Hemingway wrote:

[fourx]

In Big Two Hearted River, Hemingway wrote this after the protagonist just broke off a big fish:

"He sat on the logs, smoking, the sun warm on his back, the river shallow ahead entering the woods, curving into the woods, shallows, light glittering, big water-smooth rocks, cedars along the bank and white birches, the logs warm in the sun, smooth to sit on, without bark, gray to the touch; slowly the feeling of disappointment left him"

4X

[Corbo]

Ain't it great?

[Drifter]

My favorite Hemmingway short story. I swear it sounds like somewhere near Gardner, MT. He talks about arriving on the train. Sounds just like the place.

[flyman]

I think a camping and fishing trip in Michigan is said to have been the inspiration for the stories about the Big Two Hearted River.

[Don Kirk]

H. Lea Lawrence of Morristown wrote a couple of books about Ernest Hemingway, or EH as H. Lea referred to him. The books focus on EH's favorite waters and haunts and are still available on Amazon, along with H. Lea’s fly fishing guide book to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I am sure many of you have that book. In the near future we’ll be running an article about H. Lea in Southern Trout for those of you who might like to know more about this interesting character. He was about as colorful as one gets in the outdoor writing business. He is rightly to blame for teaching me "the ropes" of the business.

[Varmitcounty]

It is believed that perhaps it was the Fox river and not Two Hearted which Hemingway fished, but Big Two Hearted gave a better romantic feel to the story. That was according to an owner of a fly shop just outside of Petoskey Mi and also by a literature professor at Michigan State.

This summer, I am going to actually be fishing both rivers in an attempt to connect with what Hemingway saw. The U.P. doesn't change very much and from what I have been able to gather, both rivers are remarkably like they were when the story was written. This is actually a working trip as I am doing this for a book I am writing and have already generated some publishing interest. Should be exciting.