The Apprenticeship of Ernest Hemingway: The Early Years

by Charles A. Fenton

Views the formative years between 1916 and 1924 and stresses the evolution of Hemingway's attitudes toward life and literature.

Genres: Biography, Biography Memoir

302 pages, Hardcover

First published January 3, 1958

Reviews

[Paul W. B. Marsden · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intriguing, well written book on Hemingway’s early years learning his craft. Rather than rely on biographical details and throw in the odd hunch on how Hemingway crafted his style, Fenton gives a minute breakdown of, for example, how Hemingway structured, drafted, edited and re-edited In Our Time. Fenton shows the difference between drafts and published versions of the ‘chapter 3’ of the ‘Minarets’ vignette and how ten adjectives were reduced to four and eleven gerunds were crammed in.
The book has end notes and decent index that shows it was well researched and planned.
Recommended.

[Aaron · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a big Hemingway fan and yet this was still too deep a dive for me. If you want to find out what Pappa had for breakfast on Feb 11, 1916 then this is the book for you.

[Jotrys · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard to tell on this one. Really need the newspaper articles the book refers to.