The Michigan Hemingway Society Conference 2016: A Student's Perspective

The Michigan Hemingway Society Conference 2016: A Student Perspective

by Lily Rosenberg, 2016 Bill and Donna Coté Scholarship Award Winner

I had the amazing opportunity of traveling to Petoskey, Michigan for this year's Michigan Hemingway Society conference! It was an amazing experience, and one I will never forget!

I will first start out by explaining how I got the opportunity to participate. Mrs. McQuillan gave the opportunity to all of her former Honors American Literature students who are currently juniors or seniors to write an essay about how Pure Michigan relates to Hemingway. I took the opportunity and surprisingly won the MHS Coté Scholarship.

While I was in Petoskey, I learned a lot more about Hemingway and the town itself. I got the opportunity to talk to many of the people at the conference and have some really great conversations about the Literary Garden and Hemingway. I was also able to help Mrs. McQuillan with the presentation she gave on the Literary Garden. I was honored to be a part of it. Mrs. McQuillan told the society all about how the Literary Garden has influenced the school and the community. I even did a little bit of impromptu speaking about my experiences with the garden!

All throughout the weekend people were coming up to Mrs. McQuillan and telling her how amazing they thought the garden was and how they wished they had thought of it themselves.

On the first day (Friday) I met the president of the society, Chris Struble, who was very accommodating. The opening ceremony included Chris introducing many special guests and Mrs. McQuillan’s Literary Garden presentation. Then Mrs. McQuillan participated in a roundtable. From just that night I was able to learn so much about Ernest Hemingway. I was also able to connect Hemingway with other works I read in Honors American Literature, such as The Great Gatsby and the Transcendentalists.

Saturday morning we had breakfast at Jesperson’s which is thought to have been one of Hemingway’s favorite hangout spots in Petoskey. There was also a special appearance from Teddy Roosevelt! I had the pleasure of having breakfast with Mrs. McQuillan, Teddy Roosevelt and Dianna Stampfler, a certified tourism ambassador and a fellow first time guest to the conference.

Later that day we attended a tour of the town and all of the spots that are associated with Hemingway. Our tour guide, Chris, took us down into the underground tunnels of the city and told us some of the ghost stories. (They sometimes even reminded me of stories by Poe!) 

Next we witnessed a speech by young Ernest Hemingway himself! He told us all about his life growing up and visiting Petoskey and the surrounding area. 

Throughout the weekend I learned a lot about how Hemingway’s works relate to nature. Mrs. McQuillan and Chris Struble brought up a very interesting point about how in “The Big Two-Hearted River,” silence speaks louder than words. For instance, Nick Adams has come home from the war and he is able to just simply put up a tent without having to worry about being bombed.

I truly hope that other students will be able to have this opportunity in the future. I learned a lot, not only about Hemingway, but also about literature and just being in public situations with new people. You do not need to be in love with literature or Hemingway to benefit from this type of experience. I was able to talk to many teachers, professors, and even a journalist which helped me gain life experience and social skills for the real world. I encourage students who will have this opportunity to take it.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation Part II

How I Spent My Summer Vacation, Part II

In August, I visited four important American authors to gather plants for the garden. Here’s the update on how those plants are faring!

Mark Twain: In Hartford, Connecticut, we visited the Mark Twain House and Museum to try and cultivate the wisteria for the third time. Master gardener Meg Lambert reports that while she is ever hopeful, the wisteria cuttings are struggling. We do have a Mark Twain Liberty burr oak tree generously donated by retired teacher Michael Brown, so Twain is represented. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the wisteria survives!

Harriet Beecher Stowe: I am so pleased to report that Beth Burgess of the Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Hartford, Connecticut (right next door to Mark Twain’s house!) generously donated two plants to our garden: a clematis vine and Harrison’s yellow roses. Both plants have survived and taken root in the Literary Garden.  

Walt Whitman: I could not contain my excitement when we visited Walt Whitman’s House in Camden, New Jersey. I stood in his bedroom and saw his shoes! His cane! I could not get enough information about one of my favorite poets, and curator Leo Blake kindly obliged. Late in September, the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association director, Cynthia Shor, along with volunteer gardener Leslie Lockhart, sent a lilac cutting and lilac seeds from the lilac bush at the Huntington Station, New York home. The tiny cutting seems to be thriving in a pot in the Literary Garden. We will be bringing it inside for the winter to give it the best chance for survival.

Ernest Hemingway: In Petoskey, Michigan, I had the special good fortune to spend a full day exploring Hemingway’s haunts with the president of the Michigan Hemingway Society, Chris Struble. Not only did I get to plunge my own hands into the cold waters of the spring Hemingway describes at the beginning of “Summer People,” but I also got to see, smell, and taste the mint Chris had sent to us at its source. I was ALL IN that day – when Chris said we could still check out the pilings left of the dock Hemingway had stood on with his friends, I – frustrated that I could not see – walked into the lake with my clothes on and peered into the water until I could see them for myself. Chris, more than startled, ended up following me in, his battered copy of the Nick Adams stories in his hand, reading in the middle of the lake where Hemingway and his friends had summered nearly a century ago. It was, without question, one of the most memorable Literary Garden adventures I have had! And yes, the mint has EXPLODED in our garden! The students and staff love it!

The Michigan Hemingway Society Conference is this weekend in Petoskey, Michigan, and I know Chris has been working hard to put together a terrific program. More on that soon!

How I Spent My Summer Vacation, State by State - Part I

After winding down from an intense school year in 2015-2016, I took a couple of weeks in June to get some rest, practice yoga, and spend time with family and friends. I set up a watering schedule for the garden via SignUpGenius.com, and that worked beautifully - the students have shown a commitment to the garden that far surpassed my expectations, especially during an arid summer that could have easily destroyed the plants we have worked so hard to acquire.

Em takes a driving selfie

I spent most of my summer traveling, so the easiest way to describe my literary garden adventures is to give a state-by-state breakdown.

Indiana:

Me, Dr. Talhelm, and Vonnegut puppets

In July, I was invited to speak at the Teaching Vonnegut Workshop at the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library in Indianapolis. Dr. Melissa Talhelm of Southern Connecticut State University was able to join me, and together we discussed the ways that the Literary Garden enhances the content of Vonnegut's works, connects strongly to his family history, and is providing interdisciplinary opportunities with colleagues in art, science, drama, and the iCenter. I met authors Tim O'Brien and Dan Wakefield, both of whom agreed to provide plants for the garden. I also met Dr. Jon Eller of the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies; he is working with me to provide a plant from Bradbury's childhood home in Illinois. Finally, Melissa and I even managed to snag a plant from the home where John Green wrote The Fault in Our Stars. Talk about a windfall! Many thanks to Julia Whitehead, Max Goller, and the rest of the folks at the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library for their generosity, goodwill, kindness, and inspiration. I'm proud to be a member of their karass.

Tim O'Brien, author of The Things They Carried

Dr. Jon Eller, Center for Ray Bradbury Studies

Typing on Kurt's typewriter...you can follow it on Twitter @kurtstypewriter

Author Dan Wakefield, a dear friend of Vonnegut's

Dr. Talhelm, me, Tim O'Brien, and KVML Founder Julia Whitehead

Trying to strike a pose as cool as Kurt's!

New York:

In Rochester, New York, we were delighted to meet librarian site supervisor Erin Clarke at the newly named Frederick Douglass Library. Justin Murphy of the Democrat & Chronicle writes:

More than 140 years after Frederick Douglass' South Avenue house burned to the ground in an apparent arson, the distinguished Rochesterian has been honored with a new home on the same spot.The former Highland Branch Library at 971 South Ave. was formally renamed the Frederick Douglass Community Library Monday morning at a ceremony led by Mayor Lovely Warren.The plot where the library now stands was mostly farmland in 1852, when Douglass and his family moved there from their home on Alexander Street. Douglass was one of the most prominent abolitionists in the country, so it was fitting that his house was a well known stop on the Underground Railroad.

Erin explained that the site, which connects to a community center and a school, were all part of a parcel of land that Douglass and his family owned. It's difficult to pinpoint the exact spot where his house stood, and a survey of the grounds for a suitable plant proved to be fruitless given the plethora of poison ivy that snaked along the grounds. However, the beautiful old trees that line the lot may need to be looked at by a specialist to determine their age; their size alone convinced me some of them could have dated back to Douglass's time. 

In any case, Erin was a font of information and an enthusiastic supporter of our garden. The library would also like to create a Victorian garden that would feature plants that Douglass and his family would have grown, and they would also like to work with us to connect our students to their younger patrons. It's so exciting to have the potential for these kinds of collaborations around the country.

We are also working with Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester. The cemetery has important links to American literary history, as Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony are both buried there. And, in a nod to Vonnegut, Joe Crone, his fellow soldier who inspired the character of Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse-Five, is also interred there. It is only fitting that we work with the cemetery to obtain plants or flowers to place in our literary garden to honor these significant literary and historical figures. 

Massachusetts:

We headed to Walden Pond, of course! Emily had never seen it! 

We are working with American Heritage Trees to purchase a red maple tree from Walden, as they work with The Walden Woods Project to sustainably propagate historic trees of national importance. I cannot praise both of these fine organizations enough, and if you are looking for a literary tree of your own, I would urge you to contact and support American Heritage Trees and the work they are doing.  

We visited the site of Thoreau's original cabin, which is now marked with a pile of rocks,

a sign bearing some of his most famous words from Walden, and site markers that clearly delineate the size of the cabin. It's clear Thoreau would be a big fan of today's tiny house movement! 

We also stopped in Concord to visit my friend Tom Beardsley at The Old Manse. Last fall, Tom and Susan Adam donated at least a dozen plants from the Old Manse to our Literary Garden. I wanted to stop by and let him know how well the plants were doing.

Tom was delighted by our surprise visit and even more impressed by my picture of the corn. If you scroll below, you'll see the bloody butcher corn in the Literary Garden and the same corn at the Old Manse taken just days apart:

Tom's generous donations - which are tied to three key American Transcendentalists: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau - formed the foundation of the Literary Garden and are absolutely integral to the teaching of the garden in American literature classes. Thank you, Tom, for recognizing the importance of bringing a sense of the authors' landscape to the students of West Bloomfield High School! I know the garden started to make sense for my students this past year when they read Hawthorne's "Buds and Bird-Voices" on Tom's recommendation and were able to see, touch, and smell the very same lilac bush that had inspired Hawthorne himself. 

Here's to you, Tom, and to all of the wonderful partnerships that I have made through my work on the Literary Garden in the last year! 

Please stay tuned for Part II of "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" for more news on Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Walt Whitman, and Ernest Hemingway!