Famous Ephebophile: Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway and model Jean Patchett at his ranch in Cuba | Vogue (1950)

"A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" is a short story by Ernest Hemingway and the title of a Charles Bukowski poem. Bukowski's poem is thought to be based on Hemingway's life.

In a clean, well-lighted place by Charles Bukowski

the old fart [Ernest Hemingway.he used his literary reputation

to reel them in one at a time,

each younger than the last.

he liked to meet them for luncheon and

wine

and he’d talk and listen to them

talk.

whatever wife or girlfriend he had at the moment

was made to

understand that this sort of thing made him

“young again.”

the young ladies vied to bed down with

this

literary

genius.

in between, he continued to write,

and late at night in his favorite bar

liked to talk about writing and his amorous

adventures.

actually, he was just a drunk

who liked young ladies,

writing itself,

and talking about writing.

wasn’t a bad life.

There are a number of things we can learn from this poem:

Hemingway used the Indirect Approach of seduction, which is to initiate a conversation with a young woman without letting her know your true intention. For example, Hemingway invited the young ladies to lunch to discuss literature after which they "vied to bed down" the literary genius.
 
Hemingway's wives/girlfriends approved of his affairs, because he used the excuse that young women made him feel "young again", but that's exactly what that was - a lame excuse. Hemingway, like most men, was too shy to say that he was simply attracted to (very) young women. 

Like Bukowski wrote, Hemingway simply "[...] liked young ladies,\ writing itself,\and talking about writing."

Clearly, Hemingway's nymphets were not deterred by his grey, his age or the fact that he was married, which isn't surprising after reading R. Don Steele's How to Date Young Women for Men Over 35.