“The Man from Cook’s”: Hemingway and the Demise of the World’s Oldest Travel Company

ABSTRACT:On 23 September 2019, the British travel conglomerate Thomas Cook was declared insolvent, marking the end to arguably the oldest and most familiar brand in the business. As references in letters from the 1920s and an early short story indicate, Hemingway knew of the company and occasionally used its services but also disparaged the quality of foreign cultural encounters it provided to paying customers. Examining these references to Thomas Cook and the industry it represented, this “note” contributes to the critical appraisal of Hemingway’s ambivalent engagement with the rise of leisure travel and mass tourism.