Picturing Hemingway’s Michigan

A compilation of photographs and written excerpts illuminating Ernest Hemingway’s love of northern Michigan.

In the early 1900s, northern Michigan’s Little Traverse Bay region was transitioning from a sparsely populated lumber region to a hotspot for tourists. The region’s railroad and steamship companies launched ambitious marketing campaigns to lure tourists from as far away as St. Louis, Kansas City, and Louisville to experience the area’s natural beauty and abundant leisure activities.
Among the many families who vacationed ＂up north＂ during this time were the Hemingways. Ernest Hemingway’s parents built a summer cottage on Walloon Lake near Petoskey, offering the young writer an escape from their Chicago-area home--and a place that would leave a lasting mark on his life and work.
With more than 250 historic images and excerpts from Hemingway’s letters, journals, and stories, Picturing Hemingway’s Michigan leads readers on a tour of the people, places, and activities that helped shape one of America’s greatest literary voices during his twenty-two summers in northern Michigan.

Michael R. Federspiel is professor emeritus of history at Central Michigan University. He previously served as the president of the Michigan Hemingway Society.