Chipola Prof. Attends Hemingway Conference

7/17/08
Dr. Mark Ebel, Professor of Spanish at Chipola College, attended the 13th International Hemingway Society Conference in Kansas City, Missouri in June. Dr. Ebel became interested in Hemingway through the influence of his Ph.D. dissertation advisor, Dr. Ernest Rehder who persuaded Ebel to prepare a paper on Hemingway and present it at a 2004 Conference in Key West. Dr. Ebel presented his paper, "Hemingway’s Philosophy of Fishing," and served on a panel on "Hemingway and the Sporting Life," which discussed Hemingway’s writings on hunting, fishing and bullfighting.
Ebel was so impressed with the quality of papers given and the writers, professors and scholars in attendance that he has continued to write and do research on Hemingway. In 2006 Dr. Ebel traveled to Malaga and Ronda in Spain for the Society’s Conference, and then participated in a post-conference tour to the Running of the Bulls Festival in Pamplona, an event made popular by Hemingway in his novel, The Sun Also Rises. Upon his return, Dr. Ebel gave a pair of presentations on "Answering Hemingway’s Call to Adventure," to the Chipola faculty and again to the community at large.
The society holds biennial meetings to discuss the literature of Ernest Hemingway. Composed mainly of college and university professors, independent scholars and Hemingway aficionados, and representing the United States and at least eight foreign countries, the group gathers in places where Hemingway once lived and wrote.
Following his graduation from high school in Oak Park, Illinois, Hemingway began his writing career as a reporter for the Kansas City Star, where he worked until joining the ambulance corps at the Italian Front during World War I.
Members of the Hemingway family regularly attend the Society’s meetings. Dr. Ebel had a chance to meet John Hemingway, great-grandson of Ernest Hemingway. He lives in Montreal and has recently written a book on his family called Strange Tribe.