A Moveable Feast

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In the preface to A Moveable Feast, Hemingway remarks casually that "if the reader prefers, this book may be regarded as fiction"--and, indeed, fact or fiction, it doesn't matter, for his slim memoir of Paris in the 1920s is as enchanting as anything made up and has become the stuff of legend. Paris in the '20s! Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley, lived happily on $5 a day and still had money for drinks at the Closerie des Lilas, skiing in the Alps, and fishing trips to Spain. On every corner and at every café table, there were the most extraordinary people living wonderful lives and telling fantastic stories. Gertrude Stein invited Hemingway to come every afternoon and sip "fragrant, colorless alcohols" and chat admid her great pictures. He taught Ezra Pound how to box, gossiped with James Joyce, caroused with the fatally insecure Scott Fitzgerald (the acid portraits of him and his wife, Zelda, are notorious). Meanwhile, Hemingway invented a new way of writing based on this simple premise: "All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know."

Hemingway beautifully captures the fragile magic of a special time and place, and he manages to be nostalgic without hitting any false notes of sentimentality. "This is how Paris was in the early days when we were very poor and very happy," he concludes. Originally published in 1964, three years after his suicide, A Moveable Feast was the first of his posthumous books and remains the best. --David Laskin

Book Description

Published posthumously in 1964, A Moveable Feast remains one of Ernest Hemingway's most beloved works. It is his classic memoir of Paris in the 1920s, filled with irreverent portraits of other expatriate luminaries such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein; tender memories of his first wife, Hadley; and insightful recollections of his own early experiments with his craft. It is a literary feast, brilliantly evoking the exuberant mood of Paris after World War I and the youthful spirit, unbridled creativity, and unquenchable enthusiasm that Hemingway himself epitomized.

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"You belong to me and all Paris belongs to me and I belong to this notebook and this pencil." Begun in the autumn of 1957 and published posthumously in 1964, Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast captures what it meant to be young and poor and writing in Paris during the 1920s. A correspondent for the Toronto Star, Hemingway arrived in Paris in 1921, three years after the trauma of the Great War and at the beginning of the transformation of Europe's cultural landscape: Braque and Picasso were experimenting with cubist forms; James Joyce, long living in self-imposed exile from his native Dublin, had just completed Ulysses; Gertude Stein held court at 27 rue de Fleurus, and deemed young Ernest a member of rue génération perdue; and T. S. Eliot was a bank clerk in London. It was during these years that the as-of-yet unpublished young writer gathered the material for his first novel, The Sun Also Rises, and the subsequent masterpieces that followed. Among these small, reflective sketches are unforgettable encounters with the members of Hemingway's slightly rag-tag circle of artists and writers, some also fated to achieve fame and glory, others to fall into obscurity. Here, too, is an evocation of the Paris that Hemingway knew as a young man - a map drawn in his distinct prose of the streets and cafés and bookshops that comprised the city in which he, as a young writer, sometimes struggling against the cold and hunger of near poverty, honed the skills of his craft. A Moveable Feast is at once an elegy to the remarkable group of expatriates that gathered in Paris during the twenties and a testament to the risks and rewards of the writerly life.

Customer Reviews:

Hatred of adjectives.......2007-08-08

What a poisonous, vituperatve, jealous, mean-spirtied man he must have been. Also self-righteous and condescending.
Does anybody read his tripe anymore?

Frustration and confusion over contradictions.......2007-08-07

That's all I felt as I picked up this book to read. Is it fact or fiction? To me, and others that I have spoken to, it makes a world of difference as to how I approach a book, it's characters, location, and events that take place. This book is supposed to be Hemingway's memoirs. I have no idea who is on the cover.

There is a disclaimer by the publishing company that this is a work of fiction.

Not to mention Hemingway's own explanation that does not make a bit of sense. "If the reader prefers, this book may be regarded as fiction. But there is always the chance that such a book of fiction may throw some light on what was written as fact."

Following that, there is a note written by M.H. that states that this book covers the years 1921-1926 in Paris.

Lastly, there are nine black and white photographs of people and places that supposedly do not even exist.

I became so frustrated with all of these contradictions that I did not even bother to read the book.

Hemingway's Last Best Work.......2007-06-11

Published posthumously, this memoir is a series of sketches recounting episodes from Hemingway's life in Paris in the early 1920s. It is probably the best thing Hemingway wrote in his late years. This is the period when Hemingway perfected his laconic style and produced several of the short stories that form his most durable work. Many of the sketches display the economy of style and eye for telling detail found in Hemingway's best short stories. Much of the book is devoted to describing his life as a young writer trying to perfect his style. It contains interesting, though not necessarily objective, portraits of Hemingway's friends Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald. The presiding spirit of this book is Hemingway's first wife, Hadley Richardson Hemingway.
This book has a more than wistful quality because of the circumstances under which it was written. Hemingway produced it in the late 1950s when he was struggling with his alcoholism, bouts of depression, and not very successful attempts to produce major novels. The contrast with the vigor, productivity, and happiness of this Parisian period must have been painful for Hemingway though only at the very end of book does a note of self-pity creep in.

One of the best!.......2007-06-01

So many good things have been said of this book and I can add nothing more. Anybody wanting to understand Hemingway and disciplined writing should read or reread this book.

A good present for someone going to Paris.......2007-03-08

This book by Hem was published after his death. You can of see this, Hem would never have published some of these stories if he was alive and kicking - at least he would have edited them heavily. Still it is an amazing book filled with beautiful memories of a fantastic city when it was both good and affordable. Today Paris is still a good city, but it's hardly affordable. Anyway, if you intend to travel to Paris by yourself or if some of your close friends will visit Paris, they will be most happy to get this as a present. Afterwards they will keep thanking you every time you meet them - yes, it's just that good...

Average customer rating:

on target
Excellent

Hemingway
Carlos Baker
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0691013055

Customer Reviews:

on target.......2002-12-12

well done. i don't usually care to read books by academics, but this is the exception to the rule. you get the full picture here about ernie, warts and all. you may not like some of the things you'll find out about the great novelist...but then, that's life. i say you'll still want to read ernie's books--because he was that good. ernie lives on!

Excellent.......1998-10-02

Insightful analysis of Hemingway's work for anyone who wants to get past the literal meanings to reach the symbolic. Reading Baker's book makes reading Hemingway an even more rewarding experience.

Average customer rating:

Yoga in real life
Interesting even if you're not into yoga
Well worth reading
Mariel opens her heart
Wonderful!

Finding My Balance: A Memoir with Yoga
Mariel Hemingway
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Tanita BC533 Glass Innerscan Body Composition Monitor

ASIN: 0743264320

Book Description

Stardom, thanks to Woody Allen and his film Manhattan, came at an early age...but so did the problems of a broken and dysfunctional family. Yet in a life so out of kilter, Mariel Hemingway summoned the strength and inner resolve that enabled her to find -- and to keep -- her balance.

In Finding My Balance, actress Mariel Hemingway uses the lessons and practices of yoga as a starting point for her own personal reflections and larger-than-life family story. The result is a searingly honest memoir that is as deeply moving as it is helpfully prescriptive.

Mariel turned to yoga and its meditative practice in an effort to maintain her center when her life threatened to spin out of control. Having experienced family tragedy, sudden stardom, and the continuing challenges of a full and demanding life, Mariel learned through practice how to find her balance in emotionally disorienting situations. Throughout the book, Mariel uses her yoga training as a starting point for each chapter, carefully describing a particular position, then letting her mind wander into thoughts of the past and of her tumultuous life.

As each chapter begins with instruction, so does the book end with exercises organized in a sequence that can be followed by anyone who wants to practice them. As a special bonus for this edition, Mariel has added a section that describes the basics of her own "In Balance Philosophy," calming words of advice for people in search of their own emotional center.

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"Actress Mariel Hemingway uses the lessons and practices of yoga as a starting point for her own personal reflections and a larger-than-life family story. The result is a searingly honest memoir that is firmly practical, as well as a moving narrative of the author's struggle to deal with a complex and often stressful life. Mariel was the third daughter born to Jack Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway's son, and Byra Whittlesey. Her older sister, Muffet, suffered for years from instability, while middle sister Margaux, a celebrated actress and model who was caught up in the fast lane, eventually died of the effects of her driven lifestyle. Their mother, Byra, was darkly moody and emotionally quixotic, and made no secret of her disdain for her husband, while Jack, himself insecure in no small part because of his celebrated father, a man he never really felt he knew, was an indifferent parent at best. Even before she was a teenager, Mariel was forced to assume the role of stable center of her family. In just about every way, she never really had a childhood of her own, a situation that was exacerbated by her sudden thrust into celebrity when she was first cast in sister Margaux's film Lipstick, then in Woody Allen's Manhattan. Suddenly, Mariel was a movie star.

Customer Reviews:

Yoga in real life.......2007-05-12

I am not sure what I expected, but I was pleasantly pleased by A Memoir with Yoga. It was interesting to read about her life - but even more interesting was how well she described the asanas. I have a new approach to some of them (remembering her giggles at the cat and dog poses - and that some yoga is FUN), and will concentrate on moving into a pose with her words in my mind. I learned more about yoga from the book than expected, and it was a joy to read.

Interesting even if you're not into yoga.......2004-06-25

Like the reader from Raynham, MA, I am not the slightest bit interested in yoga and skipped over those parts. But the other sections were worth reading -- especially the parts about her eating disorder! Before she got the implants, I always admired and envied Mariel's figure, especially the way she looked in Personal Best, and had assumed that she was just naturally athletic. I suppose I shouldn't have been shocked to learn that, like so many celebrities, she had to starve and endanger her health to look like that. And the stuff about her mixed-up family was very interesting, too -- though sad. I also enjoyed the stuff about Woody Allen.

Well worth reading.......2003-03-14

Heartwarming insight into the experiences of one cool lady. I admit to following Mariel's (and Margaux') career since before "Lipstick" and I read the book in one session. Very touching, and Mariel really lays a lot of personal pain and joy bare for us to see. A great book for anyone juggling family problems, a difficult adolescence, food demons, and facing adversity. I sure hope the future is kind to Mariel and her family.

Mariel opens her heart.......2003-02-24

In this touching, informative, truthful story about Mariel's own life is a compelling story I couldn't put down. For any fans of hers, you are going to love this book and won't be ab le to put it down.

Wonderful!.......2003-02-11

I loved this book! Mariel opens her heart to her readers and lays it all on the line. I identified with her and was able to learn some new methods for handling some areas of my life that parallel hers. This is a wonderful and sincere book!

I hope that in the future she writes a book on yoga and that she writes another book where this one left off.

Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters, 1917-1961
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A writer's writer

A look behind the curtain!

As fascinating as any novel or story he wrote...

Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters, 1917-1961
Ernest Hemingway , and Carlos Baker
Manufacturer: Macmillan Pub Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

The death of Ernest Hemingway in 1961 ended one of the most original and influential careers in American literature. His works have been translated into every major language, and the Nobel Prize awarded to him in 1954 recognized his impact on contemporary writing.

While many people are familiar with the public image of Hemingway and the legendary accounts of his life, few knew him as an intimate. With this collection of letters, presented for the first time as a Scribner Classic, a new Hemingway emerges. Ranging from 1917 to 1961, this generous selection of nearly six hundred letters is, in effect, both a self-portrait and an autobiography. In his own words, Hemingway candidly reveals himself to a wide variety of people: family, friends, enemies, editors, translators, and almost all the prominent writers of his day. In so doing he proves to be one of the most entertaining letter writers of all time.

Carlos Baker has chosen letters that not only represent major turning points in Hemingway's career but also exhibit character, wit, and the writer's typical enthusiasm for hunting, fishing, drinking, and eating. A few are ingratiating, some downright truculent. Others present his views on writing and reading, criticize books by friend or foe, and discuss women, soldiers, politicians, and prizefighters. Perhaps more than anything, these letters show Hemingway's irrepressible humor, given far freer rein in his correspondence than in his books. An informal biography in letters, the product of forty-five years' living and writing, Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters leaves an indelible impression of an extraordinary man.

Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois, in 1899. At seventeen he left home to join the Kansas City Star as a reporter, then volunteered to serve in the Red Cross during World War I. He was severely wounded at the Italian front and was awarded the Croce di Guerra. He moved to Paris in 1921, where he devoted himself to writing fiction, and where he fell in with the expatriate circle that included Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, and Ford Madox Ford. His novels include The Sun Also Rises (1926), A Farewell to Arms (1929), To Have and Have Not (1937), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940), and The Old Man and the Sea (1952). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954. He died in Ketchum, Idaho, on July 2, 1961.

Customer Reviews:

A writer's writer.......2004-12-09

Two authors of the 20th century whose letters go beyond fascination are James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway. This volume is an excellent example of just how committed Hemingway was not only to writing, but to getting as close to the action of his writing. Once the reader emerses themselves into his letters, one sees the true Hemingway, not the mythological one created by critics (mostly those who were not fans of the writer).

It is almost unimaginable that someone in his time or any other could be so well connected and intimate with other artist: Joyce, Pound, McLeish, Fitzgerald, Picaso, and so on. If you're a writer this collection is wonderful. It shows the day to day dealings with drafting, editing, publishing, and the intimate relationships between writer and publisher, though this relationship is almost non-existent today.

I found Hemingway through his letters to be someone who is passionate about life and equally compassionate about friends. He tells it the way it is, not the way politically correct messengers do. It is an education in itself to read this collection.

A look behind the curtain!.......2004-12-05

I miss old fashioned letters, now that we live in the age of email. Frotunately, I still have 'real' letters saved that have now collected dust from my parent's generation, and from a time gone by.

Occasionally I stumble over published letters of famous writers in antique bookstores: Last time, it was a 800 page volume of some of Ernest Hemingway's personal letters; the first edition of this Amazon edition. They were published posthumeously, and not intended by EH for publication.
We get a peek behind the curtain, and learn among other things that Ernest Hemingway was addicted to letters, wrote lots and lots, starting in his teens; and that he was really depressed when he didn't receive replies; or when there were days when the postman brought no letters. Waiting for transatlantic mail added to his sense of loneliness. Letters were a lifelong passion of his, continuing up to the day when he took his own life. These private letters weren't meant to be published, and they are raw, but very honest.
When you read them, you are in no doubt that the writer is a true artist, and an original!
They stretch over the span of his productive life, and they are varied: addressed to family (his parents, his children), his ex, to friends, including famous contemporaries, such as Marlene Dietrich (just one of them), his agent(s), his publishers, and many more.

I have a hunch EH must have been hard to keep up with, but his letters are fun to read; even though, in my view, his novels are mixed: Some great, and some I don't care for.

Guess, EH's life was bizare too. The private letters are consistent with that. And yet, they exude a special warmth; both gentelness and passion.
Reviewed by Palle Jorgensen. December 2004.

As fascinating as any novel or story he wrote..........2003-06-03

This collection of letters serves as the closest thing to a Hemingway autobiography we have. It is certainly must reading for the student or researcher, and I would highly recommend it for even the casual Hemingway fan.

Hemingway often wrote letters to either warm up for a day of writing or cool off afterward, and in these letters you see him at his unguarded, intellectual, humorous best. The style of his letter writing is often much freer than the tightly crafted prose style of his fiction...it's almost like watching a classical musician break into some improvisational jazz.

Amazon.com

If one had to choose just one of Michael Reynolds's five volumes on Hemingway, The Final Years would probably be the best choice. Beginning with the fanfare surrounding the publication of For Whom the Bell Tolls on the eve of the Second World War and ending with Hemingway's suicide in 1961, the book puts all that had come before into perspective even as it probes these last two decades of its subject's life. The amount of detail is staggering--and sometimes, particularly in the case of his troubled fourth marriage to Mary Welsh, painfully discomfiting. (Long before Mary interrupts a conversation between Hem and Lauren Bacall to show Bacall a bullet she keeps for anybody who makes a move on her husband, the reader has figured out that the marriage was not exactly happy.)

The sections on Hemingway's wartime exploits, both in Cuba as a volunteer U-boat hunter and in Europe as a correspondent, are fascinating. But even in these moments--hell, even when he won the Pulitzer and the Nobel--Hemingway was subject to what he called "black ass" bouts of depression, an inherited condition that (as Reynolds notes) wasn't helped by his drinking or his tendency to put himself into dangerous situations in which he could suffer yet another severe concussion. Reynolds has traced the great writer's psychological decline so thoroughly that, when Hemingway puts the shotgun in his mouth in the final chapter, it is not as if the expected conclusion has finally arrived; rather, the reader has been made to feel an even deeper sense of the inevitability of the act. --Ron Hogan

Book Description

Hemingway's triumphs as a writer during the 1940s and 1950s accompanied a life of risk and danger. Michael Reynolds discovered the truth about Hemingway's activities during the war years, which included running a counterintelligence operation in Havana. The postwar period was the most productive of Hemingway's writing life, when he authored the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Old Man and the Sea and received the Nobel Prize. Even as Hemingway graced the cover of Life magazine, his physical and mental health deteriorated while his public image as hunter and sportsman continued to demand the strenuous life. In 1961 he committed suicide, leaving behind the stuff of which American myths are made.

Customer Reviews:

A Worthy Finale for a Scholarly Giant.......2001-07-10

There is little I can add to the above reviews. Long before this final volume of Michael Reynolds' masterpiece came out, he had already taken his place as our finest Hemingway scholar and one of the five or six greatest literary biographers of our time. This last volume merely confirms his position. Tragically, he succumbed to cancer shortly after this book appeared, but he left us a daunting legacy as a scholar. I doubt anyone ever understood the infinitely complex Hemingway as well as Professor Reynolds did. It is a cause for celebration when a major writer and a great biographer come together; these volumes will never grow old.

Literary Lions, Political Tigers, and Papa Bears.......2001-01-05

Reviewed by TOMA 1999

Here's one to add to your Hemingway collection. Michael Reynolds tells us the story of Ernest Hemingway's last score years from the era of World War II to his suicide in Ketchum, Idaho on July 2, 1961. We have here the Hemingway hero we love and wish we personally knew: the articulate man full of high sentence, the man among men, the behemoth drinker, the virtuoso hunter, the dedicated idealist to his craft, the continent jumper, the fun-loving and cherished father especially to his three boys, the husband now going on his third wife in Martha Gellhorn and the literary lion in his last years where the Victor finally reaps the spoils of a lifetime pitted against the dragon called writing. Icon would be too small a word for such a colossal figure. Hemingway through all his own growling, fist-fighting, taunting of literary figures, strutting in and out of wars, promenading through world events, and arguing with his own publisher in Charles Scribner remains like the figure of the Greek Odysseus, the figure as Tennyson put it who set his life "to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." This is why many admire this American son while others see him as full of sh--, a braggart, and fraud for having never truly experienced the larger than life adventures he immortalized in his war books: For Whom The Bell Tolls, To Have and Have Not, and A Farewell To Arms not to mention his slew of other relevant stories set in exotic locations. At the date marking the century of his birth and with the latest Hemingway piece-meal work to be drawn together by his son Patrick in True at First Light, and the dozen or so other "timely" biographies, fancy-covered reprints, and photobooks presented during the summer of 1999, Reynolds does his duty to his subject with skill, organization, and insight. Although sentiment is not always unbiased, for it is obvious this research has been a labor of love, this book marks Reynolds' fifth and apparent last volume in a series of the chronologically-based Hemingway biography. In this final version, Hemingway is never idolized but shown in the somewhat balanced color of black and white where Hemingway can not but create his own shadow like some vibrant oak towering above Finca Vigia in Cuba or with his skeleton crew of "agents" monitoring the inland waterways for German submarines or as the bespectacled ancient literary lion much like his own tiger at Kilimanjaro, worn and heavy, resting within the expanse of Idaho country far below the mountains at his Sun Valley Lodge. Other exotic landscapes nicely slip into view along the journey: Hong Kong, Venice, Paris, Key West, New York, and Mombasa like a set of snapshots upon a reel. We find the sensitive Hemingway trying to keep together a marraige that seems over just as it has begun. We have a vivid image of Martha Gellhorn, the reluctant housewife and bonafide journalist torn between the woman Hemingway wishes and the one she desires to be. We feel him sparring with Scribner's over language in his novels and courtroom battles. We get a feel for the atmosphere of Finca Vigia with its bug-ridden sunburnt rooms, and for the silent, pine-washed Ketchum ranch where the echo of a rifle blast stills remains today. Characters saunter in and out of the story like locals into their corner bar. The quoted material from various personages of the times has been expertly chosen to move the Hemingway legend along its way. These haunting voices create such atmosphere and setting that the imagination has little to do but continue to create a story that unfolds in cinemagraphic slow motion. Moreover, we seem to capture a panoramic view of our literary past so important to reflect upon as we step over the century divide. This is a joyous read especially for summer reading not only for the enthusiast but for the academic who wishes to gain a fuller insight into the one of our greatest literary figures this nation has ever produced.

Take A Bow, Mr. Reynolds.......2000-08-04

In all respects -- in terms of research, sensitivity, perception, analysis, and style -- Mr. Reynolds has written the finest biography of one of the most fascinating and complex personalities the world has ever known.

Three citicisms, if I may: First, though very well written, there are occasional lapses in editing. Second, Mr. Reynolds owes it to his appreciative readers, as well as to himself, to provide somewhat more in-depth and revealing final thoughts than he has. My final "gripe" is admittedly extremely trivial. It irritated me, though -- in such a superbly researched endeavor, such a silly mistake should have been easily avoided. Hold on to your hats, ladies, because here it is: At one point, Mr. Reynolds mentions that Hemingway met Barbara Stanwyck and her husband, Robert Montgomery. Well, Robert Taylor, not Mr. Montgomery, was Miss Stanwyck's husband. A trivial mistake, to be sure, but why make it?

Despite the mix-up with the Roberts (which can be easily made right in future editions), this is an outstanding biography, which I heartily recommend.

An excellent biography, although by no means definitive.......1999-08-25

Michael S. Reynolds' "Hemingway: The Final Years" is excellent and a worthy addition to any library, as are the previous volumes. I have read every Hemingway biography (I even have such paperback quickies as HEMINGWAY: LIFE AND DEATH OF A GIANT and THE PRIVATE HELL OF HEMINGWAY that were published shortly after Papa's death) since my father, twenty-two years ago, gave me a copy of Carlos Baker's 1967 authorized biography (which I also recommend; it gives you the a great overview of Hemingway's life and work and is very readable), and I have found Reynolds biographies to be wonderful and informative.

Brilliant.......1999-08-20

The story of Hemingway's last years lets you enter a world of desillusion, faked grandeur and, ultimately, madness.

It seems as if the reader was present at the scenes which are brilliantly depicted by Reynolds.

Book Description

In this entertaining homage to the golden age of the cocktail, illustrator Edward Hemingway and writer Mark Bailey present the best (and thirstiest) American writers, their favorite cocktails, true stories of their saucy escapades, and intoxicating excerpts from their literary works. It’s the perfect blend of classic cocktail recipes, literary history, and tales of the good old days of extravagant Martini lunches and delicious excess.

When Algonquin Round Table legend Robert Benchley was asked if he knew that drinking was a slow death, Benchley took a sip of his cocktail and replied, “So who’s in a hurry?” Hunter S. Thompson took Muhammad Ali’s health tip to eat grapefruit every day; he just added liquor to the mix. Invited to a “come as you are” party, F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda, arrived in their pajamas ready for their cocktail of choice: a Gin Rickey.

Forty-three classic American writers, forty-three authentic cocktail recipes, forty-three telling anecdotes about the high life, and forty-three samples of the best writing in literature –Hemingway & Bailey’s Bartending Guide to Great American Writers delivers straight-up fun.

Customer Reviews:

DRINK UP, READ UP!.......2007-09-21

THIS IS AN ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTFUL BOOK. It is a great gift for any interested in authors or mixing drinks ... or both. Small but packs a powerful punch.

Literature and alcohol-- it just makes sense.......2007-07-06

Combine one shot of booze, four ounces of Great American Writers, and garnish heavily with several tales of drunken exploits. What you get is a tidy little book that'll knock your socks off.

This isn't exactly a cocktail recipe book. It's not really a literature anthology, either. I'm not entirely sure what it is, but I do know that it's one of the most enjoyable books I've bought in the past year or two.

In a nutshell, Bailey and Hemingway were sitting in a bar one night, remembering the good old days when authors found their ideas at the bottom of a bottle. So as a tribute to the great author-drinkers 20th Century, they mixed up this book. They picked out about 70 writers and paired them each with a real, no-fooling-around kind of drink. Then they selected a short excerpt from each author's work, and to round it out (and here's where the book gets really entertaining), there's a story of some drunken feat.

As far as the drink recipes in this book go, I like every one of them that I've tried. No, it's not nearly a complete compilation of cocktails, but there's something for everybody here, whether you're a fan of the quick and harsh Boilermaker or the dainty French 75, the sophisticated Gimlet, or the casual Planter's Punch. Bottoms up!

Can't lose with this one.......2007-07-03

I always wondered what Jack Kerouac's favorite drink was...and now I know thanks to Hemingway & Bailey's guide---and I even know how to mix it. A great idea and great execution!

Makes Me Want To Drink.......2007-03-11

I absolutely love this book. Not only do I love great writers, especially the crazy ones, but I love booze too. When I pick up this book it not only shows some of the writers character by the drink they choose but it makes me want to make a drink for myself. Great coffee table book/conversation piece.

Bottom's up!.......2006-11-20

Christmas. Greenwich Village. Mark Bailey was sitting at a bar with his friend Edward Hemingway, an artist, illustrator and grandson of the hard-drinking writer. They were sipping beers. The writers standing around them were nursing club sodas.

This seemed wrong. America has many traditions, but few it actually honors. One is the tradition of drinking among American writers --- and drinking to extreme, at that. As Truman Capote once said (astutely quoting Brendan Behan), "We are drinkers with writing problems."

Bailey and Hemingway could have dealt with their distress as many of us do --- strap on their Nikes, fire up their iPods, and rush off to the gym to pound down a few miles on the elliptical trainer. But one of then bore a great name, the other a large thirst.

In short, they had a...duty.

So they set out on a patriotic quest.

Their mission: make the case for classic cocktails by sharing great drink recipes and outlandish literary anecdotes of the kind generated whenever men and women of talent knock back two or three too many. And, just for good measure, they found excerpts from each writer's fiction that deals with the results of liquor.

If you are firmly seated on a bar stool and promise not to chug your Perrier, I will share some of their findings.

"Don't you know that drinking is slow death?" F. Scott Fitzgerald asked. Robert Benchley took a sip and replied: "So who's in a hurry?"

Charles Bukowski could drink 30 beers at one sitting.

Raymond Carver invited friends to a party, but failed to attend as he got drunk in another city.

Unable to pay a bar bill in Paris, Hart Crane started a brawl so he could get arrested.

Lillian Hellman was in New York. Dashiell Hammett, her paramour, was in Los Angeles. In the middle of the night, she telephoned him --- and got his secretary. She was too drunk to realize he had no secretary, but when she sobered up, she flew to LA, went to Hammett's house, smashed his bar and immediately returned to New York. Bailey's comment: "Hellman knew where to kick a man."

Ring Lardner once drank for 60 hours straight (though "straight" seems inexact).

H.L. Mencken: "I'll drink as much as I want, and one drink more."

A doctor told Dorothy Parker she had to stop drinking --- or she'd be dead within a month. Parker: "Promises, promises."

[Let me state for the record: I do not endorse this behavior, I merely note it.]

Walks In Hemingway's Paris: A Guide To Paris For The Literary Traveler

Average customer rating:

Insightful Guide
Fail-proof walks, great Hemingway quotes

Walks In Hemingway's Paris: A Guide To Paris For The Literary Traveler
Noel R. Fitch
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0312071132

Book Description

Walks in Hemingway's Paris is the perfect companion to the most romantic and fascinating of cities for those who want to experience Paris beyond the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. Covering all the area of Paris that Hemingway and his fellow expatriates once roamed from Left Bank to Right, Noel Riley Fitch provides an intimate visit to major Parisian landmarks as well as to out-of-the-way cafes, hotels and residences immortalized by "Papa" and his friends.

Customer Reviews:

Insightful Guide.......2001-03-23

Hemingway fans will adore this book, but for anyone interested in literary and artistic Paris, this exceptional guidebook will also lead you to the haunts of such luminaries as James Joyce, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, e. e. cummings, Sylvia Beach, Gertrude Stein and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Author Fitch includes a helpful introduction to Paris, followed by an insightful introduction to Hemingway's Paris. Seven self-guided tours contain detailed commentaries for each stop along the route. The best of the itineraries take you along the Seine, through the Latin Quarter and around the Luxemburg gardens, which are the most pleasant places to walk in Paris anyway. Even though it's easy to get lost in the maze of short and angled streets of Paris, clear, good-sized maps throughout the book keep you oriented. Nearly fifty black-and-white photographs, many of them historic, evoke the ambience of Paris in the 1920s. Photos include Sylvia Beach in her Shakespeare and Company bookstore; Scott, Zelda and Scottie Fitzgerald celebrating Christmas in their apartment on rue de Tilsitt; a wicked cartoon of James Joyce drawn by Fitzgerald in 1928; and, of course, Hemingway. A detailed index helps you find information about places and people.

After loosely following Tour Two through the Saint Germain neighborhood, my daughter Anne and I had morning coffee and pastries at the Cafe de Flore, Anne scribbling away in her journal. When I teasingly asked the waiter how Hemingway, and later the Existentialist writers who haunted the Cafe de Flore in the 40s and 50s, managed to get any writing done on the tiny, round tables barely large enough to hold a plate, he teased me back by pushing two of the tables together so I had plenty of room to pen my immortal postcards. But unless money is no object, it's too expensive to order much more than coffee at the famous Left Bank hangouts of Hemingway and his expatriate cohorts. On Rue de Buci and Rue de Abbaye in the Saint Germain neighborhood, close to Hemingway's Cafe de Flore and Les Deux Magots, you'll find less expensive, less pretentious cafes where you can order a great bowl of French onion soup.

Fail-proof walks, great Hemingway quotes.......1998-07-16

After two important introductory chapters, the seven walks take the reader or tourist to every Hemingway (and Fitzgerald) site in Paris. These walks were tried/previewed by many classes of students at the American University of Paris. Although a few details date the book, it holds up today! The walks, by the way, include wonderful quotations from many of Hemingway's novels, short stories, and his memoir of Paris. Buy the book and come to Paris!!

Average customer rating:

I'm no Hemingway but ...
"You'd better give me that other drink."
Great find
Hemmingway, A biography
Close To Definitive

Hemingway: A Biography
Jeffrey Meyers
Manufacturer: Da Capo Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0306808900

Customer Reviews:

I'm no Hemingway but ..........2007-04-05

Now being well into my fifties, being in good health, and financially sound I have had the opportunity to study my favorite author. I have already traveled to his old haunts in Italy, London, and Paris (Shakespeare and Co. Bookstore) but I needed more in the way of in a truly great biography.

So I decided to buy the biography of EH by J. Meyers after this book was recommended to me by a EH scholar in Paris.

Anyway, what I wanted was a book that would give me insight into what kind man EH was all about. Where did he get his passion and his energy? Did he have a temper? What did he drink? What hours did he keep? Why did his love relationships fail? When did his health go bad? Why was he so prone to accidents?

This book that gave me more than his life's history and I think you will have a good read, too. BTW, Key West and having a go at deep sea fishing is next of my list of things to do. This is a buy!

"You'd better give me that other drink.".......2006-11-01

Jeffrey Meyers' eponymous biography of Ernest Hemingway is, as some have made it, a saltier companion to Carlos Baker's masterful 1969 definitive authorized biography. Meyers is not overly adoring of his subject and gives us a different view of Hemingway. Still, although Meyers is grittier than Baker and manages to dig deeper into Hemingway's complex and contradictory personality, he is not gritty enough nor does he dig deep enough to displace Baker as the biographer nonpareil.

And neither does he capture the reader's imagination. HEMINGWAY: A BIOGRAPHY presents Ernest Hemingway in surprisingly muted tones, especially considering the almost cartoonish excesses to which Hemingway could drive himself. This is a very competent and workmanlike biography. However, its pacing and voice are didactic and dry and its portrait of the artist lacks color. Like twenty other books about the man, HEMINGWAY: A BIOGRAPHY belongs on the shelf as part of a well-rounded collection, but can replace none of them.

Great find.......2006-06-05

Found this first edition at our annual library sale this year for $1. After reading the other review on Amazon I am anxious to read it.

Hemmingway, A biography.......2005-09-04

I'm going to return this book because the printing was so poor. The photographs are unrecognizable and the type is smearing and difficult to read.

There is no place in #1 for a 0 or minus rating, but this volume is unacceptable.

Close To Definitive.......2001-02-08

Carlos Baker is generally known as the founding father of Hemingway biographical studies. His 1969 biography, "Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story" is the so-called "authorized" Hemingway bio and it was the first book of its kind to explore the author's life. All subsequent biographers owe a great deal to Baker and the seven years he spent producing "Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story."

Calling Baker's bio the definitive bio of Ernest Hemingway is difficult though for several reasons. First of all, being published in 1969, the book is now outdated to a great degree. Second of all, a slew of other biographies have been published since 1969 and some are very formidable. Baker's book, in my humble opinion, is probably the most tediously researched biography of Hemingway. His "Notes" section is just over 100 pages.

If I had to recommend one standard Hemingway biography, I would likely choose "Hemingway: A Biography" by Jeffrey Meyers. I have read many Hemingway biographies and in comparing them, the work of Meyers does stand out. He offers details not present in other bios and provides fine commentary on EH's literature. Meyers gets as close to definitive as I think one can come in a single book.

The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo
Average customer rating:

I wanted more

Both more and less than itýs cracked up to be

Couldn't put this down...

In response to "New York's" and "peace loving person"

An Inspirational Story Of Cross-Cultural Connections.

The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo
Paula Huntley
Manufacturer: Tarcher
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Kosovo: War and Revenge

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ASIN: 1585422932
Release Date: 2004-01-29

Book Description

A moving testimony to the power of literature to bring people together in even the most difficult of circumstances.

In the spring of 1999, the world watched as more than 800,000 Kosovo Albanians poured over Kosovo's borders, bringing with them stories of torture, rape, and massacre. One year later, Paula Huntley's husband signed on with the American Bar Association to help build a modern legal system in this broken country, and she reluctantly agreed to accompany him. Deeply uncertain as to how she might be of any service in a country that had seen such violence and hatred, Huntley found a position teaching English as a Second Language to a group of Kosovo Albanians in Prishtina.

A war story, a teacher's story, but most of all a story of hope, The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo is the journal Hunt-ley kept in scattered notebooks or on her laptop over the eight months that she lived and worked in Kosovo. When Huntley asked her students if they would like to form an American-style "book club," they jumped at the idea. After stumbling upon a stray English-language copy of Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, Huntley proposed it as the club's first selection. The simple fable touched all the students deeply, and the club rapidly became a forum in which they could discuss both the terrors of their past and their dreams for the future.

The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo is a compelling tribute to the resilience of the human spirit.

Customer Reviews:

I wanted more.......2006-08-01

First let me say that I have the utmost respect for Paula Huntley and her husband, for what they did, and for the lives they touched. Her writing was just enough to show the day to day lives of these people who have gone through so much. I wish more people would take a more active role in the world around them. It would be a better world if they did.

However, the more I read the book the more frustrated I got. The book was a collection of horrific stories. People need to know that this happened. But much was missing. While she provided us with a picture of the crumbling war torn town, she did little to give us any historical background. What was the culture like, who were the famous artists, statesmen, writers? What was Kosovo (and the entire region for that matter) like before the war, befor Tito. What were the politics that lead to decisions years ago which fired up the conflict? And where on earth was a good map of the region? I realize that I was probably asking for too much. But the blurb by Jason Elliot raised my expectations. It is good, esp if you know nothing about the region. But I really did want more.

Both more and less than itýs cracked up to be.......2004-03-25

The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo is a wonderful tale of the virtues and rewards of volunteering to help those in countries less fortunate (at least for the present) than the US; at the same time, it's not exactly great literature or great writing. However, that's not what it's advertised to be, and it's not the aspiration of the author to compete with the writers of great literature. For how it came to be (a collection of emails to friends and family during the 8 months the author spent teaching English in Kosovo), this book more than meets its goal.
Paula Huntley went to Kosovo with her husband, who volunteered for an ABA project to help set up a new legal system for the new war-torn country. She took a crash course in teaching English as a second language and, once in Prishtina, Kossovo, quickly found a job teaching the language to a classroom of eager and charming Albanian students.
The book begins as Huntley's story but quickly evolves into being the story of the country and its inhabitants, specifically those who were blessed to be her students. Like volunteers everywhere, Huntley quickly learned that she was gaining and receiving far more than she was giving, in terms of compassion, understanding, insight, and personal growth.
It's not `literature,' but it's sure a terrific little book. Don't miss it. I learned a whole, whole lot about a part of the world about which I have very little knowledge.

Couldn't put this down..........2004-02-12

I learnt a lot from and was infinitely moved by Paula Huntley's journal of the eight months she and he husband spent working in post-war Kosova. Understated, beautiful writing and none of the straining for effect that mars so many memoirs. She was clearly writing straight from the heart. I rarely do this but as soon as I finished the book, I found her website and donated something to the scolarship fund for young Albanian Kosovars. A fascinating and inspiring story of some very resilient people.

In response to "New York's" and "peace loving person".......2003-08-22

With the review you have given to Paula's book - that is considered an angel for me - you made me laugh despite the sad
reality of what you non-sense'd about.
"Hemingway book club of Kosova" a racist book??? No way, in contrary you were recommending a racist book that protects what
Serbs have done to Kosova, Croatia and Bosnia.
Goodness me, I can not understand people who make (war) crimes
and yet find reasons to justify their ugly deeds. Shame to all of them who do that.

Hemingway Book Club of Kosova, is the best book written about KOSOVA so far, that's in my opinion and if since I can make recommendation in here - I'd like to recommend Philip J. Cohen's
book "Serbia's Secret War" - that has some similiarities with
Hemingway book Club of Kosova.
Hemingway book Club of Kosova talks about LOVE between Kosovars
and Americans while the "Serbia's Secret War" talks about the
Serbian cooperations with Nazi's throughout the 2-nd world war. And by the way, I am asking you since "I have forgotten"
Who was the person who started the First World War, and those in Slovenia, and Croatia, and Bosnia and Kosova at last.
With all due respect to you "peace loving person" - You have no room to protect the Serbs who have done more then horrible crimes
in not less than 4 countries.
Now who's the racist here, Mrs Huntley or the Serbs she talked about (even though she didn't generalize them all).

God Bless Mrs Huntley and her husband, God Bless U.S.A and all
Peace loving people throughout the world - excluding the fake ones.

An Inspirational Story Of Cross-Cultural Connections........2003-08-06

Paula Huntley left her home in California, and traveled with her husband, Ed, to Kosovo in 2000, one year after the NATO bombing of that province. Ed Huntley desperately wanted to do something to help in the war-torn Balkans. So he volunteered for an American Bar Association project to help rebuild Kosovo's legal system. Paula trained to teach English as a second language, (TESL), while she was still in the States. "The Hemingway Book Club Of Kosovo" is her memoir of that period, taken from the journal she kept during the eight months they lived and worked in Prishtina. Ms. Huntley movingly writes of her experience, and of the intimate bond she forged with her students.

The Huntleys arrived in Prishtina and found that the city had not been totally destroyed. Since the Serbs needed Prishtina, the capital city, they had left most of the buildings intact. However, as in most of Kosovo, there had been massive looting, vandalism and violence, murders were committed on a large scale, as was ethnic cleansing of the Kosovo Albanians. Huntley writes, "Most of the destruction in Prishtina was below the surface - in the hearts and minds of the residents. I saw this every day, and I never got used to that destruction."

Her students, and every native Albanian, had lost ten years of their lives under the brutal oppression, and apartheid imposed by the Kosovo Serbs. Learning English, in many ways, was key to the economic advancement of the students and their families. Ms. Huntley was deeply touched by the students' eagerness to learn not just English, and grammatical structure, but about the American culture and work ethic. She wanted to provide a safe forum for them to discuss their feelings, and the traumas of the past decade. A book club was established, that met at the Huntley home. The selection was Ernest Hemmingway's "The Old Man And The Sea." The club took-off and became so much more. And the book became a vehicle through which the young people could discuss their lives. Hemmingway's book was fairly easy for them to read, but the novel's meaning was far deeper than the relatively simple language. The students identified with the fable of the triumph of hope and courage over adversity.

Book Description

When Ernest Hemingway committed suicide in 1961 he left four unfinished works--A Moveable Feast, Islands in the Stream, The Garden of Eden, and an untitled work on his travels in Africa. The edited versions that have come down to readers and scholars of Hemingway appear as distinct, disjointed texts that fit oddly into his oeuvre. Through extensive literary detective work Burwell has uncovered substantial evidence that Hemingway in fact designed the three published works as a trilogy, what she terms "his own Portrait of the Artist."

Customer Reviews:

Groundbreaking Study.......2005-09-28

This is the only in-depth scholarly work extant on the mass of unfinished books Hemingway left behind in 1961. Besides that, it is fluidly written, thoroughly documented, thoughtfully analyzed, and excellent in all respects.

It matters not whether or not the thesis -- that the posthumous works constitute a loose unified work -- holds up. To state it and explore it, as the author does, is to cast a lot of light on the very complex issue of Hemingway's last works and their difficult manuscripts. No one had even gone as far as to lay the groundwork for such a question before Burwell. Indeed it was doubtless necessary to proceed on some sort of hypothesis to go through these widely divergent manuscripts chronologically, as the author does, and to then present a coherent text of her own regarding her studies.

The author also has a great openness and sympathy for Hemingway and his tortured, insistent aestheticism. It shines through the entire work and raises it to a very rare level in modern literary criticism.

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