Review
2011; Volume: 37; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.5342/michhistrevi.37.1.0149
ISSN2327-9672
Autores ResumoBook Reviews 149 Michael R. Federspiel. Picturing Hemingway’s Michigan. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2010, a Painted Turtle book. Pp. 224. Bibliography. Index. Photographs. Cloth, $39.95. The goal of Wayne State University Press‘s Painted Turtle imprint is to provide ―books on regional topics of cultural and historical interest for a general readership‖ (see http://www.wsupress.wayne.edu/paintedturtle). Michael Federspiel‘s Picturing Hemingway’s Michigan falls within this definition in many ways, but goes beyond it to provide an excellent resource not only to fans of turn-of-the-twentieth-century northern Michigan but also to scholars and students of literature. Readers will find Picturing Hemingway’s Michigan accessible, yet the book also reveals a familiarity with the scholarly exploration of Hemingway‘s early life and the ways in which those years shaped the world-famous author‘s aesthetics and subject matter. Federspiel is a history educator and a faculty member at Central Michigan University (CMU). Some of his scholarly work deals with facilitating public-school students‘ use of original documents in their studies. He currently serves as president of the Michigan Hemingway Society (an organization of scholars and fans of Ernest Hemingway that I have also headed). The particular appeal of Picturing Hemingway’s Michigan is that it provides access to material that is otherwise available only to scholars visiting northern Michigan local-history archives, the Hemingway Collection at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, CMU‘s Hemingway archive in the Clarke Historical Library, and private collections of Hemingway family members, represented here by material belonging to James Sanford, the son of Hemingway‘s older sister Marcelline. Although the material may be familiar to scholars, Federspiel has chosen his subject matter judiciously so that new readers will experience this material as if at first hand. The book has great visual appeal, including as it does period photographs and ephemera (timetables, advertisements, color postcards, and the like). Part one, which covers ―‗Up North‘ During Hemingway‘s Time, 1899-1921,‖ may be of particular interest to general readers. Federspiel gives considerable attention to transportation (both water and rail), vacationing (in resort hotels and the then-new family cottages), and the textures of northern life. Part two, ―The Hemingway Family in Michigan,‖ draws heavily on the albums assembled by Grace Hall Hemingway for her children, which give a clear sense of leisurely everyday life in the North Country. Part three, ―Ernest‘s Michigan: Fact 150 Michigan Historical Review and Fiction,‖ links the young Hemingway‘s northern experiences with the use he made of them in his fiction. This collection does not flaunt its scholarship, but a reader who chooses to move from this work into scholarly biography and criticism will find that Federspiel has done his homework. What others use words to explain, the pictures in his book present evocatively. Picturing Hemingway’s Michigan will appeal to those interested in Michigan‘s past, the young Hemingway‘s experience of it, and the maturing author‘s journey from Michigan into a larger world. Frederic Svoboda University of Michigan–Flint Mike Fornes. Mackinac Bridge: A 50-Year Chronicle, 1957-2007. Cheboygan, Mich.: Cheboygan Tribune Printing Co., 2007. Pp. 206. Illustrations. Paper, $35.00. This book is clearly the most comprehensive one ever written about the Mackinac Bridge. The author, Mike Fornes, gained access not only to the available documentation, press articles, and other writings about the bridge, but also to supplementary information, such as interviews with designers, construction workers, operation staff, police officers, and those who used this magnificent structure. The text reads easily—almost like a novel. There are twenty-one chapters, each with numerous illustrations; older pictures are in black and white while newer ones are in color. Each chapter is presented as a separate story. The account of the construction of the Mackinac Bridge is preceded by a review of the situation prior to 1957 when ferry boats were the only way for cars and trucks to cross the Straits of Mackinac. Data collected about the number of vehicles crossing the Straits and the long line ups that often resulted showed the need to build a bridge, and Michigan politicians played an important role in making...
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