Ernest Hemingway Pt. 1: A Life Story Book

There are many aspects of Ernest Hemingway’s character that range from unattractive to outright despicable. The author does not shy away from demonstrating these traits.

However, Hemingway led a highly compelling life. He lived in France, Italy, Spain and Cuba; traveled extensively in Europe and parts of Africa. In the U.S., for the most part he was on the fringes - in Key West and the mountains of Idaho. He never lived the high life in terms of luxury, except when staying in New York.

This is a complete biography with wonderful passages of how Hemingway’s stories evolved – and then how they were received. We are given many of Hemingway’s wide-ranging activities. What I found interesting, psychologically, was that Hemingway would have a general routine of writing in the morning – and immediately after, switch over to his huge social world of friends, drinking and an assortment of avocations (hunting, fishing, bull-fighting, skiing, travelling...). Hemingway was no loner. It is a remarkable transition to make from the solitary soul-searching of writing.

Later in his life Hemingway tended to surround himself with fawning sycophants, which served to increase his bombast. One trait I found reprehensible was his hateful denigration of those who dared to criticize his writing. Former friends would be cast-off with derogatory insults. Often he would ask feedback on what he had written. Woe betides those who were less than complimentary. His editors at Scribner learnt to maneuver through this minefield.

It should be mentioned that Hemingway did a lot of his own editorial work on what he had written, revising much of his text.

Hemingway spoke Spanish, French and Italian. He had a knack for mixing well in all levels of society – with ranch-hands, privates in the army (Spain and the U.S.), farmers, fishermen (Key West, Cuba); he was no snob. They provided him with characters for his books. He was a keen observer and would probe during conversations, gathering material for future use.

There are a lot of details in this long biography of food, drinking (lots of it), marriages and divorces (three of them), friends encountered (many), and then enemies made – and hunting, fishing, and bull-fighting (one of Hemingway’s least admirable activities I feel).

We are given a full picture of this fascinating man and writer – and a 20th Century journey.


Page 277 (my book) Ivan Kashkeen a Russian translator, 1935

“even under his changing names , you begin to realize that what had seemed the writer’s face is but a mask... You imagine the man, morbidly reticent, always restrained and discreet, very intent, very tired, driven to utter despair, painfully bearing the too heavy burdens of life’s intricacies.” The very mirthlessness of his spasmodic smile, said Kashkeen, betrayed the tragic disharmony inside Hemingway, a psychic discord that brought him to the edge of disintegration.


Page 528-29 excerpts of Ernest Hemingway’s written speech for his Nobel Prize in 1954

“Writing at its best, is a lonely life. He [the writer] grows in public stature as he sheds his loneliness and often his work deteriorates. For he does his work alone and if he is a good enough writer he must face eternity, or the lack of it, each day. For a true writer each book should be a new beginning where he tries again for something that is beyond attainment... Then sometimes, with great luck, he will succeed... It is because we have had such great writers in the past that a writer is driven far out past where he can go, out to where no one can help him.”