Customer Reviews

Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters, 1917-1961

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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.

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.

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.

I of course have been aware of this collection of letters for quite sometime now and finally got around to ordering this book from the library as I am too cheap to pay the price for this work at this time. I am very sorry I put reading this collection for so long as I have deprived myself of some grand reading entertainment and of gaining much useful knowledge. I collect biographies of Hemingway and indeed, books and short stories; collections really, of his writing. I cannot tell you that E. Hemingway is my favorite author; no, far from it, although I do love his short stories....his novels, for me, simply are not my cup of tea for the most part. But that being said, I find that Hemingway the man is an absolute fascinating study and I have read most of the major biographies available...which by the way, sets at about 70 right now.

Biographies are plentiful; some are good, some are retched. There of course is no autobiography available and like another reviewer here, I suspect that this collection of letters is as about as close as we will ever get. In many ways though this is a good thing, as I suspect that had Hemingway actually written his autobiography we could not have believed a word in it. Hemingway, when it came to talking about himself tended to elaborate and expand his exploits...well, actually he lied about a lot of things and worked hard to enhance his own myth. That is okay as far as I am concerned because this trait was as much of a part of his personality as anything else. Between Hemingway's words about himself, those of his admirers and especially those of his critics, it is difficult to know precisely where the truth ends and the myth begins.

Anyway, this collection of around 600 letters was selected by Carlos Baker whose biography of Hemingway is quite likely the best single volume biography of this writer available. I trust Baker's judgment and found his selection to be quite wide ranging. I was personally more interested in the letters Hemingway wrote to most of the famous authors of his day; particular those addressed to his old Paris crowd; the Lost Generation. These letters have been used as source documents for many of the biographies of Hemingway and it was interesting to me to actually read the works which many biographers drew their source from.

It was also a rather enlightening experience to find just how funny Hemingway could be. This is a side of him that is not apparent in his published writings. We see a man who is very human in these letters with the same hang-ups, same anxieties, same source of happiness and same attitude that most of us experience from time to time. Make no mistake, Hemingway was all about life and living life and that fact shines through in these effusions.

Now as soon as I collect enough aluminum cans from the roadside, and get enough money saved, I plan to purchase this work to add to my library. It is one of those volumes that I will want to give several readings. I would suggest that if anyone has any interest what so ever in Hemingway the man or Hemingway the writer, that they will find this a most interesting and delightful read. Depending upon what you are seeking, it can and is quite insightful.

Don Blankenship

The Ozarks