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CLASSIC SHORT STORIES FROM THE MASTER OF AMERICAN FICTION

First published in 1927, Men Without Women represents some of Hemingway's most important and compelling early writing. In these fourteen stories, Hemingway begins to examine the themes that would occupy his later works: the casualties of war, the often uneasy relationship between men and women, sport and sportsmanship. In "Banal Story," Hemingway offers a lasting tribute to the famed matador Maera. "In Another Country" tells of an Italian major recovering from war wounds as he mourns the untimely death of his wife. "The Killers" is the hard-edged story about two Chicago gunmen and their potential victim. Nick Adams makes an appearance in "Ten Indians," in which he is presumably betrayed by his Indian girlfriend, Prudence. And "Hills Like White Elephants" is a young couple's subtle, heartwrenching discussion of abortion. Pared down, gritty, and subtly expressive, these stories show the young Hemingway emerging as America's finest short story writer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

One-Dimensional Ernest
Not all short story anthologies are created equal. I have found a number of the short stories by Hemingway here in other anthologies. The premise here seems to be to highlight some of Hemingway's central writing themes- man and sport and manliness in general. No question that Hemingway is a man's writer. The subject matter of interest-bullfighting, gangsters, bicycle racing, boxing and the effects of the ravages of war on the male psyche bear this out.

In some of the short stories like A Canary For One where he introduces a forlorn woman and thus strays from the theme he is on less firm ground. And that kind of sums up the problem of the whole conception behind this compilation. Unlike Scott Fitzgerald, his contemporary and friend, who was very comfortable writing about women Hemingway does not show that same talent. The sparse, to the point dialogue we have come to expect from Hemingway gets its ususal full workout here but not a nuanced view of a two-gendered world. Still The Undefeated and The Killers ( a very, very short story that formed the basis of a movie by that same name starring Ava Gardner and Burt Lancaster) are worth reading in any anthology.

Classic Hemingway
A must for all Hemingway fans.What more can I say.If you are not a Hemingway fan, read this, it might make you one.

Early Hemingway stories
Hemingway's short stories have always been hit & miss with me.Some of them don't really do anything for me, none are among my very favorite short stories, but most of them are well-written and thought provoking. Such is the case with this set.

Hemingway offers us an assortment of masculine characters, mostly picked from his favorite types of male personas:soldiers, bullfighters, mobsters and prizefighters.Despite the title of the book, there are a smattering of female characters in some of the tales. They rank with the standard fare of impetuous women that Hemingway likes to write about.

The scope of the stories is quite broad, featuring painful topics such as abortion, breakup, heartbreak and being past ones prime. The latter theme is taken up in THE UNDEFEATED,THE KILLERS and FIFTY GRAND and later on re-appears in Hemingway's THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA.FIFTY GRAND, which details the demise of a washed-up boxer, is my favorite short story in this collection.

Stories such as IN ANOTHER COUNTRY, and NOW I LAY ME introduce motifs that are echoed in A FAREWELL TO ARMS, which was published just a few years after MWW.

Tho I've never been enamoured with the short story genre, Hemingway does rank as one of the best in the business - particularly in the American literary canon.Hence, followers of Hemingway as well as people who greatly enjoy short stories would likely appreciate this book.

...and to top it off, there are BOXERS on the cover!
These are some the best stories I have ever read.When I was in high school, my class was asked to read In Another Country for discussion.It was my first Hemingway short story, and an introduction to the novels we would be reading.I almost cried.His writing is just so gut-wrenchingly honest and raw.No overwrought explanations of emotion. You know how these characters are feeling simply because of how the speak and act.Hemingway is the master of context.The Killers is almost like a mystery story that never gets solved.Why doesn't he run out of town? What's going to happen to the big guy?I love this stuff and can't get enough of it.

Great weekend reading.
"Men Without Women" by Ernest Hemingway features a glimpse into the genius that is Hemingway.I found it to be a great read during asummer weekend.I especially enjoyed the Nick Adams stories and the storyabout the matador fighting one last glorious bullfight (one of Hemingway'sfavoright subjects)."Men Without Women"deals with subjectsboth everyday and serious such as love and abortion.This short read byHemingway makes a great introduction for anyone wanting to begin readingHemingway.I highly recomend it. ... Read more

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First published in 1970, nine years after Ernest Hemingway's death, Islands in the Stream is the story of an artist and adventurer -- a man much like Hemingway himself. Rich with the uncanny sense of life and action characteristic of his writing -- from his earliest stories (In Our Time) to his last novella (The Old Man and the Sea) -- this compelling novel contains both the warmth of recollection that inspired A Moveable Feast and a rare glimpse of Hemingway's rich and relaxed sense of humor, which enlivens scene after scene.

Beginning in the 1930s, Islands in the Stream follows the fortunes of Thomas Hudson from his experiences as a painter on the Gulf Stream island of Bimini, where his loneliness is broken by the vacation visit of his three young sons, to his antisubmarine activities off the coast of Cuba during World War II. The greater part of the story takes place in a Havana bar, where a wildly diverse cast of characters -- including an aging prostitute who stands out as one of Hemingway's most vivid creations -- engages in incomparably rich dialogue. A brilliant portrait of the inner life of a complex and endlessly intriguing man, Islands in the Stream is Hemingway at his mature best. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (63)

Not Hemingway's finest
I am a huge Hemingway fan, but I did not like this one very much.In truth it is very well written, as are most of his books.He does a wonderful job of illustrating the landscape, the weather, and parts of the people, but this book is way too formulaic and ends up with a lot of loose ends.We learn about Thomas' friend Roger, who later just up and vanishes.It seemed like all the character development that goes into his background, his history as a writer, a fighter and a fisherman seem pretty useless when he's gone halfway through the book.Roger, and Thomas, are both classic Hemingway figures.They are manly men, they drink a ton, they are really good at outdoors-ish things, they score with all the fine women - yet true love escapes them, and they are rich and artistic.Some of Hemingway's characters have really connected with me, but Thomas was not one of them.Again, it's a well written entertaining book, but I think the characters end up being a little fake and over-the-top.

Remains of the UR Text
Islands is part of Hemingway's posthumous body of work, published in 1970 under the auspices of his last wife, Mary Hemingway.It was carved out of the UR text that Hemingway worked on after the war, which ultimately produced (or spawned) The Old Man and the Sea, The Garden of Eden, this work, and by extension, A Moveable Feast.

Islands is a compelling novel, and in terms of structure and action, the best of the posthumous works.It drags a bit on dialogue; there are times when the reader feels he has read parts already.But beyond that, the novel stands on its own as a work, and also provides glimpses into Hemingway's post-war preoccupations.There are long mediations on the nature of art, productivity, and the act of expression.There is a longing look cast backward, toward Paris, which found greater expression in A Moveable Feast.

The novel is also unremittingly dark.We get a glimpse into the Hemingway in his declining years, as his power receded, and his depression and anxiety rose.

Great Hemingway atmosphere
I loved this book.I read it while I was at the Gulf Coast and I could really come to terms with the imagery of the white sand and the sea breeze from Bimini and Cuba.The book is divided into three sections and each has its own tone but they are all Hemingway and give one a wistful feeling of the atmosphere that he provided in his other books.I could see the main character (who is obviously Hemingway) clearly going about his days drinking, carrousing, reminiscing, and feeling without showing.I loved the discussions about James Joyce!The book has a couple of shocks and surprises which give the novel its increasingly melancholy tone.I found that while I was at the Gulf Coast I could not put this book down.I carried it everywhere and could not pull myself away from it.I have enjoyed several Hemingway novels but this has to be one of my favorites.Truly a book for those who love to read Ernest Hemingway.

Hemingway audio
The audio arrive in record time and in the conditiion the seller describe it. There is some trouble with receipt of payment, but I found it's an administrative error not intentional. . Overall I'm very satisfied with this seller and the product and would be happy to do business again.
The book itself take a little patience to get into. It is seperated into three parts and the third and last has to be the more exciting and attention keeping.

Best Hemingway Novel I Have Read
The first time I read 'Islands in the Stream' I just could not get into it. The first part was wonderful, the second part was bland, and I didn't even finish the last part. Looking back on it, I read the book too fast and looked over important dialogue that makes this story great.

The other night I picked this book off my bookshelf on a whim. I started reading it and could not put it down...I looked up at the clock and two hours had gone by in a flash.

The novel starts out in Bimini where painter Thomas Hudson lives. He leads a very simple/enjoyable life. Towards the end of part one, a tragic event occurs which changes Hudson's life dramatically. The second part deals with love and loss. The last part is about Hudson's secret anti-submarine mission off the coast of Cuba.

The story is very well rounded. It has many three-dimensional characters that stay with you. The imagery makes you feel like you are right there.

There is a reason that this book has so many high ratings on amazon: It is, in my opinion, one of Hemingway's finest works.

5/5 ... Read more

Product Description
Published posthumously in 1964, A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway’s classic memoir of Paris in the 1920s, remains one of his most beloved works. Since Hemingway’s personal papers were released in 1979, scholars have examined and debated the changes made to the text before publication. Now this new special restored edition presents the original manuscript as the author intended it to be published.

This volume features a personal foreword by Patrick Hemingway, Ernest’s sole surviving son, and an introduction by the editor and grandson of the author, Seán Hemingway. Also included are a number of unfinished, never-before-published sketches revealing experiences that Hemingway had with his son Jack; his first wife, Hadley; F. Scott Fitzgerald; and Ford Madox Ford, as well as insightful recollections of his own early experiments with his craft. This restored edition brilliantly evokes the exuberant mood of Paris after World War I and the unbridled creativity and unquenchable enthusiasm that Hemingway himself epitomized.Amazon.com Review

In Hemingway's Own Hand
Take a look at two consecutive handwritten manuscript pages from Chapter 2, “Miss Stein Instructs.” (Ernest Hemingway Collection, Manuscripts, A Moveable Feast, Item 131, pp. 3-4, at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, MA.)
Read Page 3 (PDF)	Read Page 4 (PDF)

... Read more

Customer Reviews (20)

Great new edition
I sort of stumbled upon this edition.I read the earlier version of this work and wanted to read it again.I was happy to find out this new edition was being produced with unreleased material.True, the new additions don't drastically make this work any better, they do offer you an opportunity to read previously unreleased material written by a master craftsman.

REMOVEABLE FEAST
Patrick Hemingway who holds the rights to this book has butchered the original which was meticulously compiled and edited by Hemingway's last wife, Mary Hemingway.

Patrick (whom I met in Key West once at The Hemingway Days in the 1980's) has done his father a disservice by eliminating and re-writing parts of this book.I am thrilled to own a first edition of this book as it was intended in the early 60's shortly after Ernest's suicide.

It seems this is a kind of Freudian attempt to slap his father in the face and capitalize on his memory.Shame on you Patrick. Write your own book.

Both Charles Scribners and Maxwell Perkins, had they been alive, would have forbidden this manuscript being re-tooled in this manner.They are all turning in their graves.DON'T BUY INTO THE LIES.

Hemingway as a young writer-- revisited
I read excerpts from the original "A Moveable Feast" in school, years ago. The book - and the peculiar title- stayed with me and 20 years later I read in the NY Times that Patrick and Sean Hemingway had compiled their father and grandfather's original notes and intentions on how to publish the book, and drafted this amazing edition, and I was sold.

This is "A Moveable Feast" without omissions and editing done mostly by Hemingway's last wife and editors after his death.It's probably truer to Hemingway's intentions and desires to tell about his early years as a struggling author in Paris of the 20s, and it's an amazing portrait of the artists he coexisted with, of his thought and writing processes, on the missteps of his early adulthood as a man, as an author.

A brilliant read, as Hemingway almost always is. The book reminded me how magnificent, economic, punctillious his writing can be.Also, Patrick and Sean Hemingway's forewords throw a significant insight into Hemingway's path to publishing the first edition. A jewel!

Inspirational
What could I say about Hemingway that has not already been said by others with a better command of language than I?I wanted to learn about Hemingway's early years in Paris and more about the "Lost Generation."What I did not expect was an education in the discipline of creation and love of the written word.Its truly inspiring.Where has the search for truth gone?

Read it before your next trip to Paris
We did a walking tour of "Hemingway's Paris."I read A Moveable Feast: The Restored Edition afterwards and wished
I had read it before.However, it gives us a reason to go back!

The restored edition contains essay not included in the first edition, which were some of my favorite. ... Read more

Product Description
The Dangerous Summer is Hemingway's firsthand chronicle of a brutal season of bullfights. In this vivid account, Hemingway captures the exhausting pace and pressure of the season, the camaraderie and pride of the matadors, and the mortal drama as in fight after fight the rival matadors try to outdo each other with ever more daring performances. At the same time Hemingway offers an often complex and deeply personal self-portrait that reveals much about one of the twentieth century's preeminent writers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

ONE REALLY DANGEROUS SUMMER!
Fabulous Hemingway!I wish I had a large map of Spain to hilite as I read this book but, honestly, I couldn't get out of my recliner, put the book down, and go look for one.What fabulous times those were for Ernesto and his coterie of friends and followers!!Makes me want to go to Pamplona but I can't run so well anymore.
DRS in Dallas

Hemingway's Passion- Bullfighting and Human Tragedy
"The Dangerous Summer" is the last major work fully completed by Hemingway and it is a difficult subject to discuss, especially in today's world where animal rights protesters show up at book signings to drench people with fake blood because they disagree with their policies or politics. Bullfighting was in its heyday from the 1920's through the 1950's- and those are the years that Ernest Hemingway saw hundreds of bullfights all around Spain, where the masters of the art worked, drank, caroused and some died from their wounds. Hemingway wanted to describe- in exquisite detail- the sights, sounds, smells and emotion of a bullfight in a way which had never been done before and he succeeded grandly. However, his book never garnered recognition as a major work on the level of "For Whom the Bell Tolls" or "The Sun Also Rises" because the topic was controversial and the writing style more like reporting to some rather than true prose. The reviews of this work which rate it according to the standards set by Hemingway's other major novels often miss the major point of the book- to simply describe exactly what it is like to sit in the stands, watching the matadors and picadors practice their art...tempting the fierce monsters near them which could easily kill them at any moment....waving the tantalizing red cape, taunting the bulls to attack them and then deftly maneuvering around the bulls as they grow ever more agitated....This is a difficult book for some to read...yet it is not a difficult book to understand.

On first reading, "The Dangerous Summer" can be a challenge to appreciate. I have never seen a bullfight live, but would like to someday after reading this great book. I came to understand the language- and even more important- the body language- of bullfighting, the thought processes of the matadors, what the crowd wants and expects....and in the end- the human diorama that Hemingway portrays as he hints that we are all in that ring...we are all faced at some point with death...sometimes through actions of our own choosing....and that we will all someday die....It is Hemingway's fear to die without honor...as he abhors cowardice and the thought that he would not be brave in the face of danger....The matadors face death willingly every day they set foot in the ring...it is what they do bravely...what almost all people would never do....but Hemingway loves this challenge...facing death every day....staring it in the eyes....never flinching...It is what inspired so many of his books....

"The Dangerous Summer" stands as a great book, not a great novel in the standard sense of the term. It is illustrative, interesting, sometimes fascinating, chilling to read and often frightening to those who never dreamed of looking at death in this way...Yet Hemingway knew death very well....from his 200-plus schrapnel wounds in World War I, to chasing Nazi submarines during World War II and his numerous accidents (concussions, bone-breaking injuries, plane crashes and other assorted tragedies which nearly killed him)...facing it...and writing about it inspired him. This book is an inspiration to those who want to understand what it is like to stand in that ring, alone, facing death...on their last day.

-by Gene Pisasale,
Author of "Vineyard Days"

Papa's Final Fiesta
For fans of Ernest Hemingway's 1932 classic account of the art of the bullfight, "Death In The Afternoon", the posthumously published (in 1985) "A Dangerous Summer" would seem a must-read. And they will enjoy it, as will fans of Hemingway and Spain. But passion this time is something readers must bring for themselves.

Based on a two-part Life magazine feature published in 1960, "A Dangerous Summer" marks Hemingway's return to the land of the bullfight after his painful exile following his side's defeat in the Spanish Civil War. At its heart is the real-life tale of two rival matadors, brothers-in-law, who square off mano-a-mano in bullrings across the country to discover for themselves and everyone else which is the great torero of the day.

"Luis Miguel [Dominguin] would consider himself a bigger draw at the gate than Antonio due to his longer fame and service and Antonio [Ordonez] would consider very strongly that he was a better matador than Miguel and would be out to show it every time," Hemingway observes. "It looked very hard on family life and very good for bullfighting. It also looked very dangerous."

That it was, for both men, and for Hemingway too, as he got caught up in the drama of the occasion and a rooting interest in Ordonez that takes over the narrative after a few chapters and never lets go. Advocates of Hemingway as a repressed homosexual get a lot of grist for their viewpoint in Hemingway's heavy man-crush for the dashing young Antonio, but those like me who remember and enjoy the broad sweep of "Death In The Afternoon" will feel a bit claustrophobic at the narrowness of Papa's lens here.

In his windy and self-important introduction to this otherwise thin book, James A. Michener claims Hemingway misrepresented the true situation on the ground that summer of 1959. Ordonez was great, but not so great as Hemingway made him out to be. While Hemingway depicted the bullfight with fresh variety in "Death In The Afternoon", here the words tend to repeat: "beautiful" "classic" and "dangerous" with Ordonez; "disappointing" and "difficult" with Dominguin.

There are still great moments of narrative, though despite what Michener says, they aren't found in accounts of the bullfights themselves. Rather it is Hemingway lighting upon a pitcher of sangria, its glass beaded with moisture from the winds of the Levant, or describing his mad, scenic drives through the country. When he is not involving himself in the matador match, Hemingway offers us amiable companionship, filling in various details with a heartiness that belies his physical and mental illness (he would kill himself less than two years after "the dangerous summer" was over).

But then Hemingway returns to the bullfights, and the sad true state of affairs becomes all too apparent. He simply isn't able to engage the reader or himself, even while presenting himself as a central character, cheering Ordonez on. "We got him!" Hemingway tells his young charge after one successful afternoon. Though he claims friendship with Dominquin, he offers little evidence of this, except once when Ordonez's rival is caught by a horn and Hemingway cradles his head en route to the infirmary.

"What a man Ernesto would be if he could only write," Dominquin says later in his bed. Perhaps he was just making a quip, but it feels like the old matador was onto something. For all its strengths, "The Dangerous Summer" better depicts Ernesto's weaknesses.

Dangerous to the Bitter End.
Have you ever pulled a big, bitter pickle fron a barrel and enjoyed it?Munched fresh garlic gloves and savored them despite the pain? Downed Bloody Marys with 3 times the ordinary dose of pepper, and with tabasco sauce thrown in?If you said yes to all 3, chances are you will greatly enjoy this book.

By the end of his life, it is now clear, Hemingway had developed a loose, jocund, even cheery reportorial writing style as a sort of second mode.He first really loosened up his sentences and paragraphs in this manner in the major novel For Whom the Bell Tolls, then went back to tautness (modified) in Across the River, Old Man and the Sea (straight old stuff), and The Moveable Feast (new high marks in the original style).But this, like the recently published Under Kilamanjaro, is a development of the second mode.Way too many scholarly bios and criticism, early after EH's death and to date, have just called the later writing a slackening and a self-charicature, as if the most careful writer of modern English took a 15 year vacation.A lot of this kind of talk was and remains resentment, of course, against the stature of the writing and the man's public clowning.But to come to this close to final product with such misconceptions is a big mistake.

EH once personified Nostalgia as a beautiful woman, and if the opener here doesn't move you -- EH returning to his beloved Spain after years away -- you ought to check your birth record and be sure you were born on this good earth.After the drive in, EH seemingly opens up the second relaxed mode big time, fun and adventures on the road chasing down a mano a mano between the 2 biggest bullfight rivals of the day.There are gags and funny business and personal trivia, even, that the earlier writer avoided, for sure, but boy, don't get suckered into those traps.The old man with the pen is menacing as ever, and in a whole new way.Just when you're set up like a bowling pin he takes you with a sucker punch -- an absolutely deadpan observation about Dominquin's statue of himself in his own house, the way a spooky wind rises at dusk in a vagrant bullring, spelling menace.The jolts are as real, however different, from what hits you in In Our Time.And they have a heavy gravity and patina of sadness that only an old fellow can deliver.Indeed, the effects can be quite emotionally draining in their potent truth.

The estate kept putting out these edited versions, buying the scholars' line, poor Miss Mary not wanting to impair "the reputation."Well, ladies and gentlemen, its intact.Dear Scribners or whoever you are now, please publish the whole ball of wax or let Kent State do it, the long manuscript that EH told his friends was after "Proustian effects."This book, a calculated risk to "the reputation," pays off quite well andstands up easily to repeated reading.EH's inborn talents were in the acuity of his eye and his ear (he had to learn writing the hard way) and if the finale found him struggling with sentences once more, the eye and the ear had only magnificently and spookily ripened.

One for the summer reading list..
What was Dangerous about this summer?Two matadors, related by marriage, entered the ring to establish himself as the greatest of Spain's matadors and, in so doing, each performed an increasingly risky set of moves.Hemingway fretted over both, but he could not choose to ignore the display.It was, he said, tragic to watch the two of them, and tragic not to watch. There is precious little introspection in these pages.Still, I read with envy, wishing I could have been along for the ride.This book is now as much history as literature.The New York Times reported recently that the Madrid hotel favored by Matadors will soon be demolished to make way for a new, Hard Rock Cafe Hotel.And, the bullfight itself, for any number of reasons, is a ghost of what it once was, generating revenue of around $1 billion dollars per year from approximately 17,000 contests.I doubt the Matador will disappear anytime soon, but the era covered in The Dangerous Summer is long past.What Hemingway left us is the active participant's guide to another time and place. ... Read more

Product Description

The ideal introduction to the genius of Ernest Hemingway, The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories contains ten of Hemingway's most acclaimed and popular works of short fiction. Selected from Winner Take Nothing, Men Without Women, and The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories, this collection includes "The Killers," the first of Hemingway's mature stories to be accepted by an American periodical; the autobiographical "Fathers and Sons," which alludes, for the first time in Hemingway's career, to his father's suicide; "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber," a "brilliant fusion of personal observation, hearsay and invention," wrote Hemingway's biographer, Carlos Baker; and the title story itself, of which Hemingway said: "I put all the true stuff in," with enough material, he boasted, to fill four novels. Beautiful in their simplicity, startling in their originality, and unsurpassed in their craftsmanship, the stories in this volume highlight one of America's master storytellers at the top of his form.Amazon.com Review
Returning from a Kenyan safari in 1932, Ernest Hemingwayquickly devised a literary trophy to add to his stash of buffalo hidesand rhino horns. To this day, Green Hills of Africaseems an almost perverse paean to the thrills of bloodshed, in whichthe author cuts one notch after another in his gun barrel anddeclares, "I did not mind killing anything." Four years later,however, Hemingway came up with a more accomplished spin on hisAfrican experiences--a pair of them, in fact, which he collected witheight other tales in The Snows of Kilimanjaro. The title storyis a meditation on corruption and mortality, two subjects that werealready beginning to preoccupy the 37-year-old author. As theprotagonist perishes of gangrene out in the bush, he recognizes hisown failure of nerve as a writer:

Now he would never write the things that he had saved towrite until he knew enough to write them well. Well, he would not haveto fail at trying to write them either. Maybe you could never writethem, and that was why you put them off and delayed the starting. Wellhe would never know, now.

Customer Reviews (25)

A good introduction to Hemingway...
This collection showcases some of Hemingway's best short stories, and serves as a fine introduction to his work. Between the opening "Snows of Kilimanjaro" and the closing "Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber," the ten narratives offer a range of tales ranging from hunting, to drinking, to war, to hunting again. But despite the somewhat predictable nature of Hemingway's works, their economic and sometimes cryptic nature serves to disguise the poignant heartbreak of his characters. It might occasionally read as a broken set of separated stories rather than one cohesive whole (ala The Nick Adams Stories, another of his collections that focused more on creating a set of stories revolving around a central character), but Hemingway has never felt compelled to give a complete recollection of events. While the book fails in providing readers with the clear-cut resolution that they often desire, it also draws great success from telling just enough to evoke a sense of understanding. In the end, Hemingway is never about totality, and readers should have no expectations of such from "The Snows of Kilimanjaro." But what it lacks in the cohesion of it's narratives, it makes up for in consistency of quality. While this volume makes no pretension in being an in-depth study of the human psyche, it is at its fundamental level, a grouping of ten really good stories.

Left me cold
The Snows of Kilimanjaro has little to do with snow or Mount Kilimanjaro or Africa. The first short story serves as a pretext. An author and journalist is dying, and he regrets he didn't write more recollections of his early past. This is followed by fifteen or so tableaux of Michigan rural life (mostly). The pieces are dry and descriptive. They serve to show, not to explain, and barely follow any plots. Each is preceded by an unrelated journalistic snippet: on the 1920s evacuation of Smyrna, on bullfighting, on WWI Italy. This is self-referential, of course. The Snows of Kilimanjaro is at the border between short-story writing and journalism. This fits Hemingway's style. But whether it is interesting is another matter. I much preferred his novels, even if they too are fictionalised reporting, especially A Farwell To Arms and For Whom The Bell Tolls.

An Undercurrent of Demons
If you've read only a few of Hemingway's major works (as I had), this slim volume of ten short stories is a wonderful way to get a better sense of this literary lion's take on life and the demons (real or imagined) that populate the lives of his wounded characters - and the author himself.

On the plains of Africa, convalescing in Italy, at an outdoor cafe in the middle of the night or in Middle America, psychological scars abound,women can hem you in, men can give you nightmares, family can haunt you, and life can be cheap. Hemingway experienced first-hand the pathos of humanity in the theater of war and brings deeply felt emotions to the table in his trademark punchy, rat-a-tat-tat, sometimes nuts-to-you style. And all the while, he evokes the landscapes, smells, sounds and sky of his settings in a manner captured for posterity by the mind's eye.

The bookends of this collection - "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" and "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" - tell of men in a setting that demands courage who, in their own way, try to measure up to their self-expectations while making peace with their choice of mates, all while nature closes in on them. Each has a compelling conclusion (the reader of "Kilimanjaro" may miss what has really happened if skimming at a critical point), but it is "Kilimanjaro" that soars in its lofty evocation of the release of death. And its flashback stream-of-consciousness, a precursor of the kind of New Journalism ushered in during the Sixties by authors like Tom Wolfe, provides a stark counterpoint to the stillness of the African encampment.

This collection is a superior introduction to Hemingway and is strongly recommended.

With stories left untold . . .
Between the first story about dealing with life in the context of death and the last story about dealing with death in the context of life, the stories between the two in this anthology follow suit thematically. As a topical collection, The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories serves as a good overview of the more dreary side of Hemingway's standard subject matter: unspoken dissatisfaction, the absence of emotion in the midst of war, and decent men in the midst of bad lives.

In the title story, Harry turns into the expectation of death towards the end of his life after realizing that he, like us all, will die with stories untold. The monologue where he talks about saving the best stories for too long is surely one of the most terse and accurate statements on the creation of and co-existence with art. The oft-anthologized "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" retrogrades and shifts the viewpoint of the people who surround misery as opposed to misery itself. Of course, in fitting with the feel of the rest of the stories, there exists the inescapable unity within the brotherhood of melancholy.

"A Day's Wait" seems tossed of, and fails at the short form that "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" succeeds with. The next story is the ridiculously-titled (and perhaps misplaced) "The Gambler, the Nun, and the Radio," and even if the ending reveals too much with its final exchange of dialogue, the story is good and occasionally funny (on purpose, which is rare for Hemingway).

Two Nick Adams stories--the odd "Fathers and Sons" and the solid-yet-anticlimactic "The Killers"--are all right, but leave me wondering why he has become a reoccurring character in Hemingway's work. Between them is "In Another Country," where the style makes what is important either unsaid or trivialized, thereby perfecting the concept of a dead and unsettled center in the middle of a chaotic swirl of feelings. A third Nick Adams story ("A Way You'll Never Be") seemed like a poorly done "In Another Country." The collection closes with "Fifty Grand" and "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber," two tales of realization and redemption. This is a very nice introduction to Hemingway's short fiction, with a little bit of sadness soot available for everyone.

Mediocre

I gave a brief try to Hemingway two or three years ago that didn't stick, though I don't remember the volume. Then, the other day, with full-on earnestness, I grabbed up this book. I thought it was pretty simple stuff. He seems to be write absolutely from the gut. Short sentences, bland sentences. Nothing that is deeply thoughtful or even conscious.

He is well-known as a macho writer who nonetheless delivered a genius to mass and critical audiences. But I'm not sure I understand how or why. I ought to try one on his famous novels before haranguing the icon, but there is almost no temptation after reading this collection.

I give him credit for conjuring up thick clouds of weird, dark emotion over seemingly fleeting events (one story in this collection, "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, does this particularly well), but the balance was a disappointment.
... Read more

Product Description
In this compelling biography, Peter Griffin draws on a wealth of previously unpublished material--including numerous letters and five of Hemingway's early short stories that appear in their entirety--to trace the formative years of one of America's most celebrated and influential authors. Along with Youth examines in richer detail than any previous account Hemingway's midwestern childhood, his relations with his parents, his journalistic apprenticeship, and his experiences as a Red Cross volunteer in Italy during World War I.It sheds new light on his wartime romance with Agnes von Kurowsky, his first love (and a model for the character of Catherine Barkley in A Farewell to Arms), as well as on the circumstances surrounding his wounding and convalescence.It closes with Hemingway on the brink of the literary career that would bring him worldwide fame.
The five short stories--"The Mercenaries," "Crossroads," "Portrait of an Idealist in Love," "The Ash Heel's Tendon," and "The Current"--reveal that the Hemingway vision and style preceded the 1920s, his Paris years with Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein. The book also contains many other newly uncovered documents--including letters written by Ernest to his closest friend, Bill Horne, before and after the Kurowsky love affair--which provide a rich new perspective on Hemingway's emotional development and his beginnings as a writer.Jack Hemingway, Ernest's son by his first wife, Hadley Richardson, made his mother's complete correspondence available to Griffin and also contributed a foreword in which he writes, "[Griffin] has shown me insights into my own father's character and behavior I would not have thought possible in view of the time lapse between Hemingway's death and the research he accomplished."
This is the first installment of a projected three-volume life which promises to be the definitive Hemingway biography for this generation. ... Read more

Product Description
When Ernest Hemingway won the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature, presenters called him one of this epoch's great molders of style, praising his vivid dialogue and journalistic eye for robust details to accumulate and take on momentous significance.
But even the Swedish Academy could not separate Hemingway the writer from Hemingway the adventurer. They also cited his manly love of danger and adventure, with a natural admiration for every individual who fights the good fight in a world of reality overshadowed by violence and death.
From the 1920s until his death in 1961, Papa Hemingway was a larger-than-life literary figure whose everyday exploits became legendary. He was a friend of celebrities, a war correspondent, journalist, renowned big-game hunter, record-setting saltwater angler, and hard-drinking brawler whose reputation preceded him.
Though Hemingway was and remains an American icon, he was also first and foremost a human being, as these striking black-and-white photos remind. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

good photos
I always like to read stories and look at photos of Hemingway and his friends.This is a welcome addition to my collection of books about Hemingway.I enjoy reading about his life...especially when the narratives are accompanied by photos.I think you would like this book whether you're a fan of Ernest Hemingway or not.

A visual "must-have" for Hemingway fans and scholars alike
Historic Photos of Ernest Hemingway is a striking coffee table book of vintage black-and-white photography of Nobel Prize for Literature-winning author Ernest Hemingway, the hard-drinking brawler of an author (and former war correspondent) whose larger-than-life reputation was reflected in the legendary exploits of his literary heroes characterized by grace under pressure. Each full-page photograph features a brief, descriptive contextual caption James Plath (award-winning Professor of English at Illinois Wesleyan University and a member of the Hemingway society). A visual "must-have" for Hemingway fans and scholars alike.

THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE HEMINGWAY
It's difficult to think of a more iconic figure in American literature than Ernest Hemingway.Yet, as these photos remind us, he was so much more than a writer.He was a very rugged individual with a taste for adventure, hunting, fishing, fighting, and drinking.In addition, he was a war correspondent, a friend to celebrities, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

That sounds like a description of several men rather than just one, but Hemingway packed a great deal into every day, whether he was at the typewriter, wrestling with a marlin, or joining in the encierro (an amateur bullfight).

As with many well known people there is always a public side and a private side.Hemingway undoubtedly had countless publicity stills made, covers for his books, advertisements for his causes and, unfortunately, some none too flattering gossip column pics.Historic Photos of Ernest Hemingway is far beyond all of that.Here we see private andfamily photos of him from the age of four weeks to shortly before his death in 1961.

We find him with Hadley in 1921.They had met at a party on Chicago's north side, and hit it off so famously that she remained in that city for three more weeks.He would, of course, follow her to St. Louis to continue courting her. Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas were named godparents when Hemingway's son was baptized.Later, Stein mentioned Pamplona to him, a suggestion which was to change the course of his life and work.

As James Plath write in his Preface, "...it's hard to lie to a camera."Thus, we become aware of some of the true qualities of this creative genius rather than only his public persona, which has been described as "the embodiment of American robustness and vigor."

Enjoy!

- Gail Cooke ... Read more

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The death of Ernest Hemingway in 1961 ended one of the most original and influential careers in American literature. His works have been translated into every major language, and the Nobel Prize awarded to him in 1954 recognized his impact on contemporary writing.

While many people are familiar with the public image of Hemingway and the legendary accounts of his life, few knew him as an intimate. With this collection of letters, presented for the first time as a Scribner Classic, a new Hemingway emerges. Ranging from 1917 to 1961, this generous selection of nearly six hundred letters is, in effect, both a self-portrait and an autobiography. In his own words, Hemingway candidly reveals himself to a wide variety of people: family, friends, enemies, editors, translators, and almost all the prominent writers of his day. In so doing he proves to be one of the most entertaining letter writers of all time.

Carlos Baker has chosen letters that not only represent major turning points in Hemingway's career but also exhibit character, wit, and the writer's typical enthusiasm for hunting, fishing, drinking, and eating. A few are ingratiating, some downright truculent. Others present his views on writing and reading, criticize books by friend or foe, and discuss women, soldiers, politicians, and prizefighters. Perhaps more than anything, these letters show Hemingway's irrepressible humor, given far freer rein in his correspondence than in his books. An informal biography in letters, the product of forty-five years' living and writing, Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters leaves an indelible impression of an extraordinary man.

Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois, in 1899. At seventeen he left home to join the Kansas City Star as a reporter, then volunteered to serve in the Red Cross during World War I. He was severely wounded at the Italian front and was awarded the Croce di Guerra. He moved to Paris in 1921, where he devoted himself to writing fiction, and where he fell in with the expatriate circle that included Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, and Ford Madox Ford. His novels include The Sun Also Rises (1926), A Farewell to Arms (1929), To Have and Have Not (1937), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940), and The Old Man and the Sea (1952). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954. He died in Ketchum, Idaho, on July 2, 1961. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A writer's writer
Two authors of the 20th century whose letters go beyond fascination are James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway. This volume is an excellent example of just how committed Hemingway was not only to writing, but to getting as close to the action of his writing. Once the reader emerses themselves into his letters, one sees the true Hemingway, not the mythological one created by critics (mostly those who were not fans of the writer).

It is almost unimaginable that someone in his time or any other could be so well connected and intimate with other artist: Joyce, Pound, McLeish, Fitzgerald, Picaso, and so on. If you're a writer this collection is wonderful. It shows the day to day dealings with drafting, editing, publishing, and the intimate relationships between writer and publisher, though this relationship is almost non-existent today.

I found Hemingway through his letters to be someone who is passionate about life and equally compassionate about friends. He tells it the way it is, not the way politically correct messengers do. It is an education in itself to read this collection.

A look behind the curtain!
I miss old fashioned letters, now that we live in the age of email. Frotunately, I still have 'real' letters saved that have now collected dust from my parent's generation, and from a time gone by.

Occasionally I stumble over published letters of famous writers in antique bookstores: Last time, it was a 800 page volume of some of Ernest Hemingway's personal letters; the first edition of this Amazon edition. They were published posthumeously, and not intended by EH for publication.
We get a peek behind the curtain, and learn among other things that Ernest Hemingway was addicted to letters, wrote lots and lots, starting in his teens; and that he was really depressed when he didn't receive replies; or when there were days when the postman brought no letters. Waiting for transatlantic mail added to his sense of loneliness. Letters were a lifelong passion of his, continuing up to the day when he took his own life. These private letters weren't meant to be published, and they are raw, but very honest.
When you read them, you are in no doubt that the writer is a true artist, and an original!
They stretch over the span of his productive life, and they are varied: addressed to family (his parents, his children), his ex, to friends, including famous contemporaries, such as Marlene Dietrich (just one of them), his agent(s), his publishers, and many more.

I have a hunch EH must have been hard to keep up with, but his letters are fun to read; even though, in my view, his novels are mixed: Some great, and some I don't care for.

Guess, EH's life was bizare too. The private letters are consistent with that. And yet, they exude a special warmth; both gentelness and passion.
Reviewed by Palle Jorgensen. December 2004.

As fascinating as any novel or story he wrote...
This collection of letters serves as the closest thing to a Hemingway autobiography we have.It is certainly must reading for the student or researcher, and I would highly recommend it for even the casual Hemingway fan.

Hemingway often wrote letters to either warm up for a day of writing or cool off afterward, and in these letters you see him at his unguarded, intellectual, humorous best.The style of his letter writing is often much freer than the tightly crafted prose style of his fiction...it's almost like watching a classical musician break into some improvisational jazz.

A great book to just dip into wherever you want, and this new edition is long overdue. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (5)

I'm sorry
I read these poems 25 years ago in a City Lights edition. While EH is a major part of my life through the inscrutable (or perhaps ultimately scrutable) elegance and beauty of his prose, this is some of the worst poetry I've ever read. It is clumsy, it doesn't flow, it is cliche; none of the things that turn language into poems is there. This does nothing to lessen his importance as one of our greatest writers, but not everybody can be transcendant in every medium. (Ever seen one of his paintings? Save yourself the pain. Check out some of Picasso's poems. No, don't.)

Ernest the Lionized...Evidently he deserves every bit of it
I read this short volume without a clear conception of what Hemingway's poetry would turn out to be.I'd always heard it said that Hemingway's economy in his prose rendered paragraphs into a poetry of their own.But the dynamics of poetry are somewhat different from those of prose: While giving one untrammeled use of the English language (heck, you can even be forgiven a few perversions of grammar), you have to have an ear for meter, let the cadence exalt each verse into a brief apotheosis, where prose writing could take twice as much time to shoot its load.Thankfully, Hemingway was as brilliant (and troubled) a poet as he was a novelist.

Hemingway's early poetry is a good indication of what he was soon to create.From the facetious poems about baseball and high school track teams mimicking the verse of his idols,to the smart allecky "Blank Verse" (written as an imposed classroom assignment), we get a good sense of the wry, often witty Hemingway that was to emerge in parts of books such as the Sun Also Rises.Yes, despite the suicide, despite the preoccupation with war and violent sports (bullfight, anyone?) Hemingway had a knack for giving life to people tersely, but with all the effect that a more prolix writer could.(Take the descriptions of Jake drinking wine from a native's winesack on a bus, exultant at the thought of a fishing trip forthcoming.)This, not to say joyful, but at least sometimes happy side to Pappa's poetry is almost completely supplanted by the style that dominated his years in Europe as a WWII correspondent, Cuba, and Idaho.These poems are more technically adroit, sometimes beautiful, but introspective and often a bit more than morose.Ironic: The same man who inveighed against Dorothy Parker for her failed suicide attempts blew his mind out in some corner of Idaho decades after he'd made a name for himself in literature so rockfast that, as long as there are the literate, there will be the Hemingway-lovers.

That notwithstanding, Hemingway made a name with Farewell to Arms, The Battler, et al.These poems are brilliant, but, for the two of you who've never read a Hemingway prose volume, remember: His novels are just glorious poems with more action, characters and plot.And are far more reflective of his genius than even these wonderful selections.

good poetry
Originally published as 88 Poems in 1979.This is an updated version with a new afterword.Shows the breadth of work Hemingway did, not only novels, short stories, journalism and literary non-fiction but poetry too.The earliest was when he was 12 yrs old and foreshadows his great range. They span to age 56.Some were for small publications.Many were written to individuals and were never intended for publication.This volume is exquisitely annotated.Some are earthy as you would expect from a man who was involved with war, wingshooting, big-game fishing.Some are delicate and sensitive.The book is worth reading to explore the great range of Hemingway.

good poetry
i never knew hemingway was a poet. but i'm glad he was, since several of these poems are excellent, and most are good (and quite a few bitter). i'm not surprised hemingway's poems are good since it would seem to fit hisstyle of write, every sentence, every word important.

An Excellent Compilation
Author Nicholas Georgiannis has done Hemingway readers -- and poetryreaders in general -- a great service by compiling this popular author'spoems into an authorized version. Readers will find that Hemingway's poemsrun the gamut from starkly serious to bitter to silly, often revealing anacrid sense of humor. Those unfamiliar with Hemingway's poetic works willfind Georgiannis' Introduction quite helpful in setting the literarybackground. Furthermore, readers will find the 'Explanatory Notes' and'Related Readings' at the end of the book are quite helpful inunderstanding Hemingway's terms and references. My only problem with thebook is Georgiannis' decision not to include certain "controversialpoems", including 'Hurray for Fonnie Richardson', because it"could hurt a living person." (162) His decision not to hurtanyone is admirable and understandable, but in the end not to be publishthose works would be illiberal. So circumstanced, serious students ofHemingway will want the complete man, sins and all. Not to worry: hisgreatness will go undiminished thanks to the efforts of authors likeNicholas Georgiannis. ... Read more

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"It came with a rush; not as a rush of water nor of wind; but of a sudden evil-smelling emptiness. . ."

Customer Reviews (1)

A Very Good Listen
I get these books on CD for my commute time, this one was a winner.Charlton Heston give it a very good reading. ... Read more

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In 1937 Ernest Hemingway traveled to Spain to cover the civil war there for the North American Newspaper Alliance. Three years later he completed the greatest novel to emerge from "the good fight," For Whom the Bell Tolls. The story of Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades attached to an antifascist guerilla unit in the mountains of Spain, it tells of loyalty and courage, love and defeat, and the tragic death of an ideal. In his portrayal of Jordan's love for the beautiful Maria and his superb account of El Sordo's last stand, in his brilliant travesty of La Pasionaria and his unwillingness to believe in blind faith, Hemingway surpasses his achievement in The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms to create a work at once rare and beautiful, strong and brutal, compassionate, moving, and wise. "If the function of a writer is to reveal reality," Maxwell Perkins wrote Hemingway after reading the manuscript, "no one ever so completely performed it." Greater in power, broader in scope, and more intensely emotional than any of the author's previous works, it stands as one of the best war novels of all time.Amazon.com Review
For Whom the Bell Tolls begins and ends in a pine-scented forest,somewhere in Spain. The year is 1937 and the Spanish Civil War is in fullswing. Robert Jordan, a demolitions expert attached to the InternationalBrigades, lies "flat on the brown, pine-needled floor of the forest, hischin on his folded arms, and high overhead the wind blew in the tops of thepine trees." The sylvan setting, however, is at sharp odds with the reasonJordan is there: he has come to blow up a bridge on behalf of theantifascist guerrilla forces. He hopes he'll be able to rely on their localleader, Pablo, to help carry out the mission, but upon meeting him,Jordanhas his doubts: "I don't like that sadness, he thought. That sadness isbad. That's the sadness they get before they quit or before they betray.That is the sadness that comes before the sell-out." For Pablo, it seems,has had enough of the war. He has amassed for himself a small herd ofhorses and wants only to stay quietly in the hills and attract as littleattention as possible. Jordan's arrival--and his mission--have seriouslyalarmed him.

"I am tired of being hunted. Here we are all right. Now if you blow abridge here, we will be hunted. If they know we are here and hunt for uswith planes, they will find us. If they send Moors to hunt us out, theywill find us and we must go. I am tired of all this. You hear?" He turnedto Robert Jordan. "What right have you, a foreigner, to come to me and tellme what I must do?"

For Whom the Bell Tolls combines two of the author's recurringobsessions: war and personal honor. The pivotal battle scene involving ElSordo's last stand is a showcase for Hemingway's narrative powers, but thequieter, ongoing conflict within Robert Jordan as he struggles to fulfillhis mission perhaps at the cost of his own life is a testament to hiscreator's psychological acuity.By turns brutal and compassionate, it isarguably Hemingway's most mature work and one of the best war novels of the20th century. --Alix Wilber ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The ;magnificent declarative sentence.
Hemingway is still a gem.This book builds on his wonderful sentences into a tragic view of the Spanish Civil War.It is not overly 'macho' as some of his books.Just a darn good read even after 70 some-odd years. ... Read more

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The 1920s in Paris are the pivotal years in Hemingway's apprenticeship as a writer, whether sitting in cafs or at the feet of Gertrude Stein. These are the heady times of the Nick Adams short stories, Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, and the writing of The Sun Also Rises. These are also the years of Hemingway's first marriage to Hadley Richardson, the birth of his first son, and his discovery of the bullfights at Pamplona.Amazon.com Review
In the second of his series of five biographies of Ernest Hemingway, Michael Reynolds turns to the years that formed the writer's distinctive style and critical intelligence. He exhaustively chronicles the particular literary influences on Hemingway, oftentimes even recounting the reading lists that the writer received from particular individuals. "Reading The Wasteland with Ezra Pound at one's elbow is no bad way to pick up a thing or two," he dryly observes at one point. He also pays close attention to Hemingway's conversations with, and studying the literature of, Pound, James Joyce, and particularly Gertrude Stein, who later complained that for all of Hemingway's talent, "He looks like a modern and he smells of the museums." Reynolds's sympathy for his subject is so complete that at times his own stylistic voice becomes a sort of homage to Hemingway's--colloquial, declarative, and wry. At times, however, he too liberally assumes the inner thoughts of his subjects. The substantial research and period analysis he commands turn such repeated phrases as "he must have thought" or "it must have seemed to him" into an unnecessary striving for authority. At his best, though, Reynolds not only uses his extensive source material with a critical eye but provides a wealth of information about the social, political, and literary backgrounds of a time and place that were in many ways the dawn of the 20th century's intellectual tradition. --John Longenbaugh ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

The Hemingway Everybody Wants
In volume two of Michael Reynolds five part biography, the reader gets the Hemingway he wants.Here is the Hemingway the young writer in Paris struggling to find his voice and perfect his craft. Here is the Hemingway of the cafes, the conversations with Stein, Joyce, Ford, Pound.If Hemingway arrived in Paris at the close of Modernism's Golden Age, he made quick work of exploiting what was left.

Reynolds is very deft in showing what an excellent pupil Hemingway was; he listened to Stein, took from her what he thought was useful, incorporated it into his writing, but made it his own (or, in some opinions, surpassed it).Paris in the 20s was the undergraduate education that Hemingway never received.His short, intense friendships with writers were always useful to him, even if they nearly all ended poorly.

Reynolds has done a remarkable job in showing the writer at work, both on himself and his art.The results, of course, are staggering.What Hemingway would accomplish in a few years many writers fail to do in a lifetime.

A Better Take
Much of what I knew or thought I knew about Ernest Hemingway came from brief introductions in high school or college at the hands of teachers or professors whose biases tended to cloud and obscure my own limited view.
Years later after reading a better portion of his work- liking some books, not liking others, I came to better appreciate the terse, run-on style and prose that won him his acclaim. Knowing how he got 'their' was always a mystery and maybe that's why I think Michael Reynolds book shines brightly and offers a better, more reflective light of the author than what I've previously encountered.
This is a very good book and one that perhaps should be made mandatory reading for those instructors who have Hemingway on their suggested reading lists. If you want to know something more of Ernest Hemingway as well as the American ex-pats in Paris in the 20s and the central literary figures who served as mentors, critics or who, in some way, for good or bad, helped shape the writer he became, then add this one to your bookshelf. This isn't a 'puff piece' either. Reynolds balanced out both the light and dark side to Hemingway and the transitions in-between.
Five stars easily.

Of all the writers on Hem today Michael is the best
Isn't it strange that having lived up with Hem's books and later with all the student's stuff on him - every book and most writers take you back to those early day's good feeling which you had after having read his shortstory stuff?? And having read almost everything which is written about Hem until today, this is still one of my absolute favourites. I like his style and I appreciate the accuracy and all the work that is behind every project he publish on Hem. I recommend this book.

nonfiction so good you'd think it's fiction.
Here's the thing with most biographies...they're biographies. I'm a lover of fiction, the crafted tale, the sculpted language. There is a certain freedom of the word that seems to only exist in the "made up" story. A freedom almost never captured in the strict confines of an accurate and truthful biography. Enter Michael Reynolds. He tells the tale of Hemingway's Paris years with so much fluidity and grace you'd swear he fabricated this Hemingway guy out of his own gorgeous imagination. This reads like a novel and a damn good one. It's peppered with minute historical facts ie: the value of the dollar, the franc, the German mark, the pound, at any given time. Political unrest, social change, fashion, food, and most importantly...the state of literature at that point in time. All of this swirls around the incredibly multi dimensional main character. You'll read it three times.

Feel What It Is Like To Live In Hemingway's Paris
This is an engrossing book that makes you feel like you are actually walking alongside Hemingway during his early years in Paris. I could feel the cold that he felt on his cheek, I could see the smile that Hadley gave him every time he walked into their dark little apartment after a hard day of writing in the cafes. This is due to Michael Reynolds superb, painstaking research, the photographs, and the copies of original manuscript that he included in this biography. I cannot stress enough how unlike an usual biography this is...Hemingway literally leaps out at you from the first sentence and pulls you into his world, lets you experience his poverty and first marriage in Paris, the birth of his son, the arrival of his first mistress, and the amazing literary scene in Paris that has now apparently died for good. Hemingway has amazing quotes on writing, life, living through your failures, and it was a pleasure to get to read the library list of every book he checked out during this time period. This is an amazing book, and the best biography I have EVER read in my life.
... Read more

Product Description

"Throughout Hemingway's career as a writer, he maintained that it was bad luck to talk about writing -- that it takes off 'whatever butterflies have on their wings and the arrangement of hawk's feathers if you show it or talk about it.'"

Despite this belief, by the end of his life he had done just what he intended not to do. In his novels and stories, in letters to editors, friends, fellow artists, and critics, in interviews and in commissioned articles on the subject, Hemingway wrote often about writing. And he wrote as well and as incisively about the subject as any writer who ever lived....

This book contains Hemingway's reflections on the nature of the writer and on elements of the writer's life, including specific and helpful advice to writers on the craft of writing, work habits, and discipline. The Hemingway personality comes through in general wisdom, wit, humor, and insight, and in his insistence on the integrity of the writer and of the profession itself.

-- From the Preface by Larry W. PhillipsAmazon.com Review
"Throughout Ernest Hemingway's career as a writer," says LarryW. Phillips in his introduction to Ernest Hemingway on Writing,"he maintained that it was bad luck to talk about writing." Hemingwayseems to have courted bad luck. Phillips has amassed a slender book'sworth of Hemingway's reflections on writing, culled from letters,books, interviews, speeches, and an unpublished manuscript. Thesemusings are arranged into topics such as "Advice to Writers," "WorkingHabits," and "Obscenity" (of which there is plenty here). Sometimesponderous, other times offhand, these thoughts form a portrait of aman driven to create not solely the best writing he could, but thebest writing, period. Hemingway craved exactness, both in his work andin the work of others; he strove to make every word necessary. "Eschewthe monumental," he wrote to Maxwell Perkins in 1932. "Shun theEpic. All the guys who can paint great big pictures can paint greatsmall ones." His aim? Mere perfection. "I write one page ofmasterpiece to ninety one pages of shit," he confided to F. ScottFitzgerald in 1934. "I try to put the shit in the wastebasket." --Jane Steinberg ... Read more

Customer Reviews (22)

No Guide to Writing
Reading some other reviews I felt I had to make this comment first: There is no guide to writing fiction. Any book that claims to be able to teach you how to write fiction(well!) is quite simply trash. One can learn about writing and one can learn about aspects of writing like certain concepts pertaining to the writing of fiction such as plot, character, ect. But there is no quick, simple, easy book to read that will show you how to write or be a writer. If that is what you're looking for, this book certainly isn't it. This is "Ernest Hemingway ON Writing" not "Ernest Hemingway: How to Write"

THAT being said, this book IS very enjoyable. At 140 pages, with generous spacing, its a quick, light read. It is essentially a collection of everything Hemingway ever wrote down about writing, whether in letters or his own books. Many quote selections come from Hemingway's personal letters, so if you interested in learning about the man, not simply the craft, you will enjoy this book. Some of the most interesting things I found in the book included how he picked his titles, his morning routine, censorship, and the letters to F. Scott. Most of those were either very funny or very explosive. Something I found most pleasurable was being able to follow his thoughts through the course of his career. The quotations are not in chronological order but the selections from letters are all dated.

Required reading for all journalism students and writers of all ages
Although Hemingway was superstitious about publicly talking about writing -- and writing about writing -- it's lucky for us all that the editor captured and assembled this invaluable collection of his views on the topic.

I've read this book several times, though it had the most impact on me when I first read it as a journalism student. While I never came close to the genius of Hemingway, his advice and views toward writing and reporting stayed with me and heavily influenced my life -- even giving me the travel bug that would take me around the world several times in search of adventure. All throughout my travels I kept a journal and tried to incorporate a little bit of Hemingway in each entry.

"Ernest Hemingway on Writing" belongs on every writer's bookshelf.

Clean, well-lighted prose
Ernest Hemingway changed the way people wrote. Victor Hugo, writing a mere fifty years before, has a sentence in 'Les Misrables' which spans two pages. After Hemingway, that, no one would dare.

The editors have culled virtually all Hemingway's remarks on writing. Very useful to have in one place.I bought this little book on publication in 1984 - been with me ever since.Unlike other writing manuals, this one can be read piecemeal - savored in bits - like the poetry of the craft it is.

Two favorites:

"The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof, sh[...]tdetector." (famous)

"Eschew the monumental. Shun the Epic. All the guys who can paint great big pictures can paint great small ones."

Think of 'The Old Man And The Sea'.Epic - transcendent - speaks to almost all of us - probably, for almost all time.But, it's only a story about some old fisherman Hemingway may have known and the one that got away. May have even heard the storyline somewhere.

Good excerpts from Hemingway.Not a comprehensive book on the subject of writing
I found the book interesting enough for a quick glance, but not fascinating enough to recommend it as a must-have. The book is comprised of excerpts from different sources that deal with the topic of writing. Since Hemingway never wrote extensively on the topic of writing, he considered it bad luck; this is the most thorough book on the subject for Hemingway fans.But BECAUSE Hemingway never wrote much on the subject, the reader has to settle for an incomplete tome on the subject of writing.
In conclusion this is the best book on Hemingway's thoughts on writing, but not a comprehensive book on the subject.

Hemingway Uncensored
Eye-opening excerpts from many Hemingway letters to his closest friends, typos and all. Insightful and revealing. A must-have for any Hemingway fan or aspiring writer. Mice: Pick this up at your own peril. This is true Hemingway, he pulls no punches. Such a short read though, regrettably much too short, although the Hemingway gems scattered throughout this sparse booklet are still well worth the price. Being that he never intended this material to be published, it shows his honesty as a writer as much as it reveals in snapshot style, his honesty in how he lived and survived his short, magnificent life. It's editor (Phillips) unwittingly perhaps, might have made Hemingway proud after all. Including not one, but many of the truest sentences you'll ever read. ... Read more

Product Description
A must-read for Hemingway enthusiasts in the centennialyear of his birth, A Hemingway Odyssey contains never-before-publishedinterviews with people who knew him and observations of the specialplaces he frequented, thus revealing how powerfully the watersHemingway loved influenced his writing from his earliest days to hislast novels.

Wherever Hemingway went--in Michigan, Italy, France, Spain, Germany,Key West, Cuba, or Kenya--he managed to find special places that heplumbed both emotionally and with a hook and line. In this fascinatingnarrative, H. Lea Lawrence retraces the great writer's footsteps tothese special places and records the recollections and insightsoffered by some of the people who recalled when Hemingway visitedtheir town or fished with one of their relatives. Beginning with oneof the writer's first short stories, "Big Two-Hearted River,"which is reproduced in its entirety, an unmistakable relationship isestablished between Hemingway's angling experiences and variousstages of his writing.

This unique approach to Hemingway's life sets it apart from the workof other biographers. Numerous photographs put readers in touch withhis life, particularly with the waters where he loved to fish, fromrushing trout streams to the Gulf Stream. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Hemingway's Favorite Places
"A Hemingway Odyssey- Special Places in His Life" is a wonderful book that takes you to many of the spots Hemingway loved: Italy, Switzerland, France, Spain, Cuba and Key West among them. H Lea Lawrence clearly enjoyed walking in the footsteps of the great author- and takes the time to seek out the locals still there who remember and knew Hemingway. We are introduced to residents of the places who in some cases spoke with Hemingway, met him at hotels, directed him to local fishing spots and had cocktails with him. The book explores many sites which Hemingway fans themselves have wanted to visit over the years- and unfortunately many of the people who knew him are passing away, to be gone from the scenes forever....

Interesting is Lawrence's investigation of the many small local hotels in existence in the 1920's- 1950's where Hemingway stayed. Many of these are now private residences or closed- but several still exist and are the focus of his book. The author meets the current owners, managers and support staff who tell him of the day when Hemingway stopped in for a drink or for the weekend- and although some of the stories are once removed (second hand accounts), the conversations are interesting and informative.

Most Hemingway fans have thought of travelling to his famous haunts- most famous of which in the U.S. is Sloppy Joe's Saloon in Key West- and Lawrence stops in there for a brief visit, along with describing Hemingway's local exploits fishing in the Gulf Stream. A picture of the Hemingway House and Museum- with its famous six-toed cats- is included and it is a welcome addition to the story line. Having been to Sloppy Joe's myself for my 50th birthday in 2007, I enjoyed not only this, but all the other descriptions of Hemingway's favorite spots- and I plan to vist many of them in the years ahead.

-Gene Pisasale
Author, "Lafayette's Gold- the Lost Brandywine Treasure" and
"Vineyard Days"

A true delight for Hemingway fans
H. Lea Lawrence.A Hemingway Odyssey. Cumberland. May 1999. c.201p. photogs. bibliog. ISBN 1-58182-024-0. pap. $12.95. LIT

One of Hemingway greatest strengths is his ability to place readers in thephysical location of his stories so deeply it engages all five senses.Employing snippets from Hemingway's letters, memoirs, and fiction, thisvolume is a collection of biographical travelogues recalling the placesthat loom large in the Hemingway legend-Michigan, Europe, Key West, Cuba,Idaho, etc., most of the which are buttressed with photographs. A truedelight for all Hemingway fans.--Michael Rogers, "LibraryJournal" ... Read more

Product Description

Both revealing self-portrait and dramatic fictional chronicle of his final African safari, Ernest Hemingway's last unpublished work was written when he returned from Kenya in 1953. Edited by his son Patrick, who accompanied his father on the safari, True at First Light offers rare insights into the legendary American writer.

The book opens on the day his close friend Pop, a celebrated hunter, leaves Ernest in charge of the safari camp and news arrives of a potential attack from a hostile tribe. Drama continues to build as his wife, Mary, pursues the great black-maned lion that has become her obsession and Ernest becomes involved with a young African girl whom he supposedly plans to take as a second bride. Increasingly enchanted by the local African community, he struggles between the attraction of these two women and the wildly different cultures they represent.Spicing his depictions of human longings with sharp humor, Hemingway captures the excitement of big-game hunting and the unparallel beauty of the landscape.Rich in laughter, beauty and profound insight. True at First Light is an extraordinary publishing event -- a breathtaking final work from one of our most beloved and important writers.Amazon.com Review
Ernest Hemingway's final posthumous work bears the rather awkwarddesignation "a fictional memoir" and arrives under a cloud of controversialediting and patching--but all of that ends up being beside the point.Though this account of a 1953 safari in Kenya lacks the resolution andclarity of the best Hemingway (The Sun AlsoRises, AFarewell to Arms) it is "real" Hemingway nonetheless. Let scholarswork out where memoir leaves off and fiction begins: for the common reader,the prose alone casts an irresistible spell.

In True at First Light the glory days of the "great white hunters"are over and the Mau Mau rebellion is violently dislodging European farmersfrom Kenya's arable lands. But to the African gun bearers, drivers, andgame scouts who run his safari in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro,Hemingway remains a lordly figure--almost a god. Two parallel quests propelthe narrative: Mary, Hemingway's fourth and last wife, doggedly stalks anenormous black-maned lion that she is determined to kill by Christmas,while Hemingway becomes increasingly obsessed with Debba, a beautiful youngAfrican woman. What makes the novel especially strange and compelling isthat Mary knows all about Debba and accepts her as a "supplementary wife,"even as she loses no opportunity to rake her husband over the coals forhis drinking, lack of discipline in camp, and condescending protectiveness.

As usual with Hemingway, atmosphere and attitude are far more importantthan plot. Mary at one point berates her husband as a "conscience-riddenmurderer," but this is precisely the moral stance that gives the huntingscenes their tension and beauty. "I was happy that before he died he hadlain on the high yellow rounded mound with his tail down," Hemingway writesof "Mary's lion," "and his great paws comfortable before him and looked off across his country to the blue forest and the high whitesnows of the big Mountain."

Passages like these--and there are many of them--redeem the book's ramblingstructure and occasional lapses into self-indulgent posturing. Joan Didiondismissed True at First Light in The New Yorker as "words setdown but not yet written," but this fails to acknowledge the power of thesewords. The value of True at First Light lies in its candor, itsnakedness: it provides a rare opportunity to watch a master working his waytoward art. --David Laskin ... Read more

Customer Reviews (67)

How on Earth did I get through this, Pt. 2
The way Ernest Hemingway sometimes wrote from the start he would keep very close to own experiences and only later on change circumstances, develop a literary plot, blur actual characters etc. In other words, to find a draft of his can be confusing to a point where you wonder if you're reading a diary or a fictional work. "True at first" light, though edited (which in this case must mainly mean shortened) by his son, is such a strange creature, but once you know and accept that you can sit back an enjoy this unusual look into the literary laboratory of a true genius.

So to answer my own query that was how I got through it. However, had I taken it as a real, finished novel I would have had a very hard time, and in fact I have to admit that my concentration was beginning to slip somewhat towards the end.

Incidentally, many have wondered at the female main character's tolerance towards her husband's infidelity. It think it's pretty much hinted towards the end that she is no virgin Mary and perhaps to allow herself certain escapades she let's him get away with it, too.

The sad thing is, of course, that if the author hadn't "taken the hemingway out" he would have had raw material enough in this draft for several fully finished novels with perhaps a few splendid short stories thrown in, no extra charge.

Why the last is last
Probably the least successful of Hemingway's posthumous works, this fictional memoir, as it is called in the sub-title, existed in an incomplete manuscript form in Hemingway's papers at the Kennedy Library for years.Called "The Africa Book" by scholars, it is the last of Hemingway's posthumous works to be published (probably because of its overall poor quality).

This work certain lacks either the adventurous spirit of Islands in the Stream, the humor and aesthetic value of A Moveable Feast, or dark tension of The Garden of Eden.It holds interest for the reader because it shows how post-war Hemingway attempted to remake himself as a writer, as a man, and as a public figure.He does this in a decided post-modern way, using himself as a character in a largely fictional setting (much as some heavy hitters like Philip Roth would do in a few decades).

This book was pared down from a large manuscript, so has suffered the same fate as other posthumously edited works: this is not Hemingway's work.But reading it, there are all the tell-tale signs that this is indeed his effort, although he did not quite reach his high water mark.

better than Iexpected
True at First Light an incomplete posthumous novel by Hemingway is better than Iexpected. The novel os not havea strong narrative drive and at times is rambling but the descriptions of Africa, the story ofMarys obsession withkilling a black maned lion and how the narrator interacts with the Africans are all compelling.Hemingway's style is something I have always admired and it is strong here. If I could give the novel just 3 and a half stars I would because of the earlier mentioned weaknesses but since I dont have that option I give it 4

To Have And Have Not
This book is a have not. Sadly this should have never been published, I feel, through no fault of his, tarnishes the name Hemingway. He must be a complicated mess, wherever he is, for such a notable author to have books published by him without his consent.

I could go on and on about how tainted this book is but then I would have to shoot myself in the foot. What I mean to say is I don't believe in (Posthumous Books). BANG!

Then again...according to me...The Garden of Eden also published posthumously, ranks right up there with his finest works. Why does a manuscript remain a manuscript?Because the author or publisher believes it is not worthy of publication. For comparison, take the ...Old Man and the Sea... it is a small book only about 140 pages long written almost in the simplicity of a children's book with the complexity of prose applied like paint. Not one word out of place, or needed, or subtracted. As close to perfection as God will allow a human to get.

I got half way through True At First Light, put my marker between the pages, which was over a year ago, and have had no compulsion to pick it up since.



Hemingway once bet a guy he could tell a story using only six words. He wrote;

For Sale. Baby Shoes, Never Worn..... The guy lost.

In six words he trumped True At First Light. We all lost. Including Papa.

Lies At First Light
The reviews on the back of my copy of this book describe it as 'a celebration of real living' with 'a feeling of real joy.' That wasn't quite impression I got from it. Mechanics of the very un-eventful plot aside, the 'novel' seems to have at its heart the idea that our lives as human beings are just big fat lies.Writers are liars, the narrator says, 'congenital liars.' He drinks heavily with his friend GC because he needs the `purposeful dulling of receptivity' - the ability to lie to himself - to get through the day. In marriage, he says, `fidelity does not exist nor ever is implied except at the first marriage.' His career is a lie. His marriage is a lie. He is a liar. We are all liars.

Not exactly a message of hope. But then, the novel's narrator (oh, and don't fool yourself into thinking that this narrator named Ernest, a writer with depression and alcoholism who is on safari in Africa and is married to a woman named Mary, is in any way meant to represent the REAL Ernest -- no, no, this memoir is a work of 'fiction'!) claims that he's `not hopeless because I still have hope,' and then adds: `the day I haven'tyou'll know it bloody quick'. Since we all know how that worked out for Hemingway, we can't help but read that comment in the context of his real life, which suggests that even the statement 'I still have hope,' was at least half-lie when he wrote it.

So, with that, I won't give the story away, just the frustrating idea that drives it: you can only approximate some kind of truth during rare moments in life, and much more time is spent preparing for those moments and recovering from or misremembering them than is spent in their actual experience. When those moments of truth, of 'light' arrive, they're unbearably fleeting. The truth is fleeting, love is fleeting, life is fleeting. The good thing about this book - and what isn't fleeting - is the beautiful cadence, terse as ever, of the language in which Hemingway conveys this empty half-true and despairing view of the world. ... Read more

Product Description
Publisher: New York : C. Scribner's SonsPublication date: 1900Subjects: BullfightsNotes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be numerous typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (40)

Subject matter interesting - copy of book was poor
Should have read the product description a little more closely.I did not realize that I was purchasing the book without its normal illustrations, and with numerous typos.The typos interrupted the flow of the text greatly - I would say there were probably three or four significant typos per page.Not just misspelled words, but words that had numbers or other characters in them.The stars I've listed above are for the story and the substance of the book, not for the quality of the particular copy that I bought.

I thought the substance of the book itself was fascinating.I'm a little late into the Ernest Hemingway game having never really read him in high school.His writing style takes some getting used to.His knowledge of bullfighting, however, is astounding.I can understand why some people are so adamantly anti-bullfighting, and I do believe that in my lifetime bullfighting as it exists now will be outlawed.But Hemingway really does a good job of relating much more than the gruesome death of the bull, and takes you into the subleties and intracacies of what makes a bullfight interesting to watch.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in bullfighting.Its fairly involved, however, so if you're just passingly curious about the topic it may not be for you.It is fairly dense, and there are some portions of the book where he strays from the topic entirely, but the book as a whole is incredibly informational.I would recommend that you not buy the General Books OCR Reprint Edition.

Hemingway's Non-Fiction Work on Bullfighting

I am a huge Hemingway fan, perhaps one might call me a Hemingway aficionado because I have been taking enjoyment in systematically reading everything the man wrote. The man's style is incomparable. He never gets feigns, gets fancy, or tries to show off. He just delivers results time and again.

I see that the average rating of this book is four stars, and I think that this is a fair rating for the book. Since I have been reading the book and I am nearly finished, I thought that I would take the opportunity to chime in, and I will tell you why I think this is a four star book.

1) If you are just reading Hemingway for the first time, this should not be the book that you choose unless you are personally interested in bullfighting. This is a non-fiction work and is not characteristic of Hemingway. So, if you read this as his first book, while you will get an idea of his writing style, you will not have a representative work of his. Instead, read some short stories or perhaps "The Sun Also Rises," also published as "Fiesta".

2) Hemingway wrote this book when he was about 33 years old. As an young American who was fascinated with bullfighting and very knowledgeable of the subject, he decided to write a book for the English speaking world about bullfighting, and this book was the result. As a non-fiction writer myself, I learned a great deal from reading Hemingway's non-fiction style. One can also see at parts in this book Hemingway's treatment of death, his unwillingness to turn away from it, but his desire to courageously describe it in detail as a fact.

3) There are certain beautiful passages and, on the whole, the book is very well written. That said, the book can seem repetative and perhaps not organized in the best possible way. Hemingway knows that he is indulging himself in writing this work, and he has fun with it. He introduces an old lady into the book as someone to bounce ideas off of and has an extensive dialogue with her. He includes a couple of semi-humorous and entertaining short stories. The talks about technique in writing.

4) Of course, the "repetative" quality of the book must also be taken with a grain of salt. Writing a 300 page book on an event that usually only takes a few hours to complete will seem repetative to the non-specialist. Imagine, for example, reading a 300 page book on baseball. It might seem repetative, but the truth is that one must get into detail if one wants to treat one's subject fully.

5) All-in-all, I would recommend the book to anyone 1) who had already read a lot of Hemingway because it is fascinating to hear him speaking so frankly, 2) Anyone interested in traveling to Spain or in seeing a bullfight,3) Anyone who wants to improve their style at writing non-fiction, 4) anyone who likes non-fiction and who is looking for something to read in the summer time. The bullfights take place in the summer, and so this is good summer reading.

The Key
A friend pressed me a while back to read Hemingway. I hadn't touched him since Freshman English--getting to be a VERY long time ago. I was most impressed by "The Undefeated." It's a world class short story, but I knew I was missing parts of it. This is the explanation--enough about bull-fighting as Hemingway understood it and as it was practiced between the wars to let us who have not grown up in the culture understand it.For that reason, it's earned a place on my shelves.
In other ways, it's outdated--reviews of the style of bullfighters dead 50 years or more--or self-indulgent. ("The Natural History of the Dead" is thrown in for reasons comprehensible only to Hemingway.) Be prepared to skim.
But when you read Hemingway with a bull-fighting setting, have this book handy.

Appreciating the Spectacle of Death
This book is a treatise on the appreciation of a bullfight; Hemingway's guide on how to become an aficionado.In addition to the excellent text, the book includes pictures, a glossary and commentary from those who have attended.One wonders how many bullfights over how many years were attended by Hemingway in compiling both a snapshot of the history of bullfighting at the time (1930s) and a full discussion of the intricacies of a bullfight that determine the quality of the performance.

As someone who has never seen nor read about bullfights, the detail laid out within was both captivating and compelling.The book starts at the beginning laying out the places where bullfighting can be seen, the organization and tradition of bullfighting in Spain, the physical layout of the ring, the breeding of bulls, the training and evolution of matadors and ultimately the phases of the fight itself.While reading the passages I found myself both not believing what was actually being done to the bull and wondering why the toreros put themselves in the ring at all given the risk.This duality of both cruelty and bravery is the kernel of what makes bullfighting so compelling to not only the Spanish but the millions who attend each year.It makes this book a page-turner, despite the odd, and in my mind, useless intra-chapter dialogues between author and non-descript "old woman".Hemingway builds on this basic draw to the spectacle, evolving the sensibility of the aficionado to both the science and art of the bullfight and the dependence of greatness on the two primary protagonists. One cannot have a good bullfight with a mediocre bull, nor can one expect a great fight with an ill-trained and less courageous matador.Through the final stage of the fight, bull and matador connect on the nexus of death. The punishment preset on the bull before the introduction of the matador is not always effective and matadors suffer repeated horrific injuries from the bull and sometimes death.In nearly every case however, as so perfectly described by Hemingway, the 3-4 year old colossal fighting bull dies.A methodical ballet of spears and capes wears down the bull through three stages of the fight until he can be impaled through the shoulders with the sword of the matador ending his life in the ring that he was bred for. Death in the Afternoon provides a dramatic and thorough description of this tradition penned by a master hand.

Useful information
Hemingway was young when he wrote this, about 30. However, he would have had to be a man of 70 who had devoted his entire life to bullfighting to have written this in the way he would have wanted us to believe.

He had lots of help. The book is chockablock with bullfighting history, and Ernie would have us think he was there during most of it. Sure, that's a bit of an exaggeration. But he had others weigh in with information in this book, which is okay. But believe it.

Now the bullfight:

Three matadors per afternoon. Each matador faces two bulls. So, that makes six fights.

There are three acts to a bullfight.

1. After the bull charges into the ring, he faces the picadors, the guys on horseback with short-tipped lances. They are short-tipped because they are not for killing but for injuring and weakening the bull, softening him up, so to speak.

In olden times, the horses were routinely gutted by the bulls, leaving them stumbling around, trailing their guts. Yuck. That was ugly, and they finally quit doing that. Now the horses wear padding. No more guts.

2. After the picadors, the bulls must face the banderillas, which are shorter sticks, also with points, which are stuck in the bull's back in pairs by somebody on foot. This is a tricky operation, and it serves about the same purpose as the pics, to wear down the bull.

The matador may place the banderillas, or may have underpaid helpers do it.

Wearing down the bull is good for the matador because these bulls are nasty customers. They are not simply big domestic bulls. They are fairly wild animals, or they were in Hemingway's day and before. Today? Who knows?

The female of the bullfighting bull hardly has a visible udder, which may go to explain in part the hellacious disposition of their husbands.

3. Okay, so now the bull is getting a little winded and disappointed because the fight is not going his way. Let's kill him.

The matador does this on foot with the cape in his left hand (usually) and the sword in the other. He misleads the bull with the cape, perhaps with some flourishes to make himself look good up in the stands, and while the bull zips by, he sticks the sword into his back, severing his spinal cord or aorta.

The bull doesn't last much longer.

This happens in an ideal world. What really happens can get messy, especially the last part. Sometimes the bull wins, not the matador.

This will delight vegetarians, tree-huggers and others of their ilk.

Hemingway can't punctuate worth a flip, and his sentence construction often leads much to be desired. He also slips into purple prose on occasion. To wit:

Speaking of bullfighter Alfredo Corrochano (perhaps you know of him), Hemingway says this:

He had "a rather Bourbonic face a little like that of Alfonso XIII as a child."

This is silly because it tells us nothing. Who knows what Alfonso XIII looked like as an adult, let alone as a child? Not you. Not me. Not anybody.

This is a fine book if you want to learn about bullfighting. If you want good sentence construction and punctuation, go elsewhere. Almost half the book is given to photos and a glossary.

All told, it serves the purpose. Now I have to go to Mexico City to see a bullfight in person.

And don't forget: This is not a sport. It is a tragedy. For the bull.

But sometimes for the bullfighter. ... Read more

Product Description
In 1943 Ernest Hemingway, living in Cuba with his third wife and eleven cats, wrote to his first wife:

One cat just leads to another. . . . The place is so damned big it doesn’t really seem as though there were many cats until you see them all moving like a mass migration at feeding time. . . .

He always took great pleasure in writing to his family about his cats and how they were getting along. Family and pets played an important role in Hemingway’s life, revealing a softer side to his character than is usually portrayed by the macho image of the hunter and fisherman. His pets were mostly cats—the number at Finca Vigia, his Cuban home, at one time swelling to fifty-seven. He called the cats "purr factories" and "love sponges" who soaked up love in return for comfort and companionship.

It is impossible to write about Hemingway’s cats without also telling the story of his family life, particularly the women he loved. From the many cats he grew up with at his childhood homes in Oak Park, Illinois and Walloon Lake, Michigan, to his last cat, Big Boy Peterson, in Ketchum, Idaho, Hemingway sought the companionship of cats. Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley, had Feather Kcat in Toronto and the gentle F. Puss in Paris, who, according to Hemingway in A Moveable Feast , served as babysitter for his first son. Hemingway settled into his home in Key West with Pauline, his second wife, and a good many six-toed cats from next-door—the descendants of whom still roam the house and grounds on Whitehead Street. Of Hemingway’s four wives, only Pauline, who was not a cat fancier, did not acquire one of his fond nicknames: Kat, Kath, Cat, Feather Kitty, Katherine Cat, Kitten, or Kittner.

It was his third wife, Martha, who convinced Hemingway to buy Finca Vigia, the Cuban farm with many buildings—and many stray cats. There Hemingway brought in the elegant Persian Princessa, the adopted strays Willie and Dillinger (aka Boise and Brother), and the Angora Good Will. From the mating of Princessa and Boise, many litters ensued.

Dogs also found their way into Hemingway’s homes, beginning with Wax Puppy, whom he got for Hadley when they were first in Paris. In Cuba he adopted several small mixed-breed dogs with curled tails. One in particular, Negrita, stole his heart. Mary, his fourth wife, loved the animals at the Finca, and it was on a trip to Idaho with Mary that they acquired Black Dog, a springer spaniel who went back to Cuba with them to join the sea of cats and dogs.

All his life Ernest Hemingway surrounded himself with cats and dogs and sought their comfort during times of loneliness and stress. They appear in many of his writings, particularly in A Moveable Feast, Islands in the Stream, The Garden of Eden, and True at First Light —all written late in his life and as close to autobiography as he came. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

An Intimate Portrait of Hemingway
An intimate portrait of Hemingway 'the man' is painted by this book. With details to his domestic life and loves, female, feline and otherwise we glimpse the very human side of this prolific writer who profiled others so well. Regrettably, the quality of the photographs in this book are overall very poor, taking away from the well written text. For Hemingway aficionado's it's a must read.

The Old Man And The Cats
When one thinks of Ernest Hemingway, one usually thinks of a macho adventurer, going on safari, running with the bulls or deep sea fishing, just like the heroes of his novels. One does not often picture him at home caring for stray cats and dogs - yet that's exactly the Hemingway we meet in "Hemingway's Cats." We also meet his four wives and his children, but the stars are the many cats and dogs Hemingway cared for over the course of his life. He often brought home strays, and they became part of his extended family. At one point, he had over 35 cats at his estate in Cuba, and according to this book, he knew the names and family trees of every one. He even let some of his favorite cats eat from the table. This was one dedicated cat aficionado! The most interesting anecdote in the book, I thought, came after Hemingway's suicide, when Fidel Castro came to pay his condolences to the widow. The cats came up to investigate who he was, and Castro paid them not one bit of attention - he didn't pet them or acknowledge them at all. I think anyone who loves cats, Hemingway, Cuba, Florida, or any combination of the above would enjoy this book.

THE PLEASURE OF THEIR COMPANY
Though the illustrations of this book should have been sharpened digitally, they but slightly take away from this warm account of Hemingway's love for his pets.

I seldom mention this, but it was a 6-toed "Hemingway Cat" that spurred me into action one Spring day in 1997. I met Hemingway at his 1959 Pamplona Fiesta. He invited me to join his group. I was a young American freelance writer/photographer from Madrid and he generously let me photograph him. I had just returned from backpacking through the mountains of Tunisia to find a WW2 battle site called Hill 609 at a fortified mountain. Hemingway knew the outfit; he liked what I had done. Despite our difference in years, we spoke the same language.

Long after his death, many years later, a large black tomcat brought a trailing gray and white kitten into my Florida backyard and left it. My wife and I had no kids. I tried not to allow the kitten to adopt us. But that was impossible. She did anyway. I nicknamed her SuperPaws though she won our hearts as simply, Pooky. As she grew into a quietly beautiful young lady and our love for her grew deep, I wondered if Hemingway was trying to tell me something with this strikingly singular big-pawed cat. Her sudden appearance touched me. The big black tom cat that brought her to me, then disappeared from our neighborhood. It made me think of Hemingway and his cats. It made me in the back of my mind wonder if there was any connection at all. I am definitely not superstitious. Still, was there a meaning to this? I had always intended writing a Hemingway book, but never did. Now, I wondered if something -- Hem maybe -- was urging me to go ahead and do it.

Pooky's presence seemed more than happenstance. That spring of 1997 I kissed my wife, JuliaAnn, goodbye and returned to Europe to backtrack Hem through his Paris haunts, back to Pamplona before the fiesta, and then backpacked into Spain's high Pyrenees where I found such strange things as where he and his buddy had hidden bottles of wine to chill in a spring near where they trout fished, and an old piano in a hostel where he stayed, with his name, incorrectly spelled, scratched on it along with a wrong date.

After his death other books filled in unknown details for me. I put them all together, our chance meeting, his interest in me, what I saw at Pamplona, and then what others reported later. Things fitted like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. My memoir, "Hemingway's Paris and Pamplona, Then and Now" was published in 2000. In late 2003, Pooky, our beautiful long-furred gray and white neutered female cat disappeared after a full moonlit night outdoors. We believe she was visiting three new kittens that lived across the street. I was off on a trip but my wife searched fruitlessly, driving around the deep woods behind the houses across the street. No Pooky. The city said they had recovered no dead cats during that period. I figured she might have been catnapped. But losing her was as sad as losing a family member. Worse, the following spring, 2004, my wife of 48 years suddenly developed a fast-growing strain of lung cancer and died. The coincidence of these strange events still haunt me.

Hemingay's fondness for cats always had a subtle but very profound affect on his inner self. All cat lovers know and have felt this but none of us seem to understand why. Yet, there is nothing quite like a cat to make you appreciate the profound pleasure of their company.No wonder the Ancient Egyptians had such reverence for them. Cats were working their wily ways with mankind even back then. As for the peculiar circumstances surrounding the sudden addition, then loss, of a Hemingway cat to our family, I have no answers. But I still love and respect them all, mysterious as they are.

Robert F. Burgess

Must have for Hemingway Fans or Cat Lovers
After buying my copy, had to rush out and buy five more for gifts! This is a must have for any Hemingway Fan or Cat Lover!!An enjoyable read but the best is the artistic display of the photos.The photos have a softer side and is so refreshing after a long day of computers and TV's.This book won't leave my coffee table!

A Fascinating Book
This is the perfect book for Hemingway fans and animal lovers.Hemingway is seen as a compassionate man who was endlessly devoted to his canine and feline friends.The photographs are beautiful, and the book is very well-written. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Hemingway at his best!!
American expatriates and a spoilt English Upper Class woman in Europe in the 1920s, the gay life in Paris, fishing and bullfighting, the Fiesta in Pamplona - the ingredients Hemingway so brilliantly used to construct oneof the 20th century`s most famous and read novel. Here Hemingway`sstructure, his narrative style with the simple use of language really cameon display for the first time. A book that totally gripped me andfascinated me. Excellent, brilliant, simply Ernest Hemingway! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Ernest Hemingway- A Look Back to the Early Days in Paris
One comes away from reading Hemingway's last efforts (all of which were published posthumously) feeling that he cut himself short of true greatness by taking his own life in his early 60's (1961). Novels like "A Moveable Feast" and "Islands in the Stream" show that his writing prowess was- contrary to popular belife- growing when he was in his later years- and comparisons of these later works with ones like "The Sun Also Rises" show a writer whose strength had not yet crested. The weaknesses and flaws of "The Sun Also Rises" are by his later years replaced with much more depth and insights into the human character, which are evident in this work.

In "A Moveable Feast", Hemingway takes a fond look back at his early years in and around Paris, when he was a struggling writer, with little money, newly married and nowhere to go but up. He recalls the tough times with pleasure- remembering that he often had nothing to eat and even went to the park to catch pigeons for dinner. These recollections are interesting, as many people who had roughly similar experiences would likely want to forget them- not re-live them. Yet, Hemingway does and it is a moving tribute to the circumstances, places and people which gave rise to one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. In the novel, he makes the famous quote, which became the title of the book: "If you were lucky enough to be in Paris as a young man, it will stay with you forever, for Paris is a moveable feast..." People who have never visited Paris will feel as if they're walking the back streets, sitting with him in the small cafes, sipping coffee and watching the crowds go by... and this remembrance is touching while it is inspirational. Any young writer who is now trying to make it in the world should take heart- savor the "good old days" - because they are some of your best...

-Gene Pisasale
Author of "Lafayette's Gold- The Lost Brandywine Treasure" and
"Vineyard Days"

Satisfaction
Fast service, very good product and very reasonable price!
A classic book by an author who has helped to shape modern American literature!

A MOVEABLE FEAST
ERNEST HEMINGWAY WROTE THIS GEM AMD IT ONE OF THE
MOST BEAUTIFUL WORKS EVER WRITTEN ... Read more