The Letters of Ernest Hemingway: Volume 2, 1923–1925

by Ernest Hemingway, Sandra Spanier (Editor), Albert J. DeFazio III (Editor)

The Letters of Ernest Hemingway documents the life and creative development of a gifted artist and outsized personality whose work would both reflect and transform his times. Volume 2 (1923–1925) illuminates Hemingway's literary apprenticeship in the legendary milieu of expatriate Paris in the 1920s. We witness the development of his friendships with the likes of Sylvia Beach, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and John Dos Passos. Striving to 'make it new,' he emerges from the tutelage of Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein to forge a new style, gaining recognition as one of the most formidable talents of his generation. In this period, Hemingway publishes his first three books, including In Our Time (1925), and discovers a lifelong passion for Spain and the bullfight, quickly transforming his experiences into fiction as The Sun Also Rises (1926). The volume features many previously unpublished letters and a humorous sketch that was rejected by Vanity Fair.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir

604 pages, Hardcover

First published October 31, 2013

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

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cambridge University Press is putting out the definitive (read: exhaustive) collection of Hemingway's letters and, if you're a fan like me, Volume 2 is Hemingway Heaven. Really. From the first letter to his mom in January of 1923 to the last one to F. Scott Fitzgerald on New Year's Eve of 1925, this thorough and thoroughly footnoted collection of letters features the birth of an author.

From the opening screed, EH is already married to everyone's favorite Hemingway wife, Hadley, and we witness the birth of Bumby, Son #1 (John Hadley Nicanor Hemingway), in October of '23. Ending his newspaper-writing career with the Toronto Star and moving into his starving-artist days as a rising writer, EH gets a hand from many familiar, soon-to-be outstripped literati, including Ford Madox Ford, Ezra Pound, Sherwood Anderson, and, of course, Bumby's godmother, Gertrude Stein.

In this volume we see EH write the stories of In Our Time as well as the lousy satire he so loved, The Torrents of Spring. He goes off to Schruns for those magical winters in Austria. He ventures into Spain and is inspired to write The Sun Also Rises (called Fiesta in Europa). But most of all, he grows as a human being -- an imperfect, funny, emotional, loyal, opinionated human being.

Hemingway haters (their numbers are legion) hold on tightly to their stereotyped view of EH. He's a drunkard, a macho phony, a backstabber, an anti-Semite, a homophobe, a blowhard, etc. Reading this will provide some evidence of that (common to his times), sure, but it will also show that there's more than meets the prejudiced eye to this guy. Like a turtle, he's hard on the outside but soft on the inside -- an incurable Romantic. To friends, he's trustworthy and loyal. To enemies, not so much. And yes, he's competitive as hell. But where would he be without that competitive spirit? Certainly not in a projected umpteen-volume Cambridge University Press collection of his letters.

I've already read a previous collection of selected EH letters, but found some new stuff here as well as fantastic notes and maps (maps! I heart maps!) in the beginning showing Hemingway's Michigan, Paris, Spain, Europe, North America, etc., with relevant locations where screeds were written. You'll become fluent in "Hemingwayese," a language he used when writing the Michigan gang of his youth. And you'll get great insight into Hemingway's budding literary career, including his opinions on writing, writers, and books.

In the end, you'll feel as though you read the guy's diary because the letters were "in lieu of." And, like the shadow of a shark, the name "Pauline Pfeiffer" begins to creep into the last letters. As EH became more ambitious and negotiated with publishers for publications (they balked at the satirical book for two reasons -- it made fun of existing writers like Anderson and it wasn't that funny), he became more desperate for money to support himself and his young family. Enter the dragon in the form of Pfeiffer, heiress to an Arkansas fortune.

Yes, sadly, she is invited to join the Hemingways in Austria for their winter of '25 stay in the mountains, and it's like a spoiler where we all know the denouement. Divorce. Remarriage. And on and on. For me, EH's best stuff (IOT, TSAR, and A Farewell to Arms) all come early in his career.

Oddly, the one late book I love is A Moveable Feast, which is about and inspired by the very days Volume 2 chronicles. And yes, it's his nostalgia for Hadley and Mr. Bumby and their cat, F. Puss, and the pure "hunger makes good discipline" days of Paris that makes that book so wonderful. EH knew he'd screwed up. He'd traded the true love of his life, Hadley, for financial stability. Talk about a cautionary tale!

Overall, recommended for Hemingway enthusiasts, fans of The Lost Generation, and people who want to get to know Ernest -- truly. Need you buy the entire collection? If you want. Me, I'm satisfied with this, because this is the essential moment in this fascinating writer's career, 1923 to 1925, when he was 24 to 26-years old and in the heart of his literary apprenticeship.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thoroughly footnoted collection of Hemingway letters from those early Paris years when he was publishing In Our Time and writing The Sun Also Rises. Married to Hadley, with the birth and infancy of Bumby (Jack). Still close friends with Gertrude Stein & Alice Toklas. Before it all fell apart (the first time). Before he torpedoed everything that meant so much to him in these years. At times I was struck by how odd it felt to be reading a letter that was only ever intended to be from one person to one other person. I felt like an intruder.

Through these letters I've finally started to understand the whys of his passion for Spanish bull fighting, and I certainly have a better understanding of how he valued writing and art. I thought I would only read this volume, but 1925 ends on such a precipice that I think I may end up reading Vol. 3, as well. But not right away. I think I need to get out his mind for a while. Or get him out of my mind. Whichever. Or both.

[Erika Robuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Cambridge University Press, in collaboration with many, including editors Sandra Spanier, Albert J. Defazio III, and Robert W. Trogdon, has just released the second volume of Hemingway Letters, dating from the years 1923-1925. I am in the middle of reading the letters of literary legend (and personal obsession) Ernest Hemingway, and I’m reminded of the feeling of growing intimacy with the writer I had reading his papers at the JFK Museum in Boston.

Uncensored, vivid, humorous, vicious, touching, and fascinating, Volume Two of the Hemingway Letters gives fans of the author and those interested in the life of one living so much in history an unprecedented glimpse into the mind of a literary genius. From silly “screeds” to war buddies, to daring letters meant to goad his mother, Hemingway’s volatile and powerful personality comes through with clarity on the pages.

Footnotes for the letters assist both every day readers and scholars in understanding the context of each of them, and are invaluable and concise. Fans of the “Lost Generation” will thrill over references to John Dos Passos, Gertrude Stein, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, to name a few. Those who read and loved THE PARIS WIFE will be interested to learn about the beginning of the end of Hemingway’s first marriage to Hadley, from his point of view.

I look forward to future releases of the letters chronically the evolution of Ernest Hemingway. I highly recommend this volume for history and Hemingway fans.

[Wes Blake · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned so much from this book about Hemingway and about writing. I am an admirer of his writing and have read much of his work. I’ve read a biography also but feel his letters let you know who he was. Reading the letters to his dad were heartbreaking. His description of revising Big 2 Hearted River. It was amazing to hear him talk about writing the stories that wound up in In Our Time and have them rejected in journals. It was interesting to hear his ideas on publishing as he managed This Quarter. It was interesting to see in real time what caused his break with Gertrude Stein. Hearing him describe the writing of Sun Also Rises was incredibly enlightening. I got a sense of what his life was really like and how he lived. Little details like the way they managed to afford to live where they did are made clear. His work ethic and dedication is noteworthy. There are so many dog-eared pages.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading the letters because of the "slang" words at the time. Plus, it was interesting to learn more about his early life. It was a little tedious though, because it was just short moments. Trying to read the footnotes made it a little hard. It would make a good textbook for a literature class.

[Rusty · Rating 4 out of 5]

As good a view into the young Hemingway as you might expect, warts and all.

[Peter Rock · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the first volume so much; this one is just as good--I guess it's just that Hemingway himself is less likable, here. I mean, he still writes sweet letters to his parents, but he's really so off-putting! And Ezra Pound seemed to have an especially bad effect on him. Still, for someone who loves the early stories, it's fascinating to see what he was thinking as he wrote them.

“Some of the stories I think you would like very much—I wish I could show them to you—The last one in the book is called Big Two Hearted River…. It is much better than anything I’ve done. What I’ve been doing is trying to do country so you don’t remember the words after you read it but actually have the country. It is hard because to do it you have to see the country all complete all the time you write and not just have a romantic feeling about it. It is swell fun.”

And then other ridiculous stuff:

“A male has ski-ed in a track shirt for a week. Blackness like smoke resulted. The sun is so hot above 1500 meters a male doesn’t have to wear anything.”
(Hemingway, letter to William B. Smith, 2/14/25)

“Froze my cock at 3,000 meters in long ski tour in blizzard. Damn near passed outwards.”
(Hemingway, letter to Ezra Pound, 3/16/25)

“Don’t let debating and such forms of horse cock take you away from writing. Of course the more experience you get at any thing the better but listenings a damn sight better than talking.”

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

This compendium keeps providing an unaltered look into the psyche and personality of one of the 20th century's most influential writers. In his correspondence with friends, family, and colleagues, Hemingway reveals little by little not only his personal issues that would trigger his depressions, but also his almost sociopathic tendencies, such as keeping one voice with his mentor Gertrude Stein while sharing in racist and misogynistic thoughts with Ezra Pound... In the end, the more one reads these letters, the clearer it becomes that Hemingway's main concerns, above everything else, were to experience life to its fullest and to write about them.

[Tom Wascoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well researched. An interesting trip into the mind of Hemingway as he developed as a writer. During this period he published his first book of short stories and wrote The Sun Also Rises. Many of the letters are redundant but gave some excellent insights into his philosophy of writing, his view of various other famous authors,his view of critics and the kind of focus writers need.

[Mckenzie Cassidy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of routine cables and letters about his finances and inside jokes with friends, but it had the occasional nugget about his life and process.

[Caroline Mathews · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my FridayReads selection for the week BUT I went back and began with Volume 1. My eyes are so tired. I love to read the letters of artists, writers, and musicians.