Episodes

  • J. Gerald Kennedy and Valerie Hemingway on the 1957-1961 Letters
    Oct 9 2025

    One True Podcast looks ahead to the last volume of Hemingway’s letters!

    Although Hemingway’s correspondence from 1957-1961 won’t be officially published for another couple of decades, the three co-editors of the last volume of the Hemingway letters – Valerie Hemingway, J. Gerald Kennedy, and Michael Von Cannon – share their insights about their work that covers Hemingway’s final days.

    We learn what was occupying Hemingway’s mind, his most frequent correspondents, the writing that consumed him, and how this last volume might reveal some of the health and psychological issues that plagued his later years.

    Join these three co-editors for an exclusive conversation on the volume we will eventually read, and their candid impressions of Hemingway’s last letters.

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    1 hr and 11 mins
  • Greer Rising and Eileen Martin on Buck Lanham
    Sep 25 2025

    One True Podcast examines the most important male friendship of the last fifteen years of Hemingway’s life, his extraordinary relationship with Major General “Buck” Lanham, whom he met when he was an embedded journalist with the 22nd Infantry Regiment during World War II.

    Greer Rising – Buck was his father’s godfather – and Eileen Martin join us to talk about Buck’s background, his military history, his literary aspirations, and of course his intimate relationship with Hemingway. They discuss the Hemingway-Lanham interactions, encounters, and correspondence to demonstrate the intensity of the relationship and just how consequential it was.

    Join us as we learn more about the inspiration behind Colonel Cantwell in Across the River and into the Trees, the man whom Hemingway called “the finest and bravest and most intelligent and able regimental commander I have ever known.”

    Thank you for supporting One True Podcast!

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    56 mins
  • Lavinia Greacen on Chink Dorman-Smith
    Sep 18 2025

    One True Podcast explores one of the most influential friends in Hemingway’s life: Eric “Chink” Dorman-Smith. Although Chink has been mentioned several times during past episodes, we finally devote an entire episode to this fascinating figure and his profound influence on Hemingway.

    For this discussion, we welcome Lavinia Greacen, the author of Chink: A Biography and, most recently, Military Maverick: Selected Letters and War Writing of “Chink” Dorman-Smith. We discuss Chink’s Irish background, his formidable military career, how he became Ernest and Hadley’s vacation companion, how his voice appears in Hemingway’s early war sketches, how he inspired the late novel Across the River and into the Trees, and much more.

    As a special gift to our listeners, we end the episode with some rare archival audio of Chink Dorman-Smith himself. We bet you will never read Chapter III of In Our Time the same way ever again.

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    54 mins
  • A Tribute to Patrick Hemingway with Sandra Spanier
    Sep 10 2025

    At One True Podcast we were sad to hear of the death of Patrick Hemingway, the middle son of Ernest, who died on September 2, 2025. Patrick Hemingway (1928-2025) lived a life that was truly Hemingwayesque: traveling like his father, living much of his life in Africa, hunting and fishing, and determined to maintain the legacy of his father’s literary work.

    We invited Sandra Spanier, General Editor of the Hemingway Letters Project, to share her memories of Patrick, including his contributions to the Letters Project, her visits with him, and a poignant interview with Patrick that was conducted just a few months ago. Our episode closes with a soundbite from that June 2025 interview.

    We hope you enjoy this immediate reaction to the sad news of Patrick’s passing.

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    25 mins
  • Lisa Tyler on "The End of Something"
    Aug 28 2025

    One True Podcast continues our celebration of the centenary of Hemingway’s In Our Time by examining a classic Nick Adams story: "The End of Something."

    We welcome Lisa Tyler to discuss the story, its setting, cast of characters, and curiously inexact title. We examine how the story serves as a prequel to "The Three-Day Blow," (while also pointing out many differences between the two texts), discuss the emotional and psychological damage suggested by Nick's line "everything was gone to hell inside of me," and figure out Bill's role in this break-up tale.

    Lisa Tyler, esteemed Hemingway scholar and editor of Wharton Hemingway, and the Advent of Modernism, makes the convincing claim that Marjorie emerges from this story as one of the most remarkable female characters in Hemingway’s entire canon.

    Join us for this discussion of a Hemingway classic!

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    52 mins
  • One True Book Club: The Purple Land, Part 3--with Ilan Stavans
    Aug 11 2025

    One True Podcast concludes its One True Book Club for the year with its third of three installments on W.H. Hudson’s 1885 novel, The Purple Land.

    This final episode covers chapter 21 to the end. We examine how Hudson resolves the domestic plot, the travel plot, and the confrontation with the diabolical Don Hilario. We debate whether The Purple Land’s climax is or is not even climactic.

    Then, we call in scholar Ilan Stavans, former OTP guest and editor of the U of Wisconsin Press edition of The Purple Land. Stavans ties up some of our loose ends and provides a broader historical and aesthetic context for Hudson’s project.

    We hope you’ll enjoy this third episode on this fascinating and problematic novel. If you have a nomination for our 2026 One True Book Club selection (it must be Hemingway-relevant, but not by Hemingway), please email us at 1truepod@gmail.com.

    Thank you as always for your support of One True Podcast!

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    58 mins
  • Hemingway's Cats
    Jul 31 2025

    Join us for a wide-ranging discussion about Hemingway’s cats!

    Ernest Hemingway was one of the most famous cat lovers in all of American literature, so we celebrate his passion for cats with three conversations that provide us three different perspectives.

    First, we talk to Alexa Morgan, director of public relations at the Hemingway Home in Key West. She is intimately familiar with the day-to-day operations of the present-day Hemingway cats, herding all fifty-seven of them on a daily basis.

    Next, evolutionary theorist Axel Lange describes the science behind polydactyly, that extra toe Hemingway cats are known for. Axel discusses how polydactyly relates to Darwin’s work, how the extra toe affects the cat’s behavior, and what it tells us about genetics.

    Finally, we visit with author and illustrator Edward Hemingway, grandson of Ernest and son of Gregory and Valerie. Eddie has used cats in his work before, and is currently at work incorporating Hemingway’s first six-toed cat into a new work.

    This episode is dedicated to Edie Von Cannon, Michael’s boisterous and attention-hungry cat, who has mewed her way through many of our interviews.

    Thanks for listening, and go give all your cats a belly rub in honor of this new One True Podcast episode!

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    1 hr and 15 mins
  • Debra Moddelmog on the Wound Theory
    Jul 17 2025

    About seventy-five years ago, scholar Philip Young’s “wound theory” revolutionized Hemingway studies with a thesis that argued that Hemingway’s entire body of work was a series of responses to the injury he suffered in 1918 during World War One.

    Young’s audacious theory invited a slew of biographical and psychological readings of Hemingway’s work. Scholars incorporated trauma theory, ecology, history, and gender. Young inspired generations of scholars and also generated harsh responses, including Hemingway’s own vitriolic reaction.

    Debra Moddelmog, the great Hemingway scholar who studied with Young at Penn State, unpacks the wound theory for us and sheds light on the man who developed it. She describes different applications of the theory, its limitations, the texts it illuminates, and its relevance to 21st-century readings.

    Join us as we discuss the single most important theoretical model in the history of Hemingway studies and its iconic creator.

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    1 hr and 1 min