Ken Burns and Lynn Novick on Ernest Hemingway

Ken Burns and Lynn Novick come back to the podcast to discuss their new 3-part documentary on Ernest Hemingway.  They share their own memories of the first Hemingway books they ever read, the challenges of getting to the real person behind the legend, and what it was like to re-examining some of the trouble aspects of the writer’s personality from his views on women and race to his struggles with mental health.  They reveal what they learned from the many contemporary authors with whom they spoke as well as Hemingway’s only living son Patrick.  Plus we talk about the time when Ernest Hemingway got in two near-fatal plane crashes within two days, how World War II changed forever changed him, how an astounding number of concussions might have led to his suicide, and why Ken believes that the quality of Hemingway’s writing was inversely proportional to the amount of shooting he did. Hemingway airs on PBS tonight April 5 through 7 from 8:00 – 10:00 p.m. ET.  Visit www.pbs.org for more information and follow Ken and Lynn on Twitter at @KenBurns and @LynnNovick. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.