Hemingway Foundation hosts 200 guests at first gala

By LEE A. LITAS PIONEER PRESS | AUG 02, 2016

The Event: "Ernest Hemingway: Alive in Oak Park," was the first annual benefit of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park. It took place July 23 at the Oak Park Public Library. Among the 200 attendees were Hemingway fans, Foundation members, caretakers of both Hemingway's first and second Oak Park homes, as well as the Foundation's first scholarship winner.

The 2015-2016 Hemingway Birthplace Home Writer-in-Residence, David W. Berner of Clarendon Hills, presented the Hemingway Foundation Scholarship scholarship to Tamsen Cronin of River Forest. Dan Stout of Worthington, Ohio, received the Hemingway Shorts Contest award in absentia.

The EHFOP fosters understanding of the life and work of Ernest Hemingway, with emphasis on his Oak Park origins and his impact on world literature.

Cause célèbre: "(Hemingway) was born here in Oak Park, lived here until he graduated from high school and the foundation does a lot to celebrate his life and legacy," said David Seleb of Chicago, EHFOP board member and OP Library executive director.

"You can't walk in without imagining (Hemingway) running through the house as a boy," said Neumann. An acupuncturist by trade, she has set up her practice in the same room in the house where Hemingway's father, an obstetrician, had his practice.

"Oak Park is where (Hemingway's) mother taught him about the arts, his father taught him about nature. So he was really shaped by this town and our organization is here to help continue that and also to reach out to new writers," said Neumann.

Bottom Line: The benefit raised approximately $28,000 for the preservation and community outreach work of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park.