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Paris Without End: The True Story of Hemingway's First Wife
“A bittersweet modern love story [that] reads as easily as a novel.” —Vogue
“Fascinating. . . . A detailed, grittier portrait of the woman Hemingway loved and left.” —Newsday
Hadley Richardson and Ernest Hemingway were the golden couple of Paris in the twenties, the center of an expatriate community boasting the likes of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, and James and Nora Joyce. In this haunting account of the young Hemingways, Gioia Diliberto explores their passionate courtship, their family life in Paris with baby Bumby, and their thrilling, adventurous relationship—a literary love story scarred by Hadley’s loss of the only copy of Hemingway’s first novel and ultimately destroyed by a devastating ménage à trois on the French Riviera.
Compelling, illuminating, poignant, and deeply insightful, Paris Without End provides a rare, intimate glimpse of the writer who so fully captured the American imagination and the remarkable woman who inspired his passion and his art—the only woman Hemingway never stopped loving.
“Fascinating. . . . A detailed, grittier portrait of the woman Hemingway loved and left.” —Newsday
Hadley Richardson and Ernest Hemingway were the golden couple of Paris in the twenties, the center of an expatriate community boasting the likes of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, and James and Nora Joyce. In this haunting account of the young Hemingways, Gioia Diliberto explores their passionate courtship, their family life in Paris with baby Bumby, and their thrilling, adventurous relationship—a literary love story scarred by Hadley’s loss of the only copy of Hemingway’s first novel and ultimately destroyed by a devastating ménage à trois on the French Riviera.
Compelling, illuminating, poignant, and deeply insightful, Paris Without End provides a rare, intimate glimpse of the writer who so fully captured the American imagination and the remarkable woman who inspired his passion and his art—the only woman Hemingway never stopped loving.
544 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 1, 1992
230 people are currently reading
6219 people want to read
About the author
Gioia Diliberto
11 books93 followersGioia Diliberto is the author of eight books -- three historical novels and five nonfiction narratives -- and a play. Her writing, which focuses on women's lives, has been praised for combining rich storytelling and literary grace with deep research to bring alive worlds as varied as Jazz Age Paris, nineteenth century Chicago, Belle Epoque Paris, disco era Manhattan, and Prohibition New York. Her books have been translated into several languages, and her articles have appeared in many publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian, Town & Country, and Vanity Fair. She also teaches writing and has taught at DePaul and Northwestern Universities and the Savannah College of Art and Design.
Gioia is the mother of a grown son and lives in Woodbury, Connecticut with her husband.
Gioia is the mother of a grown son and lives in Woodbury, Connecticut with her husband.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 215 reviews
March 27, 2012
Why should we, as readers, be the slightest bit interested in Hadley Richardson, Hemingway’s first wife?
One might make a convincing case – and Gioia Diliberto certainly does – that Hadley is the archetype for all the women in Hemingway’s literature: Brett Ashley in The Sun Also Rises, Catherine Barkley in A Farewell to Arms, and Maria in For Whom The Bell Tolls. Hadley is the idealized Hemingway woman – stoic, smart, unpretentious, intelligent, devoted, romantic, and wounded.
Many of us received a tantalizing glimpse of her in Paula McLain’s fictional book, The Paris Wife. Ms. Diliberto takes the portrait much further through her exhaustive research into their thrilling and doomed relationship.
In a finely-detailed depiction – to borrow Hemingway’s phrase, one of the “truest” deconstructions of Hadley around, focusing strongly on “innocence lost” – Hadley emerges from the shadows of her far more famous ex-husband and reveals herself to be a fascinating person in her own right.
Ms. Diliberto reveals Hadley’s dysfunctional upbringing, living with her anti-male, strong-willed, manipulative mother and sister, and exploring the commonalities that “twinned” Ernest and Hadley together – the desire to break free of domineering mothers, the fraternal suicides that haunted them, the bouts with depression, the lack of sexual experience, and the overriding love of art.
The author had access to more than one thousand pages of Hadley’s letters to Ernest – as she reveals in her preface – and it shows. This book is not just interpretative but also a revelation of Hadley in her own words – from their separated courtship, their adventures in Paris at the center of the literary expatriates, their baby Bumby, and ultimately, the dissolution of their union as a result of Hemingway’s self-destructive cheating.
“I would never have written any of them In Our Time, Torrents, or The Sun if I had not married you and had your loyal and self sacrificing and always stimulating and loving,” Ernest wrote to Hadley after he left, calling her “the best and truest and loveliest person that I have ever known.” The mind boggles in thinking what he could have created if he had remained with her. Hemingway himself realized it: ‘I wish I had died before I ever loved anyone but her.”
As fascinating as fiction – but so much more powerful because it’s fact – Paris Without End is riveting reading for anyone who wants true insight into Hemingway’s psychodynamics and the female characters he creates. Hadley Richardson is as stunning as any character in fiction, including Hemingway’s own.
One might make a convincing case – and Gioia Diliberto certainly does – that Hadley is the archetype for all the women in Hemingway’s literature: Brett Ashley in The Sun Also Rises, Catherine Barkley in A Farewell to Arms, and Maria in For Whom The Bell Tolls. Hadley is the idealized Hemingway woman – stoic, smart, unpretentious, intelligent, devoted, romantic, and wounded.
Many of us received a tantalizing glimpse of her in Paula McLain’s fictional book, The Paris Wife. Ms. Diliberto takes the portrait much further through her exhaustive research into their thrilling and doomed relationship.
In a finely-detailed depiction – to borrow Hemingway’s phrase, one of the “truest” deconstructions of Hadley around, focusing strongly on “innocence lost” – Hadley emerges from the shadows of her far more famous ex-husband and reveals herself to be a fascinating person in her own right.
Ms. Diliberto reveals Hadley’s dysfunctional upbringing, living with her anti-male, strong-willed, manipulative mother and sister, and exploring the commonalities that “twinned” Ernest and Hadley together – the desire to break free of domineering mothers, the fraternal suicides that haunted them, the bouts with depression, the lack of sexual experience, and the overriding love of art.
The author had access to more than one thousand pages of Hadley’s letters to Ernest – as she reveals in her preface – and it shows. This book is not just interpretative but also a revelation of Hadley in her own words – from their separated courtship, their adventures in Paris at the center of the literary expatriates, their baby Bumby, and ultimately, the dissolution of their union as a result of Hemingway’s self-destructive cheating.
“I would never have written any of them In Our Time, Torrents, or The Sun if I had not married you and had your loyal and self sacrificing and always stimulating and loving,” Ernest wrote to Hadley after he left, calling her “the best and truest and loveliest person that I have ever known.” The mind boggles in thinking what he could have created if he had remained with her. Hemingway himself realized it: ‘I wish I had died before I ever loved anyone but her.”
As fascinating as fiction – but so much more powerful because it’s fact – Paris Without End is riveting reading for anyone who wants true insight into Hemingway’s psychodynamics and the female characters he creates. Hadley Richardson is as stunning as any character in fiction, including Hemingway’s own.
September 17, 2012
I was going to read THE PARIS WIFE, recommended by several friends, when I saw this recent biography and decided to read it instead. It reads like a novel and now I’m wondering if there’s any point in reading the fictional PARIS WIFE which I understand hews closely to the facts.
I say it reads like a novel because hanging over every detail, especially the early ones when Hemingway was an unknown midwesterner, full of doubt about his future, is the reader’s knowledge of whom he became – one of the 20th century’s great writers. Hadley Richardson, a St. Louis native, eight years older than Hemingway, and the woman he would marry, is an inseparable part of the life he would grow into as a writer and it could be convincingly argued, as this biography does, that without her, he would not have succeeded.
Interestingly, their courtship was carried on mainly through letters, as she was living in St. Louis and Hemingway in Chicago. That kind of a relationship, one that today would exist on the internet, allowed each of them to appeal to the other’s idealistic self, one made up of verbalized dreams and ambitions. Diliberto points out that Hemingway lied about “ the hard facts of his life. Indeed, he lied to her about many things” such as why he hadn’t gone to college and his war experiences. It didn’t matter because she saw his better side, but it was a predictor of some of the events that would later break up their marriage, particularly his lying about another woman in his life.
The author stresses that Hadley was always more in love with her husband than he was with her. “She would live throughout her marriage in the shadow of his personality, but in the winter of l921, there was little hint of dissonance, only the hope, as she wrote Ernest, of ‘everything lovely and wonderful that is to come.’ ”
And “wonderful things” did come. The couple moved to Paris, both to escape what each felt was a stultifying family, and as an adventure in living as outsiders, as artists. It was a struggle at first, and the couple wouldn’t have made it without Hadley’s income from trust funds, so she supported him both financially and morally. Paris was exhilarating for a writer in the 20’s – Hemingway’s friends and acquaintances sounds like a who’s who of American literature, Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, John Dos Passos, to name a few. Hemingway persevered, first having some short stories and poetry published, and then with his first novel, THE SUN ALSO RISES.
Dilberto concludes her biography by commenting that “All his major novels are fundamentally love stories, centering on a couple who are so close that they are almost one. Ernest believed that love is life’s great redeeming force, the only “alliance” against inevitable death. When he wrote about the passions – some of the greatest romances in modern American literature, he was celebrating the power of true love, the love he’d had with Hadley.”
What went wrong with their marriage, given Hadley’s unquestioning support of Hemingway’s talent? A lot of things – Hemingway was full of self-doubt about his own worth, he had a compulsive need to be superior to everyone , leading to a corrosive anger which cost him friends, he drank far too much, his head was turned by women as he achieved a reputation, and he often felt frustrated by the domestic demands of marriage. All of this made him a hard person to live with, and yet Hadley could see past these faults to his virtues of sensitivity and generosity which emerge in his best writing. Hemingway at some level knew that no woman would ever match Hadley, and he profoundly appreciated her, even though their marriage didn’t last, and he went on to three more marriages. Hadley’role in this this tension and interplay between Hemingway’s creativity and his lurches toward self- destructive impulses (ones that led to his suicide in l961) is what makes the book compelling reading.
I say it reads like a novel because hanging over every detail, especially the early ones when Hemingway was an unknown midwesterner, full of doubt about his future, is the reader’s knowledge of whom he became – one of the 20th century’s great writers. Hadley Richardson, a St. Louis native, eight years older than Hemingway, and the woman he would marry, is an inseparable part of the life he would grow into as a writer and it could be convincingly argued, as this biography does, that without her, he would not have succeeded.
Interestingly, their courtship was carried on mainly through letters, as she was living in St. Louis and Hemingway in Chicago. That kind of a relationship, one that today would exist on the internet, allowed each of them to appeal to the other’s idealistic self, one made up of verbalized dreams and ambitions. Diliberto points out that Hemingway lied about “ the hard facts of his life. Indeed, he lied to her about many things” such as why he hadn’t gone to college and his war experiences. It didn’t matter because she saw his better side, but it was a predictor of some of the events that would later break up their marriage, particularly his lying about another woman in his life.
The author stresses that Hadley was always more in love with her husband than he was with her. “She would live throughout her marriage in the shadow of his personality, but in the winter of l921, there was little hint of dissonance, only the hope, as she wrote Ernest, of ‘everything lovely and wonderful that is to come.’ ”
And “wonderful things” did come. The couple moved to Paris, both to escape what each felt was a stultifying family, and as an adventure in living as outsiders, as artists. It was a struggle at first, and the couple wouldn’t have made it without Hadley’s income from trust funds, so she supported him both financially and morally. Paris was exhilarating for a writer in the 20’s – Hemingway’s friends and acquaintances sounds like a who’s who of American literature, Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, John Dos Passos, to name a few. Hemingway persevered, first having some short stories and poetry published, and then with his first novel, THE SUN ALSO RISES.
Dilberto concludes her biography by commenting that “All his major novels are fundamentally love stories, centering on a couple who are so close that they are almost one. Ernest believed that love is life’s great redeeming force, the only “alliance” against inevitable death. When he wrote about the passions – some of the greatest romances in modern American literature, he was celebrating the power of true love, the love he’d had with Hadley.”
What went wrong with their marriage, given Hadley’s unquestioning support of Hemingway’s talent? A lot of things – Hemingway was full of self-doubt about his own worth, he had a compulsive need to be superior to everyone , leading to a corrosive anger which cost him friends, he drank far too much, his head was turned by women as he achieved a reputation, and he often felt frustrated by the domestic demands of marriage. All of this made him a hard person to live with, and yet Hadley could see past these faults to his virtues of sensitivity and generosity which emerge in his best writing. Hemingway at some level knew that no woman would ever match Hadley, and he profoundly appreciated her, even though their marriage didn’t last, and he went on to three more marriages. Hadley’role in this this tension and interplay between Hemingway’s creativity and his lurches toward self- destructive impulses (ones that led to his suicide in l961) is what makes the book compelling reading.
February 26, 2013
I am a bit old to be going through my lost generation phase, but I was always a slow learner. "Paris Without End" is a wonderful non-fiction account of Hadley Richardson's life, especially as it centered around Ernest Hemingway. It's written in a way that makes you root for them as a couple until their time together ends and then Gioia Diberto does a brilliant job of helping you to understand it never would have lasted and that it was the best for both of them that it ended. A wonderful book to read during a cold and snowy trip to Paris and it eased the pain of leaving on the flight home.
I'm moving on to "Hemingway's Boat", "Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation", as well as Sylvia's history of Shakespeare and Company. There is, as you would expect, also the fiction from said post World War I authors that I haven't read since high school. It still resonates and forms a touchstone for all of us, even if we don't realize it.
I might even read more Hemingway after I finish "A Moveable Feast". Yes, really.
I'm moving on to "Hemingway's Boat", "Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation", as well as Sylvia's history of Shakespeare and Company. There is, as you would expect, also the fiction from said post World War I authors that I haven't read since high school. It still resonates and forms a touchstone for all of us, even if we don't realize it.
I might even read more Hemingway after I finish "A Moveable Feast". Yes, really.
April 11, 2012
I read The Paris Wife about a year ago, after several recommendations from friends, and I hated it. I thought Hadley was an annoying, high-maintenance, deeply troubled martyr and I still can't believe I finished the book. I was curious how closely the novelized version of Hadley's life followed Hadley's actual life and I'm happy to say, after reading Paris Without End, that although the path was the same, the outcome was quite different. I very much enjoyed this story of Hadley's life and came away thinking of her as a strong, brave, although slightly disturbed woman.
The research Gioia Diliberto did is remarkable. Because the book was published when several people who knew Hadley were still alive. The tapes Hadley's friend in New Hampshire made provided incredible insight, as did the letters Hadley and Ernest sent to each other throughout their lives.
I would recommend The Paris Wife to anyone, as a novelized biography or as a novel, but I'd recommend Paris Without End to someone, whether they were expressly interested in Hemingway or not.
The research Gioia Diliberto did is remarkable. Because the book was published when several people who knew Hadley were still alive. The tapes Hadley's friend in New Hampshire made provided incredible insight, as did the letters Hadley and Ernest sent to each other throughout their lives.
I would recommend The Paris Wife to anyone, as a novelized biography or as a novel, but I'd recommend Paris Without End to someone, whether they were expressly interested in Hemingway or not.
August 21, 2012
For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been reading Paris Without End by Gioia Diliberto. It’s the true story of Ernest Hemingway’s first wife, Hadley Richardson. As a fan of Hemingway’s writing, I was very intrigued to learn more about his first wife, but what started out as an interest turned into a full blown fascination.
One of the most interesting things I learned reading this book was that Hadley was such an inspiration in Hemingway’s writing. The more I learned about Hadley, the more I recognized her in some of his most famous female characters. In so many ways, Hadley represented the perfect woman to Hemingway- her naturalness, her strength of character, and her complete devotion to him. The life they created together was so beautiful, so full of love and joy. When they were together, it seemed as if they were one person instead of two and Hemingway drew extensively from that to create some of his most romantic couples. Hadley not only inspired him, she encouraged his writing and supported them both financially for the first years of their marriage. She never minded being poor, as long as Hemingway was writing, and write Hemingway did. Some of his best work, and certainly the work that defined his voice, was written while he was married to Hadley.
Sadly, their relationship dissolved. Hemingway fell in love with another woman, cheated on Hadley, and then left her and their son Bumby (Jack). It was very difficult for me to read these parts. Not only because of the heartbreak Ifelt for Hadley (she "loved" him through all of it), but also because I felt complete disdain for one of my favorite authors. Reconciling feelings I had because of his actions with the brilliance of his work was difficult. At some points, I never wanted to read Hemingway again (Gee, that would show him!). But, that’s certainly not what Hadley would want. She always loved him and supported him, even after their divorce, and for his part, Hemingway always regretted leaving Hadley and if you have read A Moveable Feast, it’s obvious how much he loved and idolized Hadley as well.
It was illuminating to learn more about Hadley and it gave me so much more insight into Hemingway’s writing. Diliberto's writing is, at times, a bit on the dry side, however, she tells a pretty amazing story of Paris in the 20′s with the Fitzgeralds, Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and the Hemingways.
One of the most interesting things I learned reading this book was that Hadley was such an inspiration in Hemingway’s writing. The more I learned about Hadley, the more I recognized her in some of his most famous female characters. In so many ways, Hadley represented the perfect woman to Hemingway- her naturalness, her strength of character, and her complete devotion to him. The life they created together was so beautiful, so full of love and joy. When they were together, it seemed as if they were one person instead of two and Hemingway drew extensively from that to create some of his most romantic couples. Hadley not only inspired him, she encouraged his writing and supported them both financially for the first years of their marriage. She never minded being poor, as long as Hemingway was writing, and write Hemingway did. Some of his best work, and certainly the work that defined his voice, was written while he was married to Hadley.
Sadly, their relationship dissolved. Hemingway fell in love with another woman, cheated on Hadley, and then left her and their son Bumby (Jack). It was very difficult for me to read these parts. Not only because of the heartbreak Ifelt for Hadley (she "loved" him through all of it), but also because I felt complete disdain for one of my favorite authors. Reconciling feelings I had because of his actions with the brilliance of his work was difficult. At some points, I never wanted to read Hemingway again (Gee, that would show him!). But, that’s certainly not what Hadley would want. She always loved him and supported him, even after their divorce, and for his part, Hemingway always regretted leaving Hadley and if you have read A Moveable Feast, it’s obvious how much he loved and idolized Hadley as well.
It was illuminating to learn more about Hadley and it gave me so much more insight into Hemingway’s writing. Diliberto's writing is, at times, a bit on the dry side, however, she tells a pretty amazing story of Paris in the 20′s with the Fitzgeralds, Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and the Hemingways.
October 25, 2011
This was really, really good. I had a difficult time getting into it at first. I believe if I had read this before Paula McClain's The Paris Wife, likely I wouldn't have had such a difficult time. McClain's book is great, this was also great, except I think I disliked Ernest Hemingway a lot more after reading this than after reading Paris Wife.
Hadley Richardson Hemingway was a strong woman who grew into her nature- meeting and marrying Hemingway brought out her life force, the only trouble was, he threw the marriage under the bus, and Hadley, despite trying to remain friends with the other woman(and even living with them both), couldn't do it, and they divorced. You get the feeling from the author and their interviews she conducted that Hemingway never recovered from and forgave his wife for losing his manuscripts on a train to see him. It seems as if he turned inward and that was the beginning of the end. I, myself, after reading this, just believe it was the nature of the beast of infidelity that did them in. I think there was enough love and mutual respect there, that if there had been marriage counseling and the like back then, maybe they could've made it work. All in all, Hadley's story has a happy ending. Hemingway, not so much.
It's good to read a book like this every once in a while, to get an idea of what drives the human and creative spirit. It's quoted several times through the book-from different sources- that despair drives the human spirit into creativity and success beyond their means. Hemingway's career took off, but not until after his marriage was already starting to sink. It makes you wonder.
Overall, a really, really great biography.
Hadley Richardson Hemingway was a strong woman who grew into her nature- meeting and marrying Hemingway brought out her life force, the only trouble was, he threw the marriage under the bus, and Hadley, despite trying to remain friends with the other woman(and even living with them both), couldn't do it, and they divorced. You get the feeling from the author and their interviews she conducted that Hemingway never recovered from and forgave his wife for losing his manuscripts on a train to see him. It seems as if he turned inward and that was the beginning of the end. I, myself, after reading this, just believe it was the nature of the beast of infidelity that did them in. I think there was enough love and mutual respect there, that if there had been marriage counseling and the like back then, maybe they could've made it work. All in all, Hadley's story has a happy ending. Hemingway, not so much.
It's good to read a book like this every once in a while, to get an idea of what drives the human and creative spirit. It's quoted several times through the book-from different sources- that despair drives the human spirit into creativity and success beyond their means. Hemingway's career took off, but not until after his marriage was already starting to sink. It makes you wonder.
Overall, a really, really great biography.
June 9, 2012
After reading the Paris Wife I was interested in knowing more about Hadley's life particularly her life after Earnest Hemingway. The book did not disappoint.I liked her in the later years too.
The biography gave much insight into the nature of Hadley, warm and intelligent. She liked and is liked by people , did not hold a grudge and could not be sad too long. She was very good for Hemingway but was not big enough to “kill his lonesomeness”. She had a happy second marriage to Paul Mower. “Hemingway helped her believe in herself and gave her the key to the world” .She lived in that world with Paul and kept many of the exciting friends she first met with H.
Interest fact- Hadley’s son Jack Hemmingway was the father of Margot and Muriel Hemmingway. She died 1979 at 87. After Hemingway’s death , his biographers’ were always after her for stories about there life together. She enjoyed the attention and the company, She laughed and said she practically wrote their books with all notes she supplied.. Her same warm nature was evident through out her life, not so for the writer.
Liked the book. Liked Hadley
The biography gave much insight into the nature of Hadley, warm and intelligent. She liked and is liked by people , did not hold a grudge and could not be sad too long. She was very good for Hemingway but was not big enough to “kill his lonesomeness”. She had a happy second marriage to Paul Mower. “Hemingway helped her believe in herself and gave her the key to the world” .She lived in that world with Paul and kept many of the exciting friends she first met with H.
Interest fact- Hadley’s son Jack Hemmingway was the father of Margot and Muriel Hemmingway. She died 1979 at 87. After Hemingway’s death , his biographers’ were always after her for stories about there life together. She enjoyed the attention and the company, She laughed and said she practically wrote their books with all notes she supplied.. Her same warm nature was evident through out her life, not so for the writer.
Liked the book. Liked Hadley
December 30, 2017
I'm not really a fan of Hemingway's writing, but I love reading about Paris, and the story of Hadley's and Ernest's youth together was wonderful. This was a great complement to The Paris Wife which I read a while ago. As a pianist myself, I was very interested in reading about Hadley's playing and wonder how accomplished she was. Nice to read that she kept playing duets for the rest of her life. The book made me homesick for Paris!!
January 18, 2023
Good overall book about the nuanced lives of both earnest and his first wife Hadley. I love how this book does such a good job of showing how his first marriage to Hadley really impacted his writing & creativity & what a steady person she was in his life even after their divorce. I also loved how the author connected the books earnest wrote to his personal life. It was slow at time, hence it taking me 4 months to finally finish lol
April 2, 2012
“Paris without End,” is a new literary nonfiction biography of Hadley Richardson, the iconic first wife of beloved 20th century American author Ernest Hemingway. It was written by Gioia Diliberto, veteran author/journalist, who points out in her preface to the 2011 edition that once there was hardly a woman considered worthy of a biography, at all. And then, even when the lives of some outstanding women began to be studied, nobody thought, for a long time, of looking at the wives of outstanding men. Despite that familiar old adage, ‘behind every great man there’s a great woman.’ It is only now being recognized that some wives were indeed instrumental in their husbands’ successes; and it’s Diliberto’s thesis, based upon Hemingway’s copious writings, that Hadley Hemingway was one. Still, there’s no question but that Hadley would not reward study were she not Hemingway’s first, template-setting wife. And there’s no question but that this book will most interest Ernest Hemingway fans. After all, although Hadley can be credited with inspiring her husband’s writings, and creating an environment in which he could work, she never published a line.
The period after World War I, never mind that the generation that lived through that war chose to call itself the Lost Generation, was full of new developments. Suffragism — the fight for women’s rights—was in the air, as was prohibition. Flappers emerged: women cut their hair and their skirts, took up smoke and drink, and danced on the tables of their favorite speakeasies. Paris was the world center of creativity. In the art world, greatly famous painters were there: the Spanish Pablo Picasso, and Joan Miro; Auguste Renoir, Marc Chagall. In the literary world, there were almost too many stars to count: Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, James and Nora Joyce, Sarah and Gerald Murphy, T.S. Eliot, John Dos Passos, Archibald MacLeish, Ford Madox Ford, and whoever: at one time Ford had a ménage a trois with his common law wife and the great 20th century female author Jean Rhys. And then there was Sylvia Beach and her book store, Shakespeare & Co. In fact, there were so many artistic and literary notables there that they kept Owen Wilson, the Woody Allen stand-in in PARIS AT MIDNIGHT quite busy.
Like so many others in the period, Hadley and Ernest expatriated themselves to Paris. And Hadley and Hem were certainly a golden couple while they were happy and poor, living on Hadley’s trust funds, and in the home she made for them, exploring Europe, and playing with their little boy, known as Bumby, when he arrived. Everyone seemed to expect that Hem was bound for literary glory. Of course, there were some problems. In an act that may have foreshadowed the future, and was heavily influential at the time, Hadley lost all copies of her husband’s first novel. And then there was the disastrous summer with the Murphys on the French Riviera. Bumby got whooping cough, had to be quarantined, and so was poor Hadley. Meanwhile, Ernest was creating a ménage a trois with another St. Louis native—Hadley was a St. Louis girl herself --Pauline Pfeiffer, editor at Paris Vogue, a woman whose name has gone down in villainy for breaking up the marriage. (Hemingway’s third wife Martha Gellhorn, a noted journalist at the time, was also a St. Louis native: it must have been something in the water of the Mississippi.)
The author gives us an interesting look at all these women:” Among expatriates in literary circles, there was a prejudice against women who were merely ‘wives’—a term … that ‘applied not just to legal spouses, but to all women who attached themselves to a dominant partner.’ Many of the ‘wives’ like Stella Bowen [who lived with T.S. Eliot] and Ada MacLeish, a singer, had careers of their own. Those who didn’t have talent and ambition nevertheless often adopted the trappings of artistic freedom, the most destructive of which…’was the freedom to explore erotic and emotional relationships outside marriage.’” Hadley was a devoted mother and wife, “a conventional woman surrounded by hedonists, who…’flaunted their promiscuity and joked about their abortions and venereal disease.’”
At any rate, the Hemingways had a passionate, affectionate marriage. Hadley was always faithful to her husband, and those who knew the couple thought Hemingway was always faithful to her, until Pauline came into the picture. And, in the posthumously published A MOVEABLE FEAST, Hemingway said, “I wish I had died before I ever loved anyone but her.” The Chicago-based Diliberto frequently mentions the solid Midwestern values of Hadley and Hem. But Hadley was from St. Louis, and Hem from Chicago. Wouldn’t these be considered major urban metro areas?
The author did a great deal of research to produce this work, Scores of interviews with those who knew the prime actors, she says, including the couple’s son Jack, formerly known as Bumby, in his home in Ketchum, Idaho, Hemingway’s last home. And Hadley’s nieces Dodie Hess and Fonchen Lord; her nephew Richard Usher. Furthermore, the writer found many hours of tapes made of conversations between Hadley and her friend, musician/writer Alice Sokoloff, who published the first, timid biography of Hadley, while she was still alive. Finally, the author had first look at more than 1,000 letters written by Hadley to Hem during their intense courtship: the famous man held on to them all his life. Although sometimes the extensive quotes from these materials are repetitive, and hold up, rather than advance, the narrative. Diliberto is the author of the biographies A Useful Woman: The Early Life of Jane Addams and Debutante: The Story of Brenda Frazier, and the historical novels I Am Madame X and The Collection. I liked this book much better than Paula Mc Lain’s recent fictional THE PARIS WIFE, which was apparently inspired by it: it gives us a much deeper, more detailed picture of the woman at the center of one of the great literary storms of the 20th century. Worth reading, perhaps even for those not Hemingway fans.
The period after World War I, never mind that the generation that lived through that war chose to call itself the Lost Generation, was full of new developments. Suffragism — the fight for women’s rights—was in the air, as was prohibition. Flappers emerged: women cut their hair and their skirts, took up smoke and drink, and danced on the tables of their favorite speakeasies. Paris was the world center of creativity. In the art world, greatly famous painters were there: the Spanish Pablo Picasso, and Joan Miro; Auguste Renoir, Marc Chagall. In the literary world, there were almost too many stars to count: Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, James and Nora Joyce, Sarah and Gerald Murphy, T.S. Eliot, John Dos Passos, Archibald MacLeish, Ford Madox Ford, and whoever: at one time Ford had a ménage a trois with his common law wife and the great 20th century female author Jean Rhys. And then there was Sylvia Beach and her book store, Shakespeare & Co. In fact, there were so many artistic and literary notables there that they kept Owen Wilson, the Woody Allen stand-in in PARIS AT MIDNIGHT quite busy.
Like so many others in the period, Hadley and Ernest expatriated themselves to Paris. And Hadley and Hem were certainly a golden couple while they were happy and poor, living on Hadley’s trust funds, and in the home she made for them, exploring Europe, and playing with their little boy, known as Bumby, when he arrived. Everyone seemed to expect that Hem was bound for literary glory. Of course, there were some problems. In an act that may have foreshadowed the future, and was heavily influential at the time, Hadley lost all copies of her husband’s first novel. And then there was the disastrous summer with the Murphys on the French Riviera. Bumby got whooping cough, had to be quarantined, and so was poor Hadley. Meanwhile, Ernest was creating a ménage a trois with another St. Louis native—Hadley was a St. Louis girl herself --Pauline Pfeiffer, editor at Paris Vogue, a woman whose name has gone down in villainy for breaking up the marriage. (Hemingway’s third wife Martha Gellhorn, a noted journalist at the time, was also a St. Louis native: it must have been something in the water of the Mississippi.)
The author gives us an interesting look at all these women:” Among expatriates in literary circles, there was a prejudice against women who were merely ‘wives’—a term … that ‘applied not just to legal spouses, but to all women who attached themselves to a dominant partner.’ Many of the ‘wives’ like Stella Bowen [who lived with T.S. Eliot] and Ada MacLeish, a singer, had careers of their own. Those who didn’t have talent and ambition nevertheless often adopted the trappings of artistic freedom, the most destructive of which…’was the freedom to explore erotic and emotional relationships outside marriage.’” Hadley was a devoted mother and wife, “a conventional woman surrounded by hedonists, who…’flaunted their promiscuity and joked about their abortions and venereal disease.’”
At any rate, the Hemingways had a passionate, affectionate marriage. Hadley was always faithful to her husband, and those who knew the couple thought Hemingway was always faithful to her, until Pauline came into the picture. And, in the posthumously published A MOVEABLE FEAST, Hemingway said, “I wish I had died before I ever loved anyone but her.” The Chicago-based Diliberto frequently mentions the solid Midwestern values of Hadley and Hem. But Hadley was from St. Louis, and Hem from Chicago. Wouldn’t these be considered major urban metro areas?
The author did a great deal of research to produce this work, Scores of interviews with those who knew the prime actors, she says, including the couple’s son Jack, formerly known as Bumby, in his home in Ketchum, Idaho, Hemingway’s last home. And Hadley’s nieces Dodie Hess and Fonchen Lord; her nephew Richard Usher. Furthermore, the writer found many hours of tapes made of conversations between Hadley and her friend, musician/writer Alice Sokoloff, who published the first, timid biography of Hadley, while she was still alive. Finally, the author had first look at more than 1,000 letters written by Hadley to Hem during their intense courtship: the famous man held on to them all his life. Although sometimes the extensive quotes from these materials are repetitive, and hold up, rather than advance, the narrative. Diliberto is the author of the biographies A Useful Woman: The Early Life of Jane Addams and Debutante: The Story of Brenda Frazier, and the historical novels I Am Madame X and The Collection. I liked this book much better than Paula Mc Lain’s recent fictional THE PARIS WIFE, which was apparently inspired by it: it gives us a much deeper, more detailed picture of the woman at the center of one of the great literary storms of the 20th century. Worth reading, perhaps even for those not Hemingway fans.
July 11, 2012
In the early 1920s, a group of artistic and literary types congregated in Paris, forming a community of expatriates.
Hadley and Ernest Hemingway were among them.
They had met in the Midwest, in Chicago, after Hadley left her childhood home in St. Louis. They were drawn to each other immediately.
For Hadley, Ernest offered a boost to her battered self-esteem, after a troubled childhood in which she was the least favored daughter. To Ernest, Hadley represented the kind of calm and inspiration which he was seeking.
"Paris Without End: The True Story of Hemingway's First Wife (P.S.)" delves into the early years of their lives together, and how those were the years that defined Hemingway as a literary giant. His struggles were many, but he didn't give up. For years afterwards, long after he and Hadley had separated, their fondness for one another lived on, reminding them of that time in their lives. Toward the end of the book, this excerpt sums up that time:
"'A Moveable Feast' lovingly delineates the quiet, peaceful world Ernest and Hadley had created in their Paris flat. `Like Huck Finn's river, the apartment over the sawmill is a place of renewal and purification. Hadley is both lover and mother, their Paris a garden and playground,' wrote Arthur Edelstein in a review of the book. The love story transcends the personal and seems to symbolize the dreams of the jazz era generation."
As I read this detailed biography of a unique time in the lives of both Hadley and Ernest, I was drawn to the richness of their lives, despite the many challenges. Money was not plentiful, but the two of them found many ways to enjoy their lives together.
And their lives were full of the joy of youth and the promise of a future.
Even though their lives did not turn out the way they'd planned, and, in fact, great sadness and loss would occur in later years, the memories of their idyllic time in Paris illuminated their lives in memorable ways. Five stars.
Hadley and Ernest Hemingway were among them.
They had met in the Midwest, in Chicago, after Hadley left her childhood home in St. Louis. They were drawn to each other immediately.
For Hadley, Ernest offered a boost to her battered self-esteem, after a troubled childhood in which she was the least favored daughter. To Ernest, Hadley represented the kind of calm and inspiration which he was seeking.
"Paris Without End: The True Story of Hemingway's First Wife (P.S.)" delves into the early years of their lives together, and how those were the years that defined Hemingway as a literary giant. His struggles were many, but he didn't give up. For years afterwards, long after he and Hadley had separated, their fondness for one another lived on, reminding them of that time in their lives. Toward the end of the book, this excerpt sums up that time:
"'A Moveable Feast' lovingly delineates the quiet, peaceful world Ernest and Hadley had created in their Paris flat. `Like Huck Finn's river, the apartment over the sawmill is a place of renewal and purification. Hadley is both lover and mother, their Paris a garden and playground,' wrote Arthur Edelstein in a review of the book. The love story transcends the personal and seems to symbolize the dreams of the jazz era generation."
As I read this detailed biography of a unique time in the lives of both Hadley and Ernest, I was drawn to the richness of their lives, despite the many challenges. Money was not plentiful, but the two of them found many ways to enjoy their lives together.
And their lives were full of the joy of youth and the promise of a future.
Even though their lives did not turn out the way they'd planned, and, in fact, great sadness and loss would occur in later years, the memories of their idyllic time in Paris illuminated their lives in memorable ways. Five stars.
April 9, 2012
I very much enjoyed Diliberto's non-fiction book about Hadley Richardson, Ernest Hemingway's first wife. She does a very thorough, well-documented job of fleshing out the person who served as muse to much of Hemingway's writing, right up until his death, at which time he was working on A Moveable Feast: The Restored Edition. There were parts in the beginning of their marriage, where their combined identity of bohemian starving artist and priviliege European travelers living off trust funds was just annoying. And I'm just plain jealous! However, Hadley is a woman of more depth, sensitivity and intellect than she is credited for. Often overlooked for the inspiration she provided. Eventually I came to have a great admiration for the dignity and integrity with which she lived out her life, especially after the divorce. Theirs was a special relationship that continued on other levels during his subsequent marriages. They maintained a profound respect and affection, but she probably wouldn't have survived intact had they stayed married. Wonderful book.
The Paris Wife has been a very popular read, but given the choice, a non-fictional account is more appropriate to my tastes.
The Paris Wife has been a very popular read, but given the choice, a non-fictional account is more appropriate to my tastes.
October 1, 2019
Recently, the book, The Paris Wife seems to have popularized Hemingway and Hadley’s relationship in 1920’s Paris — the unfortunate thing is that The Paris Wife is such a poor representation of this rich and complex story that it should be avoided. The fortunate thing is the Gioia Diliberto’s, Paris Without End is so good on so many levels, you don’t have to worry about reading The Paris Wife.
This is a well-researched history verified by countless letters and first-hand interviews with Hadley herself (recorded by Alice Sokoloff before Hadley passed away) that flows like a novel without all the breathless melodrama and factual acrobatics.
The final chapters of Hemingway’s, A Moveable Feast touch on the memory and regret of his relationship with Hadley from his perspective; AE Hotchner’s, “Hemingway in Love” retraces this relationship as told to Hotchner by Hemingway weeks before he took his own life — all amounting to Hemingway’s heartbreaking perspective on it.
Paris Without End is the equally fascinating story as told from Hadley’s perspective as a woman who garners immediate respect and empathy.
Again, if you have any interest in this story, I cannot recommend this book enough.
This is a well-researched history verified by countless letters and first-hand interviews with Hadley herself (recorded by Alice Sokoloff before Hadley passed away) that flows like a novel without all the breathless melodrama and factual acrobatics.
The final chapters of Hemingway’s, A Moveable Feast touch on the memory and regret of his relationship with Hadley from his perspective; AE Hotchner’s, “Hemingway in Love” retraces this relationship as told to Hotchner by Hemingway weeks before he took his own life — all amounting to Hemingway’s heartbreaking perspective on it.
Paris Without End is the equally fascinating story as told from Hadley’s perspective as a woman who garners immediate respect and empathy.
Again, if you have any interest in this story, I cannot recommend this book enough.
November 1, 2011
I tend to find the artists and writers who lived in Paris in the 1920s endlessly fascinating. Although I am not a Hemingway fan, I did like his (Fiesta) The Sun Also Rises as well as The Moveable Feast, which I just read recently. He writes so longingly for his first wife Hadley in that book that I was curious to know more about her. If your curiosity is piqued as well, you will probably enjoy this book, as I did. The writing is good enough although some of the dates are out of order, and if you notice that kind of thing, it can be distracting. Not that the book was heavy with dates, but some were given and when they were not correct, it had me going back and forth, trying to get things straight. But overall getting dates straight wasn't the most important thing. What was important was to learn what kind of man Hemingway was, what kind of woman Hadley Richardson was, what they were like as a couple, and how and why it all turned out as it did. Someone could make a novel out of it, except that Hemingway, in a way, did, several times over.
wishlist-b
April 10, 2014Which is best to read ? A Moveable Feast or The Paris Wife or Paris Without End: The True Story of Hemingway's First Wife? I cannot say any of them grab be to 100%.
Different pov, different authors, different styles, fiction or non-fiction ......
Different pov, different authors, different styles, fiction or non-fiction ......
July 27, 2010
I didn't realize that Ernest Hemingway was so young when he married the first time . . . just 22. He was divorced by the age of 27. From the perspective of my old age, I can see why he did the things he did. Alcohol made him an old man before his time and the nickname "Papa" didn't allow me to perceive him as ever young. The tragedy of Hemingway is most of the best of times as a human being and a writer were over before his 40th birthday, and, I believe he knew it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 30, 2012
Can't get through the mundane family background.
June 13, 2019
Always good to find out what's behind the fictionalized version. I am now officially an expert on Elizabeth Hadley Richardson Hemingway Mowrer after all these books and snooping around the Internet. I think the most interesting thing about her was her sincere and absolute conviction that she wanted to dedicate herself to her own personal life, not art, despite loving art and artists so much. She was a beacon and an anchor to everyone who knew her. Her unaffected joie de vivre was a byword. Even Hemingway's second wife who stole him away genuinely wanted to remain friends with her. And she would never hear a word against him, despite how shittily he behaved. You could say Hadley was a doormat, but she had, by all accounts, a beautiful, rich, happy life free of resentments. She was happily married to one man for the rest of her life after Hemingway. He had three more wives and shot himself shortly after finishing A MOVEABLE FEAST which is basically a love letter to her, ending "I wish I had never loved anyone else but her." So if living well is the best revenge, Hadley certainly got hers. In fact, despite her terrible suffering at the end of her marriage to Hemingway, I think she transcended revenge.
March 30, 2020
If you are a huge fan of Ernest Hemingway (I'm not!), Gioia Diliberto's "Paris Without End" is not the book for you. It is, however, a fascinating look at Hadley Richardson, Hemingway's first wife, who he married in his 20s, and took to Paris in the golden age of American expatriots. Diliberto's extensive research relies heavily on letters written by the couple, interviews, and memories of family and friends.
I don't know why I chose to read this book because I really can't stand Hemingway's writing, but I'm certainly glad I did. The author presents a very different view of "Papa" before he became old and crotchety, one that shows how his young manhood was tempered by Hadley, a tender, talented woman who tolerated far more that she got from the marriage.
I don't know why I chose to read this book because I really can't stand Hemingway's writing, but I'm certainly glad I did. The author presents a very different view of "Papa" before he became old and crotchety, one that shows how his young manhood was tempered by Hadley, a tender, talented woman who tolerated far more that she got from the marriage.
April 15, 2012
I really enjoyed this book. Earlier this year, I read Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast and was introduced to Hadley Richardson, Hemingway's first wife. A Moveable Feast tells of Ernest, Hadley, and their son (called Bumby) living in Paris as ex-pats. The book was published posthumously and gives a very positive picture of the Hemingways' marriage and time among the literary elite in the salons of Paris.
This book covers Hadley's entire life from growing up in St. Louis to her courtship with a handsome, young Hemingway to marriage and the birth of her son to Hemingway's infidelity to their divorce to the rest of her life. There was so much going on during this time period with regard to women and their role that it was really fascinating to learn more about this women who was right there as her husband wrote some of his great works. Hadley is of course fascinating in her own right and it was very interesting to see where she came from and why she was the way that she was.
The honest truth is had Hadley not married Hemingway, she would probably not have been worthy of study. But she was married to this formidable writer and sometimes we can't reach our whole potential without having a great support system and Hadley was that for Hemingway as Paris Without End shows. She really pushed him to write and to be involved with the literary world. She also inspired some of his works and characters. This isn't to say that Hemingway would not have become a great writer if Hadley hadn't been behind him but it is way more difficult to reach an already difficult goal if you don't have someone supporting you and cheering you on as Hadley did for Ernest.
Diliberto does a great job of pulling the reader into Hadley's story. The book is very accessible and often reads like fiction for those that don't like to venture into non-fiction or biographies very often. Hemingway fans will definitely appreciate this book but even if you aren't really a die hard Hemingway fan, this is still a great biography of one of the women behind one of the most well known and beloved American writers of all time.
Bottom line: History buffs, Hemingway lovers, and biography fans will all find much to love about this book!
This book covers Hadley's entire life from growing up in St. Louis to her courtship with a handsome, young Hemingway to marriage and the birth of her son to Hemingway's infidelity to their divorce to the rest of her life. There was so much going on during this time period with regard to women and their role that it was really fascinating to learn more about this women who was right there as her husband wrote some of his great works. Hadley is of course fascinating in her own right and it was very interesting to see where she came from and why she was the way that she was.
The honest truth is had Hadley not married Hemingway, she would probably not have been worthy of study. But she was married to this formidable writer and sometimes we can't reach our whole potential without having a great support system and Hadley was that for Hemingway as Paris Without End shows. She really pushed him to write and to be involved with the literary world. She also inspired some of his works and characters. This isn't to say that Hemingway would not have become a great writer if Hadley hadn't been behind him but it is way more difficult to reach an already difficult goal if you don't have someone supporting you and cheering you on as Hadley did for Ernest.
Diliberto does a great job of pulling the reader into Hadley's story. The book is very accessible and often reads like fiction for those that don't like to venture into non-fiction or biographies very often. Hemingway fans will definitely appreciate this book but even if you aren't really a die hard Hemingway fan, this is still a great biography of one of the women behind one of the most well known and beloved American writers of all time.
Bottom line: History buffs, Hemingway lovers, and biography fans will all find much to love about this book!
April 14, 2012
I've taught Hemingway and had read the Baker biography years ago. Of all his wives, I always liked Hadley the most...It may have been the amazing Paris they found themselves in, sitting at the feet of Stein, drinking with Fitzgerald and the rest. Oh my, the atmosphere takes my breath away.
Recently read THE PARIS WIFE, a biographical novel by Paula McLain, written in Hadley's voice. When I saw this one, I wanted more.
Exhaustively researched, Diliberto uses quotes throughout, from books and conversations and letters. This gives her book a feel of immediacy...it does sound like these incredible people are sitting around, visiting.
I have always wanted to trace Hadley and Ernest's travels -- the names alone gave me wanderlust. I hope they knew they were living in interesting times.
Their relationship has always interested me...she was 8 years older than he. He married so young, he didn't much like his own family -- mother in particular. The book mentions often how Hadley mothered him. He lived off her trust fund all those years in Paris, never becoming a self-sufficient author until after they split up. So, she did mother and provide for him.
I've always been intrigued by his serial monogamy. He was mostly happy with Hadley, until Pauline entered the picture. In Paris they had many role models for open marriages and liberated relationships, but what kind of self-absorbed idiot would Hemingway have to be to even think Hadley would agree to such a relationship? Sheesh!
I have always told my students Hemingway was so insecure he never abandoned his current wife until he had the next one lined up Pauline then Martha then Mary...At his death he had wife #5 chosen.
Diliberto does a wonderful job of putting us there -- in Paris, in the Hemingways' apartment. In their heads.
Hadley was so much more generous than most women would have been.. More power to her...She's still my favorite.
Recently read THE PARIS WIFE, a biographical novel by Paula McLain, written in Hadley's voice. When I saw this one, I wanted more.
Exhaustively researched, Diliberto uses quotes throughout, from books and conversations and letters. This gives her book a feel of immediacy...it does sound like these incredible people are sitting around, visiting.
I have always wanted to trace Hadley and Ernest's travels -- the names alone gave me wanderlust. I hope they knew they were living in interesting times.
Their relationship has always interested me...she was 8 years older than he. He married so young, he didn't much like his own family -- mother in particular. The book mentions often how Hadley mothered him. He lived off her trust fund all those years in Paris, never becoming a self-sufficient author until after they split up. So, she did mother and provide for him.
I've always been intrigued by his serial monogamy. He was mostly happy with Hadley, until Pauline entered the picture. In Paris they had many role models for open marriages and liberated relationships, but what kind of self-absorbed idiot would Hemingway have to be to even think Hadley would agree to such a relationship? Sheesh!
I have always told my students Hemingway was so insecure he never abandoned his current wife until he had the next one lined up Pauline then Martha then Mary...At his death he had wife #5 chosen.
Diliberto does a wonderful job of putting us there -- in Paris, in the Hemingways' apartment. In their heads.
Hadley was so much more generous than most women would have been.. More power to her...She's still my favorite.
December 8, 2014
Having read "The Paris Wife" by Paula McLain recently, I became intrigued by Hadley Richardson and her life. In this biography (which Paula McLain relied on heavily as research for her fictional book), Gioia Diliberto traces the life of Hadley from her birth to her death. Although she was only married to Hemingway for five years before they separated, much of the book focuses on this relationship. It's a fascinating account not just of Hadley and Hemingway, but of an era, a place and a stellar cast of characters who provide a vivid backdrop to the main story.
It's a book that can be read on many levels. It's claimed that Hadley was the inspiration for many of Hemingway's female characters and that his perception of love and romance was fundamentally shaped by their marriage, despite its brevity. It's also a look at a time when women were becoming increasingly independent and while Hadley was the woman behind the great man, the assumption that women in literature and the other arts should be relegated to the role of wife or muse was being questioned.
The facts of the book have been meticulously researched and rely on many sources, including interviews with those who knew the characters personally, including their son Jack, and many letters. The author has done a brilliant job at bringing all the facts and characters to vivid life and it's as absorbing (if not more so) than the fictional account. She has managed to round out the character of Hadley far more fully than Paula McLain and the account of this woman who some say was responsible for precipitating Hemingway's fledgling career onto its eventually illustrious path, is compelling reading.
It's a book that can be read on many levels. It's claimed that Hadley was the inspiration for many of Hemingway's female characters and that his perception of love and romance was fundamentally shaped by their marriage, despite its brevity. It's also a look at a time when women were becoming increasingly independent and while Hadley was the woman behind the great man, the assumption that women in literature and the other arts should be relegated to the role of wife or muse was being questioned.
The facts of the book have been meticulously researched and rely on many sources, including interviews with those who knew the characters personally, including their son Jack, and many letters. The author has done a brilliant job at bringing all the facts and characters to vivid life and it's as absorbing (if not more so) than the fictional account. She has managed to round out the character of Hadley far more fully than Paula McLain and the account of this woman who some say was responsible for precipitating Hemingway's fledgling career onto its eventually illustrious path, is compelling reading.
March 15, 2012
This thoroughly researched book offers a candid look at the life of Ernest Hemingway’s muse. His first wife Hadley was at his side during his most pivotal and prolific years as a young man, full of vitality and creativity. Together, Hem and Hadley experienced the boom of the Lost Generation’s self-imposed exile in Paris, where art flourished and wine flowed. Hadley was, by necessity, a constant calm in Ernest’s life as he struggled to make a name for himself. She endured his escalating success and thus his growing ego, which eventually caused their marriage to deteriorate. Throughout it all, Hadley is portrayed as courageous and sturdy.
Diliberto does a phenomenal job utilizing a vast amount of sources to capture Hadley’s voice and personality. Considering her unhappy childhood, it is a wonder Hadley ever escaped the suffocating confines of her life in St. Louis. Her mother instilled such a feeling of inadequacy in Hadley, it was practically debilitating. But then she meets Ernest and her emergence from her insecurity is like a fairy tale. The details of their existence, their travels throughout Europe, and their celebrated circle of friends are so well documented through letters and unpublished sketches. Reading this book is like being transported back to the streets of Paris in the 20’s. Hadley was a remarkable woman and Diliberto captures her essence with admiration and dignity.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author.
Diliberto does a phenomenal job utilizing a vast amount of sources to capture Hadley’s voice and personality. Considering her unhappy childhood, it is a wonder Hadley ever escaped the suffocating confines of her life in St. Louis. Her mother instilled such a feeling of inadequacy in Hadley, it was practically debilitating. But then she meets Ernest and her emergence from her insecurity is like a fairy tale. The details of their existence, their travels throughout Europe, and their celebrated circle of friends are so well documented through letters and unpublished sketches. Reading this book is like being transported back to the streets of Paris in the 20’s. Hadley was a remarkable woman and Diliberto captures her essence with admiration and dignity.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author.
January 8, 2014
Reading The Paris Wife made me want to read this--well, after reading The Paris Wife, I reread A Moveable Feast, which really made me want to read this. I know A Moveable Feast is seen as a depiction of the great love story of Ernest and Hadley Hemingway, but, I don't know, I thought there had to be more to Hadley than that. The Paris Wife fleshed her out some, but I wanted the real story.
I can't compare Hemingway's first wife or marriage to his later ones; all I can say is that reading about the first wife and marriage were enjoyable. Diliberto thoroughly researched her subject and writes about it in a very engaging way. Her perspective seems objective and balanced, and she keeps the focus on Hadley.
And Hadley Richardson was an interesting person; she and Hemingway came from somewhat similar backgrounds, and both were fond of drink and adventure. But she was passive and it seems had lower expectations, and she definitely had better control of her moods and behavior.
So I recommend this to anyone that wants to know more about Hemingway's early Paris days. While the book's focus is Hadley, the Diliberto does use her and Hemingway as windows into each other's souls.
I can't compare Hemingway's first wife or marriage to his later ones; all I can say is that reading about the first wife and marriage were enjoyable. Diliberto thoroughly researched her subject and writes about it in a very engaging way. Her perspective seems objective and balanced, and she keeps the focus on Hadley.
And Hadley Richardson was an interesting person; she and Hemingway came from somewhat similar backgrounds, and both were fond of drink and adventure. But she was passive and it seems had lower expectations, and she definitely had better control of her moods and behavior.
So I recommend this to anyone that wants to know more about Hemingway's early Paris days. While the book's focus is Hadley, the Diliberto does use her and Hemingway as windows into each other's souls.
March 8, 2015
If you've read The Paris Wife you will probably like this one as well (and vice versa). I liked both books for different reasons. This book covers the same material as The Paris Wife except that it adds what happened to Hadley Hemingway after her marriage to Ernest ended, which I found as interesting as the story of their marriage. This book borrows heavily from primary source materials and quotes extensively from them, whereas the author of The Paris Wife uses the source materials to imagine what Hadley and Ernest would say to one another and how they each felt internally. This book also examines Hemingway's writing for clues as to how he felt about various people and things in his life. So in some ways it is a book about Ernest as much as about Hadley.
I highly recommend this book as a great introduction to Ernest Hemingway the man (as opposed to just the writer). As in their marriage, Hadley is almost the less important character in their story. And yet it is against the backdrop of her story that his becomes better understood.
I highly recommend this book as a great introduction to Ernest Hemingway the man (as opposed to just the writer). As in their marriage, Hadley is almost the less important character in their story. And yet it is against the backdrop of her story that his becomes better understood.
June 23, 2012
Like many other readers, I read Hadley after enjoying The Paris Wife so much. I was happy to read how true-to-life The Paris Wife had been written, as many scenes were so similar to the biography. The Paris Wife pretty much ended after Hadley's divorce, but Hadley gave great additional anecdotes from Hadley's early life (really fleshed out how unfortunate her childhood had been)and her post-Ernest life. Although I did study 20th century American Literature and developed a fondness for Hemingway, I did not study his life in detail, nor that of his wives. I came to adore Hadley from The Paris Wife and was not disappointed by Hadley. It is a long read, but very enjoyable. It is fun to imagine how her time in Paris, with Hemingway, had been, the attitudes, the partying, the adventure, the expatriate society, and how little she commented on their celebrity then. She maintained quite a "normal life" after the divorce and seemed to handle journalists and biographers with grace. I would have liked to have met her.
October 17, 2020
"'As for you two children: you grace the earth. You’re so right: because you’re close to what’s elemental. Your values are hitched up to the universe. We’re proud to know you. Yours are the things that count. They’re a gift to those who see them too.'"
This was a great non-fiction book about Hadley Hemingway. It was well-organized, well-paced, and engaging. I was intrigued throughout to learn more about this influential woman, whom I had previously only met in fiction or short articles.
Gloria Diliberto was diligent with her research, which is reflected in the careful details. She really sets the scene and captures the feel of the era.
Her research also gives the reader an intimate view of Hadley and her relationship with Ernest. We really see the them as a real couple, warts and all, behind the Hemingway myth. But most importantly, in Paris Without End, we get to see Hadley’s story - before, during, and after her famous relationship. There is a true sense of who she is.
Recommended if you’re interested in literary history or Paris.
This was a great non-fiction book about Hadley Hemingway. It was well-organized, well-paced, and engaging. I was intrigued throughout to learn more about this influential woman, whom I had previously only met in fiction or short articles.
Gloria Diliberto was diligent with her research, which is reflected in the careful details. She really sets the scene and captures the feel of the era.
Her research also gives the reader an intimate view of Hadley and her relationship with Ernest. We really see the them as a real couple, warts and all, behind the Hemingway myth. But most importantly, in Paris Without End, we get to see Hadley’s story - before, during, and after her famous relationship. There is a true sense of who she is.
Recommended if you’re interested in literary history or Paris.
August 8, 2016
I mostly like reading about Hemingway much more than I like reading his books, the one exception being A Moveable Feast. And since this book is about that time in his life, I enjoyed it very much. I stayed up way too late on Saturday night finishing it because I ended up liking Hadley so much and wanted to see how she fared after their divorce. I was also interested in reading about his second wife, Pauline, because I have relatives in Piggott, AR, where she's from. Her family owned the bank in town, according to this book, and I believe it's now a bed and breakfast where I've stayed. Now I have to re-read A Moveable Feast and maybe the book
Unbelievable Happiness and Final Sorrow
as well.
September 4, 2016
. A well-written and detailed bio of Ernest Hemingway’s first wife Hadley Richardson. While ultimately, he treated her badly, leaving her and their young son for another woman, nevertheless he had liberated her from her domineering mother and sister and a depressing existence in St. Louis. Hadley at the age of 28 was transformed by their move to Paris following their marriage and her introduction to a society of artists and writers, a vibrant intellectual life, and a new found confidence that served her well after their divorce. Hadley later married newsman Paul Mowrer and had a happy and sustaining relationship. Hemingway, all his life, was devoted to Hadley and famously wrote “I wish I had died before I ever loved anyone but her.”
December 17, 2010
I read this biography of Hemingway's first wife when it came out in 2000 and I really enjoyed it. Wish I still owned a copy because I'd like to re-read parts of it now. My Mom also read it back then and we agreed that it gave readers a fresh, new way of seeing both Hemingway and his writing. I just now (2010) finished Hemingway's The Garden of Eden and had flash backs to reading Hadley. This is a spoiler, but one of the revelations in Hadley was that Hadley and Hemingway played around with gender roles in the bedroom and also got the same haircut at one point. The Garden of Eden seems to use those experience, albeit in a rather dark way.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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