Valerie Hemingway Reads from Her Memoir "Running with the Bulls, My Years with the Hemingways"

SEELEY LAKE - Alpine Artisans’ Open Book Club presents Valerie Hemingway who will be reading from and discussing her memoir, “Running With the Bulls: My Years With the Hemingways” 7 p.m., Saturday, June 9 at the Grizzly Claw Trading Company. There is no charge to attend and all are welcome

As a young Irish reporter, newly arrived in Spain, Valerie Danby-Smith met with Ernest Hemingway in his hotel room for an interview. The interview was awkward and brief but before it ended something had clicked into place. Thus began Valerie’s life as his personal secretary and confidante. She literally came of age in the company of one of the greatest literary lions of the 20th century. Now Valerie, who eventually married Hemingway’s son, Gregory, tells the story of those incredible years.

In joining Hemingway and his entourage as he traveled in Spain following the bull fights, Valerie found herself swept up in the revelry that always exploded around Hemingway – dancing in the streets of Pamploma, partying with notables of that period and learning about bull fighting during the bull fighting season. Then the tranquility of travels through the French countryside. During the next two years, she devoted her life to Hemingway and his wife Mary, traveling through their old haunts in Europe and living with them during the tumultuous final months as Castro took over in Cuba.

After Hemingway committed suicide, Valerie returned to Cuba with Mary to help sort through his manuscripts and papers and also smuggled out priceless works of art. It was at Hemingway’s funeral that she met Gregory to whom she was married for 21 years. The marriage unraveled as Valerie watched helplessly while her husband succumbed to the demons that had plagued him since childhood.

From luncheons with Orson Welles, a rooftop encounter with Castro and numbing hospital visits, Valerie played an intimate and indispensable role in two generations of the Hemingway family.

Please join us at the Open Book Club to hear from, meet and visit with this woman who has led such an incredible life.