3:00 - 4:30 PM (HYBRID PROGRAM)
When Ernest Hemingway was growing up in Oak Park during the early years of the twentieth century, it was a particularly exciting time to be a Chicago baseball fan. During the years of Hemingway's youth the Chicago Cubs, White Sox, and Federal League Whales were all championship teams. This talk explores such questions as: Which Chicago baseball teams did Hemingway watch and cheer for? What was his personal experience of the Black Sox scandal? What can be determined about Chicago baseball photos Hemingway himself took? What Chicago baseball players did Hemingway particularly admire? And was he the first author to use the baseball idiom “off base,” meaning a mistake, in a novel? Join us for wonderful discussion on America’s pastime and Hemingway.
**the field image has a caption which says: “In the yard at Windemere Cottage -Walloon Lake, Mich.- our own baseball team, 1912. L-R: Cheslie Sweeney, Ernest Hemingway, Mildred Sweeney, Marcelline Hemingway, Grace Stockwell. (Cheslie and Ernest slept in the tent)” * part of the Hemingway Archives
**Ticket Stub, Hemingway went to the Yankees vs White Sox baseball game at the Polo Grounds on May 22, 2018, the day before he shipped out to Europe for WWI. He saved and carried this ticket stub with him. * part of the Hemingway Archives
Dr. Sharon Hamilton has a Ph.D. in English and has taught classes on writing and literature at universities in Canada, Italy, Austria, and the US, including at Georgetown University. She is a member of the Board of the international Hemingway Society and Chair of the Society of American Baseball Research’s Century Committee, which celebrates important milestones in baseball history.