuba. She saw Ernest Hemingway the partier as well as the brooding, quiet man who committed suicide on July 2, 1961.
Valerie Hemingway's visit was part of a six-stop Michigan tour for the Great Michigan Read, a yearlong project by the Michigan Humanities Council, or MHC, with the goal of getting everyone in Michigan to read a book.
This year's book is a series of short stories called "The Nick Adams Stories." The MHC chose this work because many of the stories are set in northern Michigan, where Ernest Hemingway spent his summers growing up.
"I hope it will make a lot more people aware of the writings of Ernest Hemingway," Valerie Hemingway said. "For me, much more than the man, the writings are what's important.
"The man is very interesting, but if there were no writings we wouldn't want to talk about Ernest Hemingway."
This is the program's first year, and it is the first statewide program aimed at getting every resident to read one of Ernest Hemingway's works. It launched in July 2007.
After nine months of promotion, the program has more than 200 organizations involved from all over the state, including libraries, universities, historical societies and K-12 schools. For some who haven't read "The Nick Adams Stories," Valerie Hemingway's visit succeeded.
"I read a lot, so they're on my list," said Lansing resident Helen Elliott, who saw Valerie Hemingway speak. "Now I definitely want to go back and read some of his other stuff, too."
