Born in St. Louis, Aaron E. Hotchner graduated from Washington University and briefly
practised law there. In 1942 he joined the USAF, heading the London-Paris bureau of the Air
Force Magazine, from 1946-48. After a period of freelance work in Paris from 1949-50, he
went to work for Cosmopolitan magazine as a feature writer from 1950-54. He returned to
serious free-lancing and sold stories and articles to well-circulated magazines. He later
turned to television and the stage as a playwright, writing successfully for Playhouse 90,
U.S. Steel Hour, Playwright '56, and Omnibus. A full length novel, The Dangerous American,
appeared in 1958 and plays such as The White House were produced in New York in 1964. In
1955, he began various adaptations for stage and television of various Hemingway materials.
Hotchner met Hemingway in 1948 while on assignment from Cosmopolitan in Cuba and the two
were friends till Hemingway's death in 1961. Papa Hemingway, the controversial memoir
brought to court by Mary Hemingway, was published in 1966 by Random House. For further
information see materials housed in the A.E. Hotchner Collection Folder.
