Hemingway and His Conspirators: Hollywood, Scribners, and the Making of the American Dream [Paperback]

Leonard J. Leff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 28, 1999

Ernest Hemingway was the scion of a century of hyperbole and mass media. While previous public figures like Dickens and Twain reached an audience of thousands, Hemingway, thanks to the popular press and the movies, reached an audience of millions. Hemingway and His Conspirators: Hollywood, Scribners, and the Making of American Celebrity Culture shows readers how, aside from talent, the author of The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms became the premier public author of the twentieth century. Paying close attention to the nature of the marketplace from 1923 to 1933, Hemingway focuses on Ernest Hemingway as a young professional writer in a newly emerging commercial context. The author, born in 1899, famous by 1933, was drawn to public display, of course, but Hemingway goes beyond other books to show how he and his work were packaged, marketed, and sold in the early years of his career. Hemingway shows how and why Hemingway moved from Boni & Liveright to Scribners even though the former was in certain ways the better publishing house for him. It shows what Scribners and its influential editor Max Perkins did well for Hemingway, and what they may have done less well. Perhaps most important, it shows how the movie version of A Farewell to Arms, adapted from his novel, catapulted Hemingway and his career. Ignored by his biographers, the reams of studio publicity associated with Paramount Pictures' A Farewell to Arms (1932) countered his sagging literary reputation in the early 1930s and gave the world the Hemingway persona that would so intrigue the public and so undermine the author's talent. Based on revealing letters and other documents from archives, Hemingway has the rigor of a scholarly study and the dramatis personae of a Hollywood production—not only Hemingway and Perkins but Scott Fitzgerald, Helen Hayes, Sinclair Lewis, David O. Selznick, and Gary Cooper. Set in an endlessly fascinating age, the 1920s, it tells a backstage story of the tangle of

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

Though an entire book could be devoted to Hemingway's ambition or the cultivation of his popular persona, Leff's truncated work is too much a biographical recap. ``I want, like hell, to get published,'' the unknown Parisian expatriate confessed to a correspondent in 1923, long before he would become America's greatest authorial personality. Leff (Film and Literature/Oklahoma State Univ.) suggests that to do so, Hemingway made a Faustian deal with popular culture, ``cultivat[ing] publicity even as he pretended to scorn it''--the kind of publicity available through having bestsellers, serializing in Scribner's magazine, and selling rights to the Book-of-the-Month Club, Broadway, and Hollywood. Hemingway's career began as the all-American cult of personality was born, promoted by Time magazine, radio, and the movie industry. Leff brings up some interesting points, such as Time's puffing of the new author's image as an adventurer in its review of In Our Time, or the parallel reviewers drew (to Hemingwya's annoyance) between the nymphomaniac heroine of the cheaply bestselling The Green Hat and Lady Brett Ashley in The Sun Also Rises. Mostly, Leff sticks close to familiar biographical material rather than analyzing the context, or the apparatuses, of Hemingway's rise to prominence. Leff, the author of studies on movie mogul David O. Selznick and Hayes-era censorship, does better toward his book's end, discussing the production of the 1932 film version of A Farewell to Arms. Hemingway was irritated to see studio PR rehashing the inaccuracies of his legend, but he was also taken in by Gary Cooper playing Frederic Henry, who was based, of course, on Ernest Hemingway. However, at the point where novelist's fame is secured, Leff abruptly leaves off, compressing the rest of his life into an afterword, almost impatient for the author to ride off into immortality. (illustrations not seen) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

Leonard Leff has done something new on Hemingway: he has fixed on the professional celebrity, the working author, the publishing enterprise. But in concentrating on the business history of Papa he has done the unexpected—which is to help us recognize anew the uneasy mix of truth and posturing in the work itself. (David Thomson )

A masterly account of the complex of relationships between a major author and the institution of publishing. Leff's Hemingway is a tragic figure torn between a compelling sense of artistic responsibility and a virtual obsession to reach the broadest audience possible. This book is impeccably researched and well attuned to the inner workings of establishment American literary culture of the 1920s. (Robert L. Carringer )

A masterly account of the complex of relationships between a major author and the institution of publishing. Leff's Hemingway is a tragic figure torn between a compelling sense of artistic responsibility and a virtual obsession to reach the broadest audience possible. This book is impeccably researched and well attuned to the inner workings of establishment American literary culture of the 1920s. (Robert L. Carringer )

Leff's Hemingway goes beyond other biographical studies to expose how the public figure of Hemingway was created by mass media with the help of and eventually beyond the control of Ernest Heminway. With a cast of players such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Helen Hayes, Sinclair Lewis, David Selznick, and Gary Cooper, the book succeeds in portraying the personal and commercial creation of a tragic public figure in a world of promotion, advertising, and publicity. (Small Press )

Leff's Hemingway goes beyond other biographical studies to expose how the public figure of Hemingway was created by mass media with the help of and eventually beyond the control of Ernest Heminway. With a cast of players such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Helen Hayes, Sinclair Lewis, David Selznick, and Gary Cooper, the book succeeds in portraying the personal and commercial creation of a tragic public figure in a world of promotion, advertising, and publicity. (Small Press )

Leff's research is obviously able, and he balances aptly what Hemingway so fretted over—he deals with a scholarly subject in a manner easily read and enjoyed. (Sunday Oklahoman )

Leff's emphasis on Hemingway's concern for and problems with fame and fortune makes for a vivid and thoroughly readable discussion of the relationships among all issues. Though not sparing Hemingway for abrasiveness, Leff renders sympathy at significant moments. For comprehensive ]literature collections serving undergraduates and graduates. (F.L. Ryan )

Hemingway and His Conspirators adds significantly to our understanding of both the profession of authorship and the literary marketplace at a crucial stage in their development in the United States . . . . many cultural historians will find this book of great interest. (The Journal Of American History )

Hemingway and His Conspirators adds significantly to our understanding of both the profession of authorship and the literary marketplace at a crucial stage in their development in the United States . . . . many cultural historians will find this book of great interest. (The Journal Of American History )

An absorbing and penetrating look at the inside life of famed author Ernest Hemingway. . . . This book is rich in detail. . . . One of the best. (Broox Sledge The Democrat )

. . . fascinating . . . (Entertainment Weekly )

The book goes behind the scenes to the various rivalries and editorial sagas, as it gives the inside skinny on reviews, film rights and royalties. (The Washington Post )

A fascinating study of a cultural figure.... Leff provides us with an excellent survey of one of the most famous and infamous cultural figures of this century. (Joseph Fruscione American Studies )

A fine, lively book... (The New York Review Of Books )

Hemingway and His Conspirators by Leonard J. Leff explores Hemingway's trajectory into international literary renown as a major celebrity of the 20th century. Leff shows how consciously and savvily young Hemingway built his public persona. Leff deftly explores how Hemingway functioned par excellence as performer and reporter. (Kiril Stefan Alexander The Boston Book Review )

Hemingway and His Conspirators by Leonard J. Leff explores Hemingway's trajectory into international literary renown as a major celebrity of the 20th century. Leff shows how consciously and savvily young Hemingway built his public persona. Leff deftly explores how Hemingway functioned par excellence as performer and reporter. (Kiril Stefan Alexander The Boston Book Review )

This reviewer deeply hopes that other scholars will develop the new and extensive mine of information so masterfully and conscieentiously uncovered by Leff in this volume. With this book, the first vein of those riches has been adroitly excavated by Leff. What a glorious hole he has quarried and what a rich ore he has brought to the mint. In short, the author has provided a remarkably powerful tool for understanding and interpreting the development and operation of the most visible segment of the book-trade in North America and much of the rest of the developed world. (Richard Abel Publishing Research Quarterly /, Winter 1998/99 )

It was never easy with Ernest Hemingway to separate the artist and the legend. Leonard Leff chronicles in fascinating detail how the later merchandised books for the former but, in the process, damaged the man irreparably. (Richard Hauer Costa Magill Book Reviews )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (January 28, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0847685454
• ISBN-13: 978-0847685455
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,930,851 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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