Every time I think of Hemmingway or read something he wrote, I flashback to the cover of the Life Magazine issue that is dated just a couple of weeks after the author’s suicide. My parents were Life subscribers for decades and much of my world view came from reading those magazines from cover to cover. The idea that so famous and successful a writer as Ernest Hemmingway could, or would, kill himself (especially with a shotgun) just made no sense to me when I was thirteen years old, so this cover is burned deeply in my memory.
Hemmingway was known as a “man’s man,” and because of that I wonder how many female readers he had – or has today (is that a sexist question?). His wartime experiences are legendary, especially those relating to the Spanish Civil War, but Hemmingway also witnessed some of the key moments of World War II, including the Allied landings at Normandy and the liberation of Paris, and served as an ambulance driver during World War I. It was as an eighteen-year-old ambulance driver that he was wounded by mortar fire and received the Italian Silver Medal of Bravery for helping Italian soldiers to safety despite his own wounds. Yes, the hard-living Hemmingway was a man’s man.
Among my favorite Hemmingway works are his short stories and novels like The Old Man and the Sea, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Sun Also Rises.
Happy birthday, Ernest Hemmingway.
I always remember Hemingway's birthday, as it's a day before my own. Our favorites are the same, though I also enjoyed A Moveable Feast and The Garden of Eden. Family lore has my husband's grandmother (author of 2 novels published in the 1930s) meeting Hemingway on a couple of occasions and claiming she "didn't think much of him." Makes me smile every time I think of it!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great family story to have, JoAnn! I love that, and I can just imagine why a woman would say that about Hemmingway. He usually "walked the walk" but he could be a bit of poseur, too.
DeleteAs one female reader I have to say Hemingway is not my favorite author. I have not liked either of the books of his that I've read. But I do think it's sad someone so successful thought suicide was the answer.
ReplyDeleteHe was definitely not a feminist, Lark. He lived an adventurous life, and he could have been easy to live with. Some of that is reflected in his fiction.
DeleteWell, I surprise even myself, but I am a fan of his writing, and also of the man. Some things you can't explain. :<;
ReplyDeleteYou are probably one of those exceptions who prove the rule, Nan. I always figured that he was so "macho" that his female audience was probably pretty small, especially today.
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