Hemingway on War (Paperback)

~ (Author), Sean Hemingway (Editor, Introduction), Patrick Hemingway (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Edited by his grandson, Sean, this collection of Hemingway's best, and sometimes most obscure, short stories, novel excerpts, and war correspondence chronologically traces the author's account of modern war and its aftermath through the first half of the 20th century. The book includes portions of his popular war novels, A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls, and his less acclaimed Across the River and Into the Trees, and only play, The Fifth Column, interspersed with short stories. The editor has gathered, among others, pieces from his grandfather's first published collection of short stories, In Our Time, as well as some of his first dilettante-ish attempts at writing, like "The Mercenaries," which was written in 1919 but only appeared in 1985 in the New York Times Magazine. Although the collection emphasizes fiction, the combat-hardened author's preferred medium, it also comprises decades of war correspondence, like the classic 1937 dispatch from Madrid, "A New Kind of War," a 1922 exclusive interview with Mussolini in "Fascist Party Half Million" and a reflection on growing tensions in the Pacific from a 1941 trip to Japan and China in "Russo-Japanese Pact." The foreword by Hemingway's son, Patrick, is full of anecdotal memories of the author, such as his unhappy lunch with FDR, during which the President lectured the recently returned veteran on the Spanish Civil War, and his collaboration with Naval intelligence to arrest German agents disembarking in Cuba during WWII. Sean Hemingway's introduction provides a biographical context for the pieces and additional nuggets of personal correspondence. In one letter, Hemingway explains how he tries to write a balanced portrayal of war, "taking it slowly and honestly and examining it from many ways." This collection illuminates many sides of Hemingway's thoughts on conflict, even if the reader may come no closer to understanding war itself.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

Courage is grace under pressure. -- Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway witnessed many of the seminal conflicts of the twentieth century -- from his post as a Red Cross ambulance driver during World War I to his nearly twenty-five years as a war correspondent for The Toronto Star -- and he recorded them with matchless power. This landmark volume brings together Hemingway's most important, timeless writings about the nature of human combat.

Passages from his beloved World War I novel A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls, about the Spanish Civil War, offer an unparalleled portrayal of the physical and psychological impact of war and its aftermath. Selections from Across the River and Into the Trees vividly evoke an emotionally scarred career soldier in the twilight of life as he reflects on the nature of war. Classic short stories, such as "In Another Country" and "The Butterfly and the Tank," stand alongside excerpts from Hemingway's first book of short stories, In Our Time, and his only full-length play, The Fifth Column.

With captivating selections from Hemingway's journalism -- from his coverage of the Greco-Turkish War of 1922 to a legendary early interview with Mussolini to his jolting eyewitness account of the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944 -- Hemingway on War represents the author's penetrating chronicles of perseverance and defeat, courage and fear, and love and loss in the midst of modern warfare.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Scribner (September 14, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743243293
• ISBN-13: 978-0743243292
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #365,884 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Some of the best historical fiction ever, April 18, 2005

By	Charles Ashbacher "([e-mail])" (Marion, Iowa United States([e-mail])) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Hemingway on War (Hardcover)

I consider "For Whom the Bell Tolls" to be one of the best pieces of historical fiction ever written. This is because very little of it is fiction in the truest sense. The premise is that American demolitions expert Robert Jordan is attached to an International Brigade, fighting on the side of the Republic in the Spanish Civil War. He is there because he is a committed idealist, but he quickly becomes disillusioned.
That book is heavily excerpted in this collection of Hemingway's writings and from the excerpts; you can see the tremendous tragedy of that war. The best segment is when he describes the actions of the Republican forces after they capture a town. A small group of men labeled as Fascists are rounded up and killed. This includes a priest and some men who were in fact modest shopkeepers and respected in the village. However, mob rule asserts itself and even when some in the crowd want to spare their lives, the frenzy of the moment drives the results. One-by-one the men are led out through a gauntlet and beaten to death by the crowd. In many ways, it demonstrates how that war went. The middle evaporated, leaving little more than the radical Communist and Fascist sides.
There is also no one better than Hemingway at writing about the occasional absurdities in the life of the common soldier. In one story in this collection, a small group of Fascist troops are captured by the Republican forces. They are to be shot and those to be executed are debating whether it is better to get down on their knees first. The fatalism of those men is a lesson in what war does to people after a time. I have read some histories of the Spanish Civil War, but if I were asked for the best reference to what really happened in that war, I would point them to Hemingway.
When you read Hemingway on war, it is clear that he has experienced it at the local level. While he does take sides in the conflicts he writes about, the overpowering characteristic of his descriptions is how people try to make sense out of a senseless brutality. War fundamentally comes down to two separate groups of people, each trying to annihilate the other. He is critical of war, not in the abstract, but in the particulars. Stupid officers, absurd tactics, pathetic egoists and petty bickering are the targets of most of his criticisms. It is hard to characterize his approach to war as one that glorifies or condemns it, as it has aspects of both. However, he is the best at making the simple human side of war interesting and this collection demonstrates how good he is at it.