Dateline: Toronto : The Complete Toronto Star Dispatches, 1920-1924 [Paperback]

Ernest Hemingway (Author), William White (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 478 pages
• Publisher: Scribner (September 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684188023
• ISBN-13: 978-0684188027
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,102,699 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars History?, June 13, 2010

By 

Ruben Agrelo "Dr Strange" (Montevideo Uruguay) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dateline: Toronto : The Complete Toronto Star Dispatches, 1920-1924 (Paperback)

Written by a young Hemingway living in Europe...You can realize by reading this book that the social problems in Europe today are similar than those of 90 years ago.
To capture the essence of these problems as he did a writer has to be as wise and sharp as Hemingway was.
To summarize a time travel guided by one of the most important writers of the 20th century...but if you are living in Europe you will feel like Bill Murray in the movie The Groundhog Day

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Dateline: Toronto" is a refreshing read, October 30, 2008

By 

Chip Ballard "book show" (Zolfo Springs, Florida United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dateline: Toronto : The Complete Toronto Star Dispatches, 1920-1924 (Paperback)

This book contains all 172 dispatches Hemingway wrote for the Toronto Star from 1920 to 1924. It is a fascinating account of the time and also of Hemingway's development as a first-rate writer. Any Hemingway reader will do well to get his hands on this book as quickly as possible. It has been a breath of fresh air for this reader after years of indulging in the brew of current bestsellers, many of which say less in 200 pages than some of Hemingway's dispatches say in 2. For the lover of literature, "Dateline: Toronto" will be like striking a vein of the real thing after years of mining fool's gold. Enjoy your soujourn back into the twenties with Hemingway as your guide; hang onto your hats though because at times the ride gets wild, but it is a swell and exciting ride and finely crafted at every turn.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the making of the writer, February 5, 2007

By 

Shemogue (New Brunswick) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dateline: Toronto : The Complete Toronto Star Dispatches, 1920-1924 (Paperback)

In 1920 an unknown young American landed a reporting assignment with The Toronto Star. He moved to Paris, and over the next four years wrote 172 mostly by-lined pieces, and incidentally established his place as a professional writer.
That young man was Ernest Hemingway.

"Dateline Toronto" is a collection of all 172 of his pieces for The Star. There is serious reportage on conditions in postwar Europe and Turkey, on public figures and social events; the value of the franc, Prohibition, inflation, tourism and sports, but what shines through all of it is the human element, the conversations with the man on the street, dialogues overheard on the bus or in the shops, the point of view of the average Joe or Pierre.

Hemingway made the news comprehensible to everybody. For example, a difficult subject like Canada's participation at the Genoa conference of 1922 is distilled to two sentences from a politician's mouth: "Canada's chief interest is the recognition of Russia...Canada has much harvest machinery for Russian export..." A report on a prizefight in Toronto is seen through the comments of the women spectators.

Most surprising is the humour. Who knew Hemingway was a wit? Sometimes it appears in a wry turn of phrase or exaggerated description as in "Ted's Skeeters", an account of a fishing trip in a mosquito infested forest north of Toronto. :
"The mosquitoes were coming through the netting as though it were the bars of a cage."

In "A Free Shave" Hemingway parodies his own future work as he describes a visit to the barber college which "requires the cold, naked valor of the man who walks clear-eyed to death...."
"I said, `I'm going upstairs.' Upstairs is where the free work is done by the beginners.
A hush fell over the shop. `He's going upstairs'..."

Torontonians who recall the Mel Lastman years will appreciate "Trading Celebrities", wherein Hemingway asks why not trade public figures among the nations as the big leagues do baseball players, and gives some ridiculous examples like this one.
"What a boon to a community like Toronto, which doesn't know what else to do but elect officials who will keep on running. As in this case:
Toronto, Feb 16.--Unnamed parties have completed negotiations between the Toronto City Council and... Hamburg, Germany for the exchange of Mayor Thomas Church in return for 20,000 tons of German shipping..."
Well, you get the idea.

If you wonder how Hemingway changed the art of literature, how he cut through the Victorian verbosity, straight to the heart of the matter, it's all here in his reporting.
Dateline Toronto has been out of print for some time. If you can beg, borrow or buy a copy second hand, do not wait another minute. It's a rare look at the early twentieth century from the youthful eyes and mind of a man who would become one of its giants.