The Letters of Ernest Hemingway: Volume 1, 1907–1922

by Ernest Hemingway, Sandra Spanier (Editor), Robert W. Trogdon (Editor)

With the first publication, in this edition, of all the surviving letters of Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961), readers will for the first time be able to follow the thoughts, ideas and actions of one of the great literary figures of the twentieth century in his own words. This first volume encompasses his youth, his experience in World War I and his arrival in Paris. The letters reveal a more complex person than Hemingway's tough guy public persona would suggest: devoted son, affectionate brother, infatuated lover, adoring husband, spirited friend and disciplined writer. Unguarded and never intended for publication, the letters record experiences that inspired his art, afford insight into his creative process and express his candid assessments of his own work and that of his contemporaries. The letters present immediate accounts of events and relationships that profoundly shaped his life and work. A detailed introduction, notes, chronology, illustrations and index are included.

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to watch Patrick Hemingway, Ernest's second son, discusses the letters and the writer's private persona with editor Sandra Spanier.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Biography Memoir, Classics, Literature, Writing, History

431 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Best known for an economical, understated style that significantly influenced later 20th-century writers, he is often romanticized for his adventurous lifestyle, and outspoken and blunt public image. Most of Hemingway's works were published between the mid-1920s and mid-1950s, including seven novels, six short-story collections and two non-fiction works. His writings have become classics of American literature; he was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature, while three of his novels, four short-story collections and three nonfiction works were published posthumously.
Hemingway was raised in Oak Park, Illinois. After high school, he spent six months as a cub reporter for The Kansas City Star before enlisting in the Red Cross. He served as an ambulance driver on the Italian Front in World War I and was seriously wounded in 1918. His wartime experiences formed the basis for his 1929 novel A Farewell to Arms. He married Hadley Richardson in 1921, the first of four wives. They moved to Paris where he worked as a foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star and fell under the influence of the modernist writers and artists of the 1920s' "Lost Generation" expatriate community. His debut novel The Sun Also Rises was published in 1926.
He divorced Richardson in 1927 and married Pauline Pfeiffer. They divorced after he returned from the Spanish Civil War, where he had worked as a journalist and which formed the basis for his 1940 novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. Martha Gellhorn became his third wife in 1940. He and Gellhorn separated after he met Mary Welsh Hemingway in London during World War II. Hemingway was present with Allied troops as a journalist at the Normandy landings and the liberation of Paris. He maintained permanent residences in Key West, Florida, in the 1930s and in Cuba in the 1940s and 1950s. On a 1954 trip to Africa, he was seriously injured in two plane accidents on successive days, leaving him in pain and ill health for much of the rest of his life. In 1959, he bought a house in Ketchum, Idaho, where, on July 2, 1961 (a couple weeks before his 62nd birthday), he killed himself using one of his shotguns.

Reviews

[Jonfaith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Revealing insights but yet the letters here are largely from the pen of a very young person, akin to Instagram but resonant, even if raw and often muddied.
Maybe 2.6 stars and I’m tempted to push this to three given the convalescence missives penned in Italy.

I obviously arrived here after returning from Northern Michigan. The descriptions in the letters however fleeting confirmed my interest. It was just a question of impact.

[Terri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this book because I recently read "The Paris Wife," and after reading a biography, I like to delve in and see where reality lies in the biography. Original source letters was a great way to do that, so this Letters of Ernest Hemingway: Volume 1, 1907- 1922 was fascinating.

This compilation is a critical volume because it details through Hemingway's own words, his serious injuries during World War I. His letters from the American Red Cross Hospital in Milan on August 18, 1918 are at times jovial and other times sober account of numerous near deadly wounds, "The 227 wounds I got from the trench mortar didn't hurt a bit at the time, only my feet felt like I had rubber boots full of water on. Hot water. And my knee cap was acting queer." Shot through both knee caps it was a wonder he could walk the 150 yards to safety. More soberly he recounted, "I told him in Italian that I wanted to see my legs, though I was afraid to look at them. So we took off my trousers and the old limbs were still there but gee they were a mess."

These war letters are critical to understanding Hemingway and his ability to write so well, A Farewell to Arms, and his tormented life ending in suicide. A year after his wounds he still writes of the great pain they caused him.

When Ernest writes of his upcoming marriage to Hadley there is yet that torment and loneliness in his life, "Good chance that it'll be just two people that love each other being able to be together and understand each other and bum together and help each other in their work and take away from each other that sort of loneliness of that's with you even when you're in a crowd of people that are fond of you."

The footnotes, thankfully, come at the end of each letter and not at the end of the book making it easy to read through them for the full intent of the letters.

Because these letters were not intended for publication, the reader gets to know Hemingway as he really was as a son, brother, husband, and friend; the real Ernest Hemingway.

[CD · Rating 3 out of 5]

"16 July 1918
'Wounded in legs by trench mortar: not serious; will receive valor medal; will walk in about ten days'. " Cable/telegram from Hemingway.


The famous brevity of words of Hemingway illustrated succinctly regarding having been injured at the front and then physically carrying a wounded soldier some distance before collapsing himself.

This collection of letters of E.H. is the early Hemingway. The child, the prankster, the chummy, slangy, rambunctious youth just as he neared the height of his literary prowess. Included are all the flaws and foibles of E.H. such as misspellings and grammatical 'necessities' as well as his oblique shorthand including pet names for his friends and favorites.

The letters, postcards, notes, telegrams in this book are as complete as have been ever before collected. They are presented with footnotes and other annotations with sourcing and dates. Some have never been seen widely as they were unsent or not published prior to this work. Additionally there are chronologies, brief vital biographies of recipients and a few cases correspondents who would shortly after the timeline in this book become far more important. Maps and photographs add to the overall resources provided in this first part of the collected letters.

A very scholarly work that probably will be worth more than three stars after the release of part 2. A must for the Hemingway scholar and fans.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Letter by letter, autobiography that’s intimate and unguarded
To me, it makes sense that when you get together with friends, have drinks no one should be allowed to talk about religion, politics, current medical ailment or Ernest Hemingway. That way you'll continue to enjoy each other's company.

Talking about Hemingway whether it's a new biography, a revisionist "Memorable Feast" or his portrayal on the screen is like lighting a fuse. It easily sparks an explosion, usually (sorry for the generalization) by a woman in the group.

Then one or another of the men (sorry, more generalization) feels the need to defend the brut for his bravado as well as for his brilliance. At least that's been my experience. And I'm one to jump into the fray to defend the writer, stand up for him for no other reason than he loved to fish for trout.

These friends of mine are the ones who have the most to learn by reading Hemingway's letters. That's the main reason I'm buying multiple copies of Hemingway's letters, to hand out to EH detractors.

The editors say know of about 6,000 Hemingway letters and only a small portion, about 15 percent, have been published. They plan to print the literary trove in about a dozen volumes.

This first collection covers the years 1907 to 1922, beginning when Hemingway was eight years old and carrying on through WWI and his arrival in Paris when he was twenty-three, four years before the publication of "The Sun Also Rises," Hemingway's first great novel and the book that became the real start of everything.

His letters demonstrate that for all the machismo, chest thumping and for his rough treatment of the women in his life, Hemingway had a side that made him human, vulnerable, witty and funny. He dealt with life at the detail level and was easily affronted when his behavior came under scrutiny. Questioned about an expense report that didn't match his publisher's account books, Hemingway shot back "Suggest you upstick book asswards."

There is enough in these letters, written when still young, to not like about the man. He can sound at times exclusionary, almost anti-Semite or racist. But I think he comes across surprisingly often as someone caring, insecure and genuinely appreciative of the kindness of friends and members of his family.

In a 1952 letter to Scribner's editor Wallace Meyer Hemingway described his letter writing as "often libelous, always indiscreet, often obscene and many of them could make great trouble." Yes, they are all of that. His letters also are often hilarious, usually gossipy and offer more than anything great insight into the man, his methods and motivation.

The letters ultimately represent Hemingway's autobiography. They connect the dots in his life. Most of them are nuggets of enjoyment that even when read over and over remain entertaining and enlightening.

[Marcel Ozymantra · Rating 4 out of 5]

De brieven van Hemingway, in het Nederlands. Dat was niet mijn bedoeling. Ik was te happig, keek niet verder, dacht niet na. Een moment van verstandsverbijstering op de boekenmarkt. Normaal gesproken koop ik Engelstalig alleen in de oorspronkelijke taal. Heel leuk hoor, dat vak van vertalen, maar als ik de oorspronkelijke taal ken liever zo. Niettemin een buitengewoon plezier om deze brieven te lezen. Wat een mannetje was dat en hoe dicht bij je iemand komt. Ik vergeet altijd weer het lezen van brieven van schrijvers die je bewonderd ze dichtbij kunnen brengen. Je mag even in hun hoofd vertoeven. Het mooie van Hemingway is dat hij bovendien zeer naturel tot op het slordige schrijft. Alle koudheid en afstand uit zijn prozawerk is geheel verdwenen. Warmte, woede, verdriet, liefde, noem maar op, het komt ongefilterd door. Vaak eindigt hij een brief ook met de opmerking dat het waarschijnlijk de slechtste brief ooit geschreven is. Dat kan wel zijn, meneer Hemingway, maar het is ook de brief die mij bevrijdt van mijn angst voor brieven schrijven. Ja, natuurlijk is het enigszins literair en verheven, maar het is ook plezier en een manier van communiceren die heel veel ruimte zou moeten laten voor al die toevallige gedachten. Chapeau dus en doet me reikhalzend uitkijken naar de Amerikaanse versies.

Ik had deze verzameling overigens graag 5 sterren gegeven, maar de noten in het boek schoten of tekort of waren overbodig en dat gaat na verloop van tijd ergeren. Bovendien is deel twee, aangekondigd voor 1984, nooit uitgebracht.

[Kc · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book very interesting. It shows an Ernest Hemingway who as a young man is a devoted family member, outgoing, easy going and full of life. It takes you to 1922 when he is 23 years old, married for the first time and back in Europe where he loves to be. As the letters - extremely creative from the beginning - take you through his war years, and his years working on newspapers you begin to see the Hemingway legend forming. His disgust at the fame he had coming home from a war in which he was not able to participate as a soldier because of a bad eye left him disappointed in America. He hated the glad handing and adoration that went on weeks after his return. His treks as a youth - sometimes 100s of miles through the woods of Michigan alone as a 15 year old - show the independence and love of nature which stayed with him all his life. But he had some chronic illnesses that limited him and you begin to see the frustration turn to shortness with those around him. I am looking forward to the next volume.

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really hadn’t intended to read the entire volume. I bought it on a whim at Barnes and Noble’s ½ price table during the post-Christmas sale. Always hard to resist a bargain. I had been re-reading some of Hemingway’s classic works and the idea of his letters in my library seemed, apart the bargain price, a good idea. Probably a hang-over from my days in academia. But I found the letters like peanuts: it was difficult to read just one. 264 letters later and I was at the end of the volume, footnotes, end notes and all.

This particular collection is actually part of a larger project to publish all of Hemingway’s preserved letters from 1907 to his death in 1961. The general editor is Sandra Spanier, from Penn State University. Volume 1, published in 2011, covers the years from 1907 through 1922. It includes letters written during his childhood and adolescence spent in Oak Park, Illinois, and northern Michigan, in the broader Petoskey area; his stint as a young journalist in Kansas City; his service in the American Red Cross as an ambulance driver in Italy during part of WWI; his recuperation in northern Michigan after his Italian service and the beginning of his relationship with the Toronto Star; his courtship and marriage to Hadley Richardson; and his and Hadley’s move to Paris in the wake of his decision to devote himself with renewed seriousness to writing. The volume ends with EH and Hadley leaving from Paris to Chamby, Switzerland, for the 1922/23 holidays. Hadley has just lost almost all of Hemingway’s manuscripts. By the end of 1922, Hemingway is 23 years old and friends with the likes of Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound. He is a not-yet-published-writer with only two short manuscripts and he continues to function as a journalist to supplement Hadley’s income from her trust.

The letters in this first volume are accompanied by extensive notes, a detailed introduction with essays on the project in general and about this first volume itself, a chronology of major events in Hemingway’s life up to 1923, illustrations, maps and several indexes. All in all, it is an impressive start.

There are some disappointments. Some of Hemingway’s correspondence related to these early years has not survived. The letters that he wrote to Agnes von Kurowsky, the American nurse with whom he fell in love in Italy and who served as a model for Catherine Barkley in A Farewell to Arms, are missing. And there are only a few of the some 200 letters that he wrote to Hadley Richardson, his first wife, in the collection. Hadley, after their divorce, destroyed the bulk of them.

But even with the disappointments, the letters that do survive begin to offer understandings and insights into Hemingway as both a person and writer. He is chatty, naïve, unguarded, vindictive, self-promoting, inviting, sensitive, disarming. And there are in the letters seeds for many of his future novels and stories. As most writers, Hemingway drew from his own life as he created new worlds and people. His upbringing in the American Midwest and his war experiences in Italy—both of which are clearly documented in this volume—are obviously formative. For example, he writes about his love for northern Michigan, the world that is home for his fictional Nick Adams:

Guy loves a couple or three streams all his life and loves ‘em better than anything in the world—falls in love with a girl and the goddam streams can dry up for all he cares. Only the hell of it is that all that country has as bad a hold on me as ever—there’s as much of a pull this spring as there ever was—and you know how it’s always been—just don’t think about it all daytimes, but at night it comes and ruins me….

The letters also show his tendency toward invention. Writing from Kansas City before he joined the American Red Cross in Italy, he manufactures a love affair with Mae Marsh, a silent-era film star. Writing to his sister on 12 February 1918 he notes: “I have got a bad case on Mae West….[S]he loves me a whole lot better or else she is a darn liar. [She] says she will wait for me.” In a later year a more truthful Mae Marsh denied ever having met Hemingway.

There is also some invention in regard to his military service. In an August 18, 1918 letter to his family he mentions an Italian soldier he saved by carrying him into safety—an incident that now seems to have been a fabrication. When he returns to the States after being wounded in Italy, he wears a uniform to which he is not entitled, visible in the photograph that is on the cover jacket of the volume. He also spends pages stressing over the receipt of medals related to his actual experience during the war and which he emphasizes to reinforce his own somewhat inflated views of his wartime involvement.

That said, the war did leave its scars if we are to believe a letter he wrote to his family on 18 August 1918. In that long letter in which he describes his thoughts about the war and his wounds he writes: “You know they say there isn’t anything funny about this war. And there isn’t. I wouldn’t say it was hell, because that’s been a bit overworked…but there have been about 8 times when I would have welcomed Hell.”

Hemingway’s biographers have made much of his strained relationships with his parents and particularly with his mother, Grace. The letters in this volume that span his “banishment” by his mother from his parents' homes are not particularly vitriolic. Sandra Spanier notes in her introduction, “Their tone, complexity, and textual richness show that Hemingway’s family meant a great deal to him and that his relationships with them over time should not be oversimplified.” [p. liv] With that caveat in mind, Hemingway’s explanation of his banishment—what he calls “the kicking out business”—is overly self-serving and misses the main points of his mother’s concerns about his erratic and selfish behavior since his return from the war. Hemingway, in a 1 August 1920 letter to his friend, Grace Quinlan, sees “the kicking out business” to be less a response to his own problematic behavior than as “an excuse to oust me as she has more or less hated me ever since I opposed her throwing two or three thousand seeds away to build a new cottage for herself….”

The letters are also filled with more mundane observations that in their collectivity help humanize a figure who has become a marbleized icon of American literature:

• During his Kansas City days he writes to his mother on 21 November 1917: “I havnt seen a girl in Kansas City yet and that is a hard predicament for a guy that has been in love with someone ever since he can remember.” He makes up for that situation in later years with 4 marriages and several affairs.

• Or later, in a 20 May 1921 letter to his sister, Marcelline, explaining his poor typing: “Scuse the rotten typage and the probably tousands of errati—that’s on account of me typing by the touch system—just learned it recently and it’s faster but more inacurrate.” In a short story written almost a decade later, Hemingway has one of his characters echo the very same critique about the touch-typing system that was a new in 1921 and that apparently continued to plague Hemingway.

• Or his February 1922 letter to his mother when he recounts a time with Gertrude Stein: “Gertrude Stein who wrote Three Lives and a number of other good things was here to dinner last night and stayed till mid-night[.] She is about 55 I guess and very large and nice. She is very keen about my poetry—My Corona typewriter is being repaired. The femme de menage knocked off my writing table while she was cleaning and I don’t get it until tomorrow.” By the 1930s, Hemingway had changed his view of Stein who, in turn, had recast her view of him.

For anyone hooked for better or for worse on Hemingway, this volume of The Letters of Ernest Hemingway is well worth the time. I’m ready for volume two.

[Paul W. B. Marsden · Rating 5 out of 5]

A minutely researched and cross referenced set of Hemingway letters that are an invaluable source of his life, attitudes and beliefs. The hard work that has gone into collecting and assessing every letter is awesome. Congratulations on producing a superb book.

[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoy Hemingway, but this wasn't what I expected. Had some good insight, but was hard to read through cover to cover.

[Eric Harding · Rating 4 out of 5]

Piercing and provocative in tone, these letters provide a necessary insight to understanding the magnificent authorship of Hemingway. I was spellbound by these letters.

[Jake Schell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating approach in seeing a life.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of Hemingway's letters before he fully became a writer provide great insight into the making of a literary master, from his voice as a narrator of events to his technique of writing down every detail first and then editing out the obvious. The letters also reveal a side of Hemingway that had been ignored before: that of a sensitive and caring son and brother, even if already with a devil-may-care attitude about life and love. In the end, there's no better way to understand a writer than through his writings--public and personal alike.

[Barb reads......it ALL! · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have several collections of letters, most significant among the Carlos Baker's edited collection. This first volume of a proposed 6 volumes was great! While most of the letters I had read in some form or another, the introduction and extensive notes do what the editors set out to do in this volume, demonstrate how Hemingway's childhood helped to create the man he would become. The incredible research of succinct notes and fun details, really bring the young man to life!

A must read for fans or fantatics or the casual reader of author biographies!

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

This compilation of letters. which have survived the passage of time, is of primary interest to a student of Hemingway. I can find no other reason to read this compilation. Beyond explaining (providing some perspective would be more accurate) to some degree on the growth of Hemingway from a young boy to a young man, a read of this compilation is only of interest to a Hemingway fanatic. I recommend it to no one else.

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The boyhood letters were nothing short of adorable, and as correspondence progresses one can really start to see Hemingway's style even in the informal writings. I loved the letters during wartime, too--but shortly after that, around 1919 or so, they grew tedious.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting insight into hemingway's early career serving for the ambulance corps in italy and then as a journalist. slow reading, reads much like a text book with lots of notes and explanations of things e.h. references in the letters, which is helpful but clumsy at times.

[False · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've never been a fan of Ernest Hemingway, but of late, I've been reading more about him. He says he never wrote for posterity. I disagreed. I would say he was writing for posterity from the time he was a child.

[Meghan L · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I read a good bit of this book, I did a lot of skimming, too. It's such a bummer that Hadley burned all the letters Ernest sent to her, because those are the ones I'd be most interested in reading. Such fun to read the notes he was writing as just a little one, though.

[Gary]

I bought a copy of this....not read it yet.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm obviously pretty biased. But I thought it was really well put together and found it interesting to chart Hemingway's life through letters as he experienced different things.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stuffy and academic intros. Loved the adult Hem's voice. Skimmed and wolfed it like one should a hot dog, quickly and without scrutiny, and enjoyed it immensely.

[Elizabeth]

I haven't touched this in more than a year, despite really enjoying what I read. Hemingway is particularly charming as a small child.

[Tony]

If you enjoy the genre of collected letters, this classic collection cannot be surpassed. The life of Hemingway as heard in his own voice provides a rare insight into literary genius.

[Robert Bartram · Rating 4 out of 5]

wonderful book. full I
of letters written by a young man who later became one of America's greatest authors

[Caroline Mathews · Rating 4 out of 5]

You knew that I could not begin with Volume 2, didn't you? I had to go back and start from the beginning. Sheldon Cooperesque.

[Glenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just started but very good so far.