Coincidentally, Bradbury was in New York City only days before Hemingway was stricken with his final illness. Bradbury knew Jack Hemingway only from their judging experiences, but freelance writer Conrad knew Hemingway better. I remember Mariel was 14 at the time, and she cooked for us because Jack s wife was ill. We did that for three days, and I can say Jack was the greatest fisherman I ever met. He d tell the story about the times his father came home with 30 fish, and then he d quickly say that times were different then, because we thought then that we d never run out of fish.
Men open up and talk more about themselves when they re fishing together.
That s what Hemingway did with Barnaby Conrad. He was very modest, but he did say, Barnaby, I have two boasts. Name one person, he said to me, that ever parachuted into Nazi Germany with a fishing rod just in case there was a trout stream there. And, of course, that was Jack. The other boast had to do with Jack s name.