Picturing Hemingway: A Writer in His Time [Hardcover]

Mr. Frederick Voss (Author), Michael Reynolds (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 11, 1999

Ruggedly handsome, emphatically virile, drawn to physical adventure, Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) not only wrote some of the twentieth century's finest fiction, he created a personal image that made him an American legend. This engaging book is filled with more than 70 portraits of Hemingway and those around him, commemorating the life of one of America's most important writers. The exceptional drawings, paintings, and abundant photographs displayed and generously captioned in this volume record nearly every stage of Hemingway's life and career.

Images of Hemingway captivate. Whether sitting contemplatively or reeling in a huge game fish, he reveals a fascinating and complex personality, sometimes deliberately, at other times unconsciously. This book shows the full range of Hemingway's travels, moods, and adventures throughout his life -- from a romantic oil painting by Henry Strater completed soon after Hemingway arrived in Paris in the 19205, to a little known photograph by Man Ray conveying Hemingway's confident self-possession before his literary talents were proven, to a Hemingway-as-journalist photograph showing the author downing a pre-breakfast swig of scotch during the Spanish Civil War, to Yousuf Karsh's 1957 portrait in Cuba evoking a larger-than-life Hemingway in a heavy turtleneck sweater, to revealing photographs taken by John Bryson near the end of Hemingway's life.

Michael Reynolds, who has studied and written about Hemingway for more than a quarter century, provides a thought-provoking essay on Hemingway as a literary icon, and Frederick Voss examines Hemingway's life in the light of various significant portraits of him.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

He wrote some of the best and most influential American prose of the 20th century. But even a cursory look at the marvelous photos, drawings, and paintings assembled for a National Portrait Gallery exhibition honoring Ernest Hemingway's centennial reminds readers that the author's enduring fame has at least as much to do with his riveting good looks, virile charisma, and macho lifestyle. This book of photos is buoyed by intelligent essays by curator Frederick Voss and Hemingway biographer Michael Reynolds that serve as cogent minibiographies of the man. They cover all the salient points: the great fiction, from The Sun Also Rises to The Old Man and the Sea; the four wives, subservient Hadley Richardson and Mary Welsh and Martha Gelhorn, the feminist exception; the energetic outdoor and public life that couldn't stave off bouts of depression that prompted his suicide in 1961. All the famous pictures are here: the 1934 shot of a cocky, mustachioed Hemingway kneeling with the horns of his kill from an African safari. The classic 1957 Karsh portrait of the writer as bearded éminence grise in a turtleneck sweater. But he isn't visible in the most haunting of all--a photo of his funeral, with a small group of mourners huddled against desolate hills and a pitch-black Idaho sky--an image whose existential starkness equals that of Hemingway's masterpieces. --Wendy Smith

Product Details

• Hardcover: 127 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; First Edition edition (May 11, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300079265
• ISBN-13: 978-0300079265
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 9.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,508,713 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Perfect visual companion to Hemingway centennial celebration, April 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Picturing Hemingway: A Writer in His Time (Hardcover)

Voss, Frederick and Michael Reynolds. Picturing Hemingway. Yale Univ. Pr. Jun. 1999. c.160p. photogs. bibliog. illus. index. ISBN 0-300-07926-5. $35. LIT

This volume is being produced to accompany an exhibition at the National Gallery in Washington, DC, June 18-October 3. Beyond simply another collection of pictures, this is more a visual biography revealed through family snapshots, paintings, and formal portraits with explanatory captions. It also includes book covers as well as images of famous friends like James Joyce, Scott Fitzgerald, and John Dos Passos plus a top-shelf essay by leading biographer Michael Reynolds on Hemingway as an icon. The perfect visual companion to the Hemingway centennial celebration. Highly recommended.--Michael Rogers, "Library Journal"

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, riveting ... but little new, December 4, 2002

By 

Ron Franscell, Author of 'Sourtoe Cocktail Club' - See all my reviews

This review is from: Picturing Hemingway: A Writer in His Time (Hardcover)

Ernest Hemingway found himself (or rather photographers found him) in some of the most diverse and engaging settings one might see a writer. From Key West to Africa to Idaho to Spain to Cuba to New York City ... he led a photogenic life. "Picturing Hemingway" does him justice with this collection, which is worth a hour or so paging through it. The most ardent fans of Hemingway, however, won't find a lot of new images to enlarge their view of the writer, even if this is worth adding to your shelf -- your likely sagging shelf -- of Hemingway biographical works.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Portrait of the Artist in Pictures, June 19, 2007

By 

H. F. Corbin "Foster Corbin" (ATLANTA, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Picturing Hemingway: A Writer in His Time (Hardcover)

After recently rereading A FAREWELL TO ARMS, I became interestesd in Hemingway again and revisted this book of photographs that I had purchased after having seen the National Portrait Gallery exhibit coinciding with the hundred birthday of Hemingway in 1999. This book accomplishes what few photography books do: it includes practically as much written information about the writer-- from the informative essay by Michael Reynolds to the well-documented captions that accompany the pictures-- as photographs, thus creating a mini-biography of the writer as well.

The lives of few writers of the 20th century were followed as closely by both the media and the general public; certainly no author was photographed more. There are pictures here of Hemingway by Robert Capa (1937); the most famous portrait by Yousuf Karsh (1957) and the shot by John Bryson (1958/58) of Hemingway with a most obvious comb-over. Also included are paintings and sketches of the writer in addition to pictures of his literary friends-- Fitzgerald, Joyce, Dos Passos et al.-- as well as photographs of his four wives and his first love, a Red Cross nurse, the inspiration for the character Catherine in A FAREWELL TO ARMS. You also get to see the covers of Hemingway's major novels as well.

Hemingway wanted to be the best writer of his generation. Whether or not he accomplished his goal, he received the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 for his short novel THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. Considered tame by today's standards his novels were controversial during his time because of their profanity and sexual content. His editor at Scribner's insisted that he delete most of the profane language from his works, his own mother found his writing "filthy" and the Boston police seized the June 1929 issues of Scribner's magazine that contained the second installment of A FAREWELL TO ARMS from newsstands because of the "salacious" content.

PICTURING HEMINGWAY is a good introduction to a whole new generation interested in this writer as well as a nostalgic visit for already fans.