A.E. Hotchner: pals to Hemingway, Newman

Hotchner (right) with Ernest and Mary Hemingway at a bullfight in 1957.

It is the birthday of writer A.E. Hotchner (1920), who is best known for his 1966 biography of Ernest Hemingway, Papa Hemingway. The two writers met in 1948 and became close friends. Hotchner adapted some of Hemingway’s works for theater and television. Hotchner also wrote Papa Hemingway: The Ecstacy and Sorrow (1983) and Hemingway and His World (1989). With his friend and neighbor Paul Newman, Hotchner founded Newman’s Own, Inc. in 1982. Profits from the food products line go to the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp for children and other charities. With Newman, Hotchner wrote Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good: the Madcap Business Adventure of the Truly Oddest Couple (2003). Hotchner also wrote Paul and Me: 53 Years of Adventures and Misadventures with My Pal Paul Newman (2010). Steven Soderbergh made a film, King of the Hill (1993), based on Hotchner’s memoir of the same name about growing up in St. Louis. Hotchner lives in Connecticut.