The Classic

It is no surprise that Ernest ‘Papa’ Hemingway, America’s archetypal man-of-action writer, kept gundogs. The novelist loved hunting with his buddies and this is one of a series of pictures taken by Lloyd Arnold when Hemingway was shooting with film star Gary Cooper in Sun Valley, Idaho. The photos show both men accompanied by black Labradors. Hemingway also famously had a spaniel called Black Dog, and liked to tell a story, presumably apocryphal, about how he himself had fought with a Great Dane who had attacked the dog, tearing open his mouth, gouging out his eyes and killing him with his bare hands. Hemingway was a little more cautious in Cuba in 1958, keeping out of the way when Batista’s soldiers invaded the grounds of his home, the Finca Vigia, looking for rebel, and shot and killed his dog, Machakos, who was defending the property.