Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald (Paperback)

by Scott Donaldson (Author) "According to the adage, the best training for a writer is an unhappy childhood..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Perhaps a respite from the flood of work on these two writers is in order. Not that there's anything particularly wrong or especially bad about this effort; it merely demonstrates that for the moment there's little to add on the subject. For here are all the old familiar places (Paris, the French Riviera, Key West, Hollywood, peopled with all the old familiar faces) Gerald and Sara Murphy, Maxwell Perkins, John Dos Passos, Archibald MacLeish, Brett Ashley, Zelda, Hadley, Pauline, all coming and going in what have become virtually set pieces in the long-running drama of the lost generation. The oft-told anecdotes include, for instance, Fitzgerald's blunder in allowing a Hemingway boxing match to run too long, Fitzgerald's anxieties about the size of his penis, Fitzgerald's editing of The Sun Also Rises. And then there's Hemingway's bullying, his resentment of Zelda, the drinking, the letters of praise and recriminations, the jealousies, the insecurities. Only the most passionate devotee of Fitzgerald, the greatest fan of Hemingway, the true aficionado of the expatriates can possibly be interested in reading it all over again. As for the interested but uninitiated, many other sources (the Hemingway/Fitzgerald letters, their own memoirs and autobiographical ruminations, the countless critical studies and biographies)Aincluding Donaldson's own far superior work on Hemingway (By Force of Will) and Fitzgerald (Fool for Love)Awould provide a better starting place. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal
This anemic and unnecessary volume chronicles the often tempestuous relationship between the two writers. Donaldson, who has written well on both subjects in the past, unfortunately offers no new insight here; the book is a catalog of well-known facts about the duo's lives and work presented in a style as flat as last week's beer. Fitzgerald, one of American letters' most gifted sons, emerges as little more than a groveling toady who tirelessly promotes Hemingway's work while casually allowing his own career to founder. All this has appeared before in numerous top-shelf biographies, especially Matthew J. Bruccoli's superior Fitzgerald and Hemingway: A Dangerous Friendship (LJ 9/1/94). Though Donaldson chronicles Hemingway's many slights to Fitzgerald in his stories, he fails to include the most recent slam, which appears in Hemingway's True at First Light (LJ 5/1/99), even though he notes the book's release. The lack of an index further detracts from this volume's usefulness. Not recommended.AMichael Rogers, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Overlook TP (January 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585671266
• ISBN-13: 978-1585671267
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #545,742 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great Beginning, Dissapointing Ending, June 24, 2000

By	Scott Eckert (Princeton University, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald: The Rise and Fall of a Literary Friendship (Hardcover)

I feel as if I should write two reviews: one for the first 2/3 of this book, one for the final 1/3. The first part is an interesting account of the Hemingway-Fitzgerald friendship. From being expatriot friends to bitter enemies, the story is a facinating one, especially if you've read multiple works from the two Greats. Direct quotations from their letters to each other, Maxwell Perkins and other literary giants of the time make the book even more interesting.

Then they both die... and the book continues for another 100+ pages. It's as if the author realized his book was only 250 pages long and had to fill out the binding with unnecessary rehash. Obviously drinking played an important part in both writers' lives, and it was chronicled in their relationship. There's no need to devote 40 more pages to discussing their drinking further (actually, repeating the discussion would be more appropriate here)!

Ultimately, the first part is good if not amazing. It certainly isn't good enough to make up for the terribly dull ending. To be honest, I wish I'd have read a biography of each instead. Perhaps you should do the same. Even better, read their actual works!

P.S. I'm not exactly dissuading you from this book. It is well written and interesting. Just be prepared for some boring parts and an empty stomach at the end.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Still engrossing after all these years, January 3, 2001

By	James T. King (Chagrin Falls, OH USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald: The Rise and Fall of a Literary Friendship (Hardcover)

Throughout "Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald - The Rise and Fall of a Literary Friendship," Scott Donaldson has both contributed to and distinguished himself from "the outpouring of biographical material that has kept them both in the public eye." This is a well-researched and fully documented discourse on the eventual reversal of mentor/novice roles and the concluding "exercise in sadomasochism" between these two giants of twentieth century American literature. Although my own studies (and the many, many research papers I've graded) on these men and their works made me hesitate to revisit it all again, I was pleasantly surprised by this fresh and very readable treatise.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A glimpse into a fragile friendship..., June 12, 2003

By	Terry Mathews (a small town in east Texas) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Fitzgerald appealed to me in high school, when I was pretty much a romantic teen-ager who fancied the tragic story of Daisy and the Great Gatsby.

Hemingway was my favorite author when I was in grad school. His writing is clean, precise and open to interpretation, unlike that of other writers of his time who told you every single thing about a character's motivation.

While I've read a lot about Hemingway's life, I never realized the two men were so close during Hemingway's rise and Fitzgerald's fall in the literary world. By following their relationship through their many letters, Scott Donaldson sheds light on two distinctly different literary careers. Fitzgerald was pretty much the voice of the jazz age, while Hemingway took up the torch for the lost generation. Each had his foibles, to be sure, but it seems Hemingway was the more disciplined of the two and, as such, enjoyed a longer career.

I enjoyed the book and am happy to add it to my collection of Hemingway resources.

Enjoy!