Editor's Note

Abstract

SAFARI¦ SPECIAL SECTION · EDITOR'S NOTE JANE KENDALL MASON WAS AN INTIMATE FRIEND of Pauline and Ernest Hemingwayduringthe 1930s, and some speculate that she and Ernest were lovers.Atall blondewhose exquisite oval face,like Margot Macomber's, appeared in advertisements for "a beauty product that she had never used," Jane was married to wealthy Yale clubman Grant Mason during the years when she was closest to Hemingway. Presiding over a Havana establishment that included a nanny for her adopted children, as well as ahouseman, cook, butler, gardener, and chauffeur, Jane Mason was also an active and daring sportswomanwho relished deep-sea fishingin the GulfStream andbiggame hunting in Africa. Gifted and unstable, as well as irresistible to men, she spoke three languages, ran an art gallery, possessed a menagerie of animals ranging from honey bears to flamingos, dabbled in literature, divorced and remarried several times, flirted with suicide, and was in and out of Doctor's Hospital in New York for psychological problems that seem to have closely resembled Hemingway's own struggles with mood disorder. Many scholars accept Jane Mason as the model for the Margot Macomber in Hemingway's "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber," and indeed Hemingway presented her with inscribed galley proofs and handwritten drafts of the story, an act that was perhaps a tribute to his muse. One of the most controversial characters in the Hemingway canon, Margot has been labelled by an older generation of male critics as the archetypal "bitch goddess," a reading that privileges the perspective of the story's white hunter, Robert Wilson, who views Margot as cruel, hard, and predatory. Many younger feminist critics have accepted such readings at face value and used them to assail Hemingway for sexism, as though Wilson spoke for Hemingway himself. More recently, however, critics of both sexes, led by Nina Baym, have begun to question readings that treat Margot as a "bitch" and the brutally TMh HFMiNCWAY review, vol. 2i, no. 2. SrRiNG 2002. Copyright © 2002 The Hrnest Hemingway Foundation. Published by the University of Idaho Press, Moscow, Idaho. 12 · THE HEMINGWAY REVIEW masculinist Wilson as a "code hero" whom the weakly Francis ought to emulate in aspiring to "manhood." They suggest that we listen more attentively to Margot's own voice and attempt to inscribe her values on the story along with those of the male characters. Such readings greatly complicate the story's sexual politics and demonstrate how both Macombers, husband and wife, are fatally entrapped by gendered expectations. All ofwhich is whywe are especially delighted to be able to publish here, for the first time, Jane Mason's newly discovered play, Safari. Thanks to the generosity ofher son Antony Mason and her granddaughter,Alane Salierno Mason, we can now explore "Margot's" own view of adultery, sexual politics , gender roles, fundamental values, and the hunt for happiness on the African savannah. A three-act play about the love intrigues of rich Americans hunting in Africa, apparently written not long after "The Short Happy Life," Safari paints a detailed picture of a social safari in the 1930s. The play not only includes thinly disguised Hemingway acquaintances such as Mason herself, her lover Richard Cooper, white hunter Philip Percival, Bror von Blixen, and Isak Dinesen, but undeniably gives a voice to Hemingway's Margot. In the process, it teaches us a great deal about a significant and inspirational relationship for Ernest Hemingway, and enlarges our understanding of one of his most masterful stories and its historic context. We hope that Safari will encourage a fresh look at the talented women in Hemingway's life, and perhaps stimulate some important new readings of"The Short Happy Life." To open the dialogue, we are pleased to present Alane Salierno Mason's introduction to her grandmother's play and its background, as well as first perspectives on Safari by Bernice Kert, biographer and author of The Hemingway Women; Carol Hemingway, professor of Theater Arts and playwright; Lisa Tyler, Hemingway critic; and Robert W Trogdon, textual scholar. —Susan F. Beegel ...