Africa
In December 1933, Hemingway went on his first African safari funded by Pauline Pfeiffer's Uncle Gus. Philip Percival served as Hemingway's white hunter guide. Percival is widely considered the model for white hunter guide Robert Wilson in Hemingway's classic 1936 short story, "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber."
In January 1934, the safari was put on hold when Hemingway fell ill with a serious case of amoebic dysentery. He had to be transported via private plane to Nairobi where he was treated for the illness. This flight episode gave creative birth to Harry's famous dream sequence at the end of Hemingway's 1936 short story, "The Snows of Kilimanjaro." Once he recovered from the dysentery, Hemingway returned to Tanganyika to continue the safari. Hemingway's 1935 book, Green Hills of Africa provides a detailed account of his first African safari.
Hemingway would embark on a second African safari in 1953, this one funded by Look magazine. Look was paying $15,000 for a picture story of the safari (Earl Theisen served as photographer) and an additional $10,000 for a 3,500-word article from Hemingway. The article was published in Look magazine on January 26, 1954. Philip Percival came out of retirement to again act as Hemingway's white hunter guide.
While on his second African safari, Hemingway survived two plane crashes. The second crash resulted in serious injuries including a fractured skull, ruptured spleen, dislocated shoulder, and burns to his face, head, and arms. After the second plane crash, Hemingway was reported dead in numerous American newspapers. Hemingway relished in reading his own obituaries.
Two more Hemingway books about Africa would be published posthumously: True at First Light in 1999 and Under Kilimanjaro in 2005.
