Ernest Hemigway, A Biography by Mary V. Dearborn

On a Ketchum memorial to Hemingway’s memory is an inscription that reads, “Best of all he loved the Fall/ The leaves yellow on the cottonwoods/ Leaves floating on trout streams/ And above the hills/ The high blue windless skies/ …. Now he will be part of them forever.” These are the words Ernest wrote about another Sun Valley Friend, Gene Van Guilder, for his funeral in 1939.

Mary V. Dearborn’s biography titled “Ernest Hemingway” is a well written book that gives great insight to this complex, brilliant and tragic character.  My impression is the book is well researched and gives an honest and unbiased look into probably one of the most talented, as well as controversial, colorful and tragic figures in the history of American Literature. 

One of the things I find interesting is the biographical aspect of his fiction and how he was obsessed with “truthfulness” in his writing as he was obsessed with “doing things the right way.”  It seems apparent when reading this biography that he largely felt that he had to experience things firsthand and pursue these experiences with the deepest devotion and dedication in order to be able to write about them.  I do not believe he could have written a novel like Twain’s Huck Finn unless he had actually floated down the Mississippi River on a raft with a runaway slave. 

One of the things that has always intrigued me about Hemingway is the life that he led which did indeed parallel his fiction.  It reminds me of a line in a Hank Williams Jr. song “why do you have to live out the songs that you wrote”.   This is part of what makes me so intrigued by Hemingway; his life is inseparable from his fiction, and I believe being aware of his legendary exploits affects or enhances how many people enjoy his writing. 

Ezra Pound said, “no man understands a deep book until he has seen and lived a part of its contents.”  I think you may also be able to say no man can write a deep book until he has seen and lived a part of its contents.  I believe all great writers of fiction have experienced what they write about; however often the experience is more in the emotional, psychological realm and it is displayed in physical venues that are far from their actual experience.   The difference with Hemingway is that he writes from experiences in every aspect from the physical to the philosophical.  

The “truthfulness” of his writing combined with his clean prose makes a great literary style.  I believe that the intimate knowledge of his subject matter allows him to be able to write in such a way as to not say things while at the same time making them clearly apparent.  This is something that I appreciated Dearborn being able to describe so well in the biography.  This “iceberg” principle that allowed him to be able to write in such a way that the truths found in the writing do not have to be spelled out.

Unfortunately, his robust and reckless lifestyle that gave him such great material for his art wrecked his health both physically and mentally.   To be able to write with precise skill as the younger Hemingway did required a sharp and clear presence of mind, attributes that slipped away from him at an early age. 

Dearborn’s book chronicles his slow and steady slip into madness and struggles as he realized that he was losing his talent, and many friends, as his reckless appetite for danger and experiences took their toll on both his physical and mental health. 

I highly recommend this book.  If you have not read a complete biography on Hemingway and are a fan of his literature, I believe you will find it enjoyable and insightful.  It is also quite the tragedy and it would have been interesting to read a piece of biographical fiction that paralleled his demise by Papa himself.  Of course, that would have been impossible; however, one can only imagine what the story would have been like.  What we do have is the posthumously published “A moveable feast” and his novel “Across the River and into the Trees”, between the two of them containing what could be called biographical fiction, from two different periods of his life.