By Craig Mindrum
Scott Schwar’s book, My Journey with Hemingway, is a memoir combining his personal relationship with Hemingway’s life story, literary travel, and the story of his work establishing Hemingway's legacy in Oak Park.
Among his many accomplishments, Schwar had an extensive relationship with the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park. He served as its chairman for 11 years and executive director for another four years. As part of this work, he was instrumental in establishing the Ernest Hemingway Birthplace Museum in Oak Park and bringing greater recognition to Hemingway's formative years there.
His interest in Hemingway took him to Spain, France, Austria, and Cuba. He helped organize Foundation-sponsored trips to Cuba and France. He subsequently established his own travel company, CubaTours4U, specializing in legally organized travel to Cuba and operated the company for about 20 years. He spent much of his working career in the association management field, continuing that work while serving the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park.
Early travel
A particularly interesting part of the book comes early, as Schwar recounts his many Hemingway-inspired travel experiences beginning when he was just 19. Things began with a year-long student exchange program to Spain. He spent a few days in Paris on the way and did all he could to experience la vie boheme of Hemingway and other literary expats in the left bank cafes on the Montparnesse.
In Spain, Schwar began at the University of Madrid, but soon developed the travel itch, which took him to the Festival of San Fermin in Pamplona, made famous in Hemingway’s early novel, The Sun Also Rises.
Schwar recounts his days in Pamplona where he got to experience the running of the bulls and then the bullfights themselves, followed by all the revelry of the festival itself. At the end of this journey, Schwar reflects, “I drank the wine, ate the food, saw the bullfights, and lived a Hemingway day.”
Other adventures took him to Munich and Salzberg and then, later, to Italy. A trip to Switzerland led him to skiing experiences reminiscent of Hemingway’s ski trips, as in his story, “Cross-Country Snow.”
Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park (IL)
In 1983, Morris Buske, a history teacher at Oak Park high school and amateur historian, founded the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park (EHFOP). Its goal was to develop full recognition of Oak Park’s influence on Hemingway’s development. At that time, most scholars and biographers had dismissed Oak Park as an influence. Hemingway himself, in a dubious quote, once described the village as one with “broad lawns and narrow minds.” (No trace has been found of Hemingway actually saying it.)
The Foundation rather quickly seized on Hemingway’s birthday, July 21, 1899, as an opportunity for a celebration marking Hemingway’s life and education in the village. Relations also developed between the Foundation and the owners of Hemingway’s birthplace home and his childhood home.
Going forward, the Foundation focused on building ties with the scholarly community and began inviting a scholar each year to deliver a talk as part of the birthday celebration. Attention to Oak Park began to be paid by scholars and news crews. In 1987 a Hemingway Film Festival was held. That same year the Foundation sponsored a Bastille Day event, something that continued as part of the birthday celebration for several years. In 1989, an event was scheduled to commemorate the new Hemingway stamp from the US Postal Service.
At the end of that year, the Foundation received a $10,000 grant and felt like it was off and running with the work to publicize Oak Park as a central place for Hemingway research.
Other activities
Schwar devotes full chapters to the development and founding of the Hemingway Museum in central Oak Park, and to the annual Fiesta de Hemingway with games, music and refreshments. The festival occupied much of the village’s shopping district and other areas and came complete with a “running of the bulls” event (using rolling carts) to mirror that narrative in The Sun Also Rises. That tradition continued from 1990-1995.
One chapter of the book tells the narrative of the Hemingway birthplace home, its purchase and restoration. Today, promoting the home as a tourist destination is a central mission of the Foundation. Discussion of the Hemingway childhood home continued for some time until the decision was made to instead focus on the birthplace home and museum.
Another chapter details all the planning and activities that took place around the celebration of Hemingway’s 100th birthday in 1999.
Schwar must have been a copious notetaker and diarist, as many pages are devoted to describing all the events and programs led or contributed to by the Foundation.
In May 2020, a group led by Schwar as part of his role at Medical Incentive Travel Latin America (MILA) made an exploratory trip to Cuba to see about the feasibility of regular tourist travel to Cuba. This was the beginning of many Cuba trips, some sponsored by the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park. The Foundation also sponsored a trip, led by Schwar, to Paris in October 2001 and to Spain in July 2003. In between were several trips to Cuba. Schwar also organized trips to Key West and to China. Eventually, Schwar founded his own travel agency, which continued frequent trips to Cuba.
On a personal note, as a member of the Board of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park, I was especially impressed with all the work that the Foundation took on through the years, including the purchase and restoration of the Hemingway birthplace home. Also impressive were the conferences, celebrations, movie festivals, and other activities the Foundation arranged, bringing together scholars and other interested parties. Oak Park owes these influential movers and shakers a debt of gratitude for making Oak Park a central hub of Hemingway research and activities.
Craig Mindrum, Ph.D., is an independent scholar, writer, and business consultant who sits on the Board of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park.