Olin’s Hemingway collection and a new documentary.

Heard of Ken Burns’ new Hemingway documentary?

Check out Olin Library’s Hemingway collection!

Filmmaker Ken Burns is releasing his new documentary, Hemingway, in April 2021. It will premiere on WUCF TV on April 5 at 8:00 pm. Details are available here.

In conjunction with this film release, a panel of local experts will be speaking about the renowned Florida authors Ernest Hemingway and Zora Neale Hurston, on March 31 at 6:00-8:00 pm. Details about this free online event are available on Facebook. One of these experts, Gail Sinclair, is the Vice President and Treasurer of the Hemingway Society, and was instrumental in helping Rollins College’s Olin Library acquire an important donation of 344 unique book titles and four linear feet of archival materials on Ernest Hemingway.

Charles Douglas “Doug” Kerr graduated from Rollins College in 1966 with a BA in English. At Rollins he met his wife of 55 years, Elaine Lawrence Kerr. He played on the Rollins College Soccer team and was captain his senior year. He also served as Commander of the Sigma Nu fraternity. He began his career with Martin Marietta and grew to become a senior manager of communication at Lockheed Martin. Kerr developed his avocation for Hemingway while studying at Rollins and through his association with his Princeton, New Jersey neighbor, Dr. Carlos Baker, a lifelong friend and Hemingway’s official biographer. Since graduation, Kerr has written many articles and reviews on Hemingway books for the Orlando Sentinel, as well as lectured locally on his favorite author. The Old Man and the Sea was his favorite book. To support his passion, Kerr has maintained an extensive collection of Hemingway scholarship including personal library and secondary-source materials, which he donated to Rollins College in September 2018. The Charles Douglas Kerr Collection of Hemingway Scholarship is housed in the Archives & Special Collections within Olin Library, and his books are available for checkout from the general library collection or for viewing in the Archives and Special Collections, including the newest books he had acquired, such as Teaching Hemingway and the Natural World; Hemingway at Eighteen: The Pivotal Year That Launched an American Legend; and Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy: Ernest Hemingway’s Secret Adventures, 1935-1961. Mr. Kerr passed away in July 2020.

As you view the documentary, make plans to visit Olin Library’s Hemingway Library (with our gratitude to the late Mr. Kerr of Winter Park) after the Rollins campus reopens to the public. Visitors who have library cards from the University of Central Florida, or from the Winter Park Public Library, may check out books from Olin Library as well.

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