Hemingway Exhibit Opens at JFK Library in Boston

Patrick Hemingway attends the show about his famous writer father, Ernest, in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

The novelist Ernest Hemingway wrote 47 possible endings to his book "A Farewell to Arms." Eightof them are part of a new show at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston,Massachusetts. The ending that Hemingway finally chose is also there to see.

Patrick Hemingway is the writer’s only surviving child. This week, he visited the library show. Hesaid the exhibit shows how hard his father worked.

He said, "He always felt responsible for being where the action was. A lot of writers just retire totheir rooms and describe their childhood. He didn't do that."

The Kennedy Library holds the world's largest collection of documents, photographs and personalbelongings of the famous writer. Library Curator Stacey Bredhoff describes the Hemingwaycollection as one of the library's "greatest treasures."

The show is called "Ernest Hemingway: Between Two Wars." It includes material rarely shown inpublic. The Morgan Library & Museum in New York City also presented the show last autumn.

Hemingway and Kennedy never met. However, Kennedy liked the writer’s work. Kennedy wrote toHemingway for permission to use the novelist’s expression "grace under pressure." Hemingwaywas too sick to accept an invitation to Kennedy’s inauguration in January of 1961. The writer killedhimself later that year.

The show also includes Hemingway's first short story. It was published in 1917 in a high schoolmagazine. Visitors can also see letters between Hemingway and other writers at the time.四级作文常用句型

Patrick Hemingway praised the show. "I am very pleased that they were able to put together in mylifetime a very comprehensive picture of a person who really represented very well the first half of the 20th century,'' he said.

Ernest Hemingway fled Finca Vigia, his home in Cuba, at the time of Fidel Castro's revolution. Thewriter left much of all he owned on the island.

After the writer died, President Kennedy sought Cuba’s permission for Hemingway's wife, Mary, tovisit the island and collect the belongings. A fishing boat transported the property from Havana toFlorida.

Mary Hemingway established a relationship with Kennedy’s wife, Jacqueline, after PresidentKennedy was murdered in 1963. They later decided to keep the writer’s Cuba collection at theKennedy library.

Patrick Hemingway now lives in Bozeman, Montana. But he is represented in the show. Aphotograph shows him and his father on a deep sea fishing boat. Fishing was one of ErnestHemingway's great loves.

"He worked very hard in the morning but he never worked in the afternoon. He had a great life,''Patrick Hemingway said of his father.

Words in This Story

novelist – n. a writer of fiction books

curator – n. a person who is in charge of the things in a museum, zoo, etc

grace – n. a controlled, polite, and pleasant way of behaving

draft ­– n. a version of something (such as a document) that you make before you make the finalversion

stationery ­– n. paper that is used for writing letters and that usually has matching envelopes

comprehensive – adj. including many, most, or all things