Ernest Hemingway

Starred review from November 14, 2016
Dearborn (Mistress of Modernism: The Life of Peggy Guggenheim) revisits one of America's most popular writers with insight and finesse, in this rich, detailed biography of Ernest Hemingway (1899â1961). Hemingway came to fame in 1920s Paris amid the fabled community of American expatriates that also included F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein. His sheer creative energy glowed as he wrote his first novel, The Sun Also Rises, in a little over six weeks. During the Spanish Civil War, Hemingway became a widely read, syndicated correspondent. His well-publicized African safaris and big-game hunting culminated in the celebrated short story "The Snows of Kilimanjaro." Hemingway fired the public imagination, Dearborn shows, becoming a personification and even a caricature of virility for his generation. In 1954, he received the Nobel Prize for literature. Despite the achievements and celebrity, Hemingway led a troubled life complicated by alcohol and three failed marriages, increasingly spinning his wheels and losing his gifts. His 1961 suicide shocked the world. Dearborn speculates at length on what went wrong, attributing Hemingway's collapse to manic depression compounded by brain injuries. Her fluid narrative and careful research contribute to an impressive biography. Hemingway changed our language and the way we think, she asserts. Dearborn's account shines from beginning to end, helped by Hemingway's dramatic life and charismatic personality. Agent: Georges Borchardt, Borchardt Inc.

March 15, 2017
The rise and fall of the Nobel Prize-winning writer.Dearborn (Mistress of Modernism: The Life of Peggy Guggenheim, 2004, etc.), whose previous biographical subjects include Norman Mailer and Henry Miller, writers noted for their boastful machismo, distills a wealth of material for a richly detailed investigation of another writer intent on proving his vigor and manliness, on the page and off. The author writes that she has -no investment- in promoting the Hemingway legend but rather seeks to examine -what formed this remarkably complex man and brilliant writer- by tracing his career as it unfolded. That aim results in a scrupulous chronology, from which the usual suspects emerge: Hemingway's wives; famous friends F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sherwood Anderson, Robert McAlmon, Gertrude Stein, and Ezra Pound; an ambitious mother, depressed father, and Hemingway's sons. Even without attempting to burnish the Hemingway legend, Dearborn underscores the charisma of the handsome, athletic man who, critic Edmund Wilson remarked, had an -ominous resemblance to Clark Gable.- Nevertheless, she is clear about his shortcomings, especially his neediness and violent temper. -As long as people around him were worshipful and adoring,- one friend noted, -why then they were great.- If the adoration stopped, they were viciously cut off. This truculence began in childhood and intensified into paranoia as he aged. Also intensifying were Hemingway's manic episodes, followed by black depressions. Dearborn asserts that this syndrome worsened after a series of traumatic brain injuries and was exacerbated by excessive consumption of alcohol. Not surprisingly, he ended up with liver disease, and although his physicians insisted he give up drinking, he never did. Taking on the question of Hemingway's sexuality, Dearborn believes that his mother's practice of styling him and his sister as twins until her son was 6 had lifelong repercussions, including his erotic obsessions with haircuts and color on which Dearborn focuses repeatedly. A thorough, but familiar, portrait of a tormented artist.

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June 15, 2017

Dearborn (Mailer: A Biography) has written a thoroughly researched, richly detailed book debunking the Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) legend. She presents a complex portrait of the writer as a son, brother, husband, and father, whose genes shaped his own fate as well as those of his ancestors and descendants. Arguing that Hemingway suffered from manic depression, aggravated by alcohol abuse, and that his mental illness had an adverse effect on his relationships and his work, increasingly so after his 50th birthday, the author concludes that several head injuries also contributed to his instability. Reviewing Hemingway's medical records, she notes various physical ailments that plagued him as well, including high blood pressure, a fatty liver, and a slow libido. She explores the theme of sexual ambiguity in his works, especially The Garden of Eden. When describing Hemingway's final decade, Dearborn's writing veers toward pathography, detailing his paranoia, temper tantrums, and spousal abuse. Dearborn is fair, however, acknowledging Hemingway's literary talent, charisma, kindness, and ability to act decisively in emergencies, such as his fourth wife Mary Welsh's ectopic pregnancy. VERDICT An engrossing read, this revisionist biography should stimulate lively discussion among Hemingway aficionados.--William Gargan, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., CUNY

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 1, 2016
A woman writing with a half-century of perspective, Dearborn teases long-hidden secrets out of the life of a hypermasculine novelist who lived intensely in the moment. Dearborn follows a virile young Hemingway as he tests himself in war, toughens himself in manly sports, conquers vulnerable female hearts, and forges valuable friendships with influential editors and other rising literary artists (including Dos Passos, Pound, and Fitzgerald). With a sinewy prose style deployed in masterpieces such as The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms, this charismatic writer opens a compelling modern perspective on a bleak and brutal world where tough-minded heroes liveand diewith steely courage. Yet even in this meteoric ascent, Dearborn discerns troubling signs of callous egotism and heedless mendacity. Failures of character finally do catch up to Papa Hemingway as friendships fail, athletic prowess wanes, emotional outlook sours, and romantic charms evaporate. The master of the taut line descends to the maudlin sentimentality of Across the River and into the Trees. Even Hemingway's mystique of masculinity dissolves, leaving the astonishing gender ambiguities of his posthumously published The Garden of Eden. The momentum of Dearborn's final chapters gives Hemingway's shotgun suicide the feel of tragic inevitability. A stunning humanization of an enigmatic titan.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)