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How It Was
How It Was
635 pages, Hardcover
First published August 12, 1976
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
February 16, 2025
Thoroughly enjoyed this autobiography. I'm a Hemingway fan and I found this interesting, well written, and enlightening. Mary was a serious journalist, and she covers a lot of ground. I happen to like reading about daily doings... the quotidian. I'm also a huge James Salter fan so there is that!
August 28, 2022
Now, Dearidoo, if you were up there sitting on the North Star looking at Cassiopeia, it would look like an M to you. M, for Mary. And if you could see it from a million miles to the northeast of us, it would look like a W to you. So your initials are written in the stars.
Miss Mary, nie wiem, czy to jest do końca legalne, napisać tak dobrą książkę.
W "How It Was" Mary Welsh Hemingway przedstawia historię swojego życia. Są to lata dzieciństwa, okres pracy w roli dziennikarza, historia o II wojnie światowej spędzonej w Europie, no i oczywiście lata bliskiej relacji i małżeństwa z Ernestem Hemingwayem.
Ernest put himself to bed with apprehension as his companion that night, and the next morning awoke cheerful and with budding plans, as he did three hundred and sixty mornings a year in the seventeen years I shared with him.
Nie podoba mi się rozpoczynanie recenzji książki od odpowiedzi na krytykę innych, ale w tym przypadku chyba muszę tak postąpić. W opiniach innych czytelników widzę zdania o tym, jak niektóre części są do przeskoczenia, jak Ernest pojawia się dość późno, jak Mary nie jest tak interesująca, jak siebie postrzegała. Po pierwsze, nikt nie powiedział, że to książka stricte o Hemingwayu, więc nie wiem, dlaczego tyle osób się tego najwyraźniej spodziewało. Po drugie, i mam nadzieję, że was tym przekonam do lektury, Mary Welsh jest szalenie interesującą osobą i świetną narratorką historii współczesnej. Zazwyczaj części o czyimś dzieciństwie dość mnie wynudzają (co jest ciekawe, bo do własnego dzieciństwa chętnie wracam), tutaj od razu wciągnęłam się w tę opowieść i poczułam ciepło rodziców Mary. Bardzo podobały mi się fragmenty o kulisach pracy dziennikarzy i korespondentów wojennych, relacje z Londynu z czasów II wojny światowej poruszyły mnie i zaangażowały. To samo tyczy się relacji z rewolucji kubańskiej czy spotkań z rodziną Kennedy. "How It Was" nie kończy się na śmierci Hemingwaya i istnieje dla tego bardzo dobry powód. Jest to książka Mary, Mary była własną niezależną jednostką i opowiedziała własną historię. Można uważać tę opowieść za nudną (ja nie dzielę jednak tego przekonania) i to wypowiedzieć, ale... nie należy krytykować książki za to, że jest tym, czym miała być.
Mary Welsh drzemkowała sobie w jednym łóżku z Robertem Capa i jego dziewczyną, no weźcie. I wish it were me.
To opowieść Mary Welsh, a mówi też o miłości swojego życia. Małżeństwo Hemingwayów przeżywało zarówno wzloty, jak i upadki, upadki z pewnością bardzo bolesne. Zastanawiałam się jak do tych wydarzeń w retrospekcji podejdzie autorka; każde podejście byłoby w całości valid, bo to jej życie i jej narracja, kto mógłby powiedzieć, że robi to źle? A ja z jej narracji jestem cholernie dumna, choć może to dziwne być dumnym z kogoś, kogo nigdy się nie znało/z kim nigdy nie miało się związku. Mary przedstawia siebie jako osobę, która potrafi stanąć w swojej obronie, walczyć o swoją godność, wskazać wady w ukochanej osobie - co uważam za bardzo ważne. Owszem, nie słyszymy tutaj o pewnych dramatach rodziny Hemingway, ale to byłą decyzja autorki, o czym chce powiedzieć. Powiedziała jednak, kiedy następował kryzys.
A jednocześnie Mary kreuje portret męża pełen wzajemnej miłości, pięknie przedstawia nam jego postać, w jej narracji nadal jest żywy. Jestem fanką Ernesta Hemingwaya już od 5 lat i możnaby pomyśleć, że mam już o nim dość kompletne wrażenie, ale nie powiem tak, uświadomiłam sobie, że zawsze się nim zaskoczę. Teraz też się zaskoczyłam. Zaskoczyłam się skromnością, nieśmiałością, radością i spokojem; cieszę się, że Mary się tym ze mną podzieliła.
Jedyną rzeczą, do której się przyczepię, jest to, że... Ernest w ostatniej woli zaufał Mary z tym, że jego listy nie zostaną opublikowane, a tutaj są i... Trochę mi się to gryzie.
Can you imagine how much nicer it is with you than without you?
O "True at First Light" pisałam, że to taki list miłosny Ernesta do Mary. A "How It Was" czyta się jak list miłosny Mary do Ernesta, monolog późnym wieczorem.
A tak poza tym, to mam wrażenie, że te Ernestowe rozdziały nie są nawet stricte o nim. Tylko o rodzinie, wielkiej rodzinie połączonej przez nazwiska Ernest Hemingway i Mary Welsh.
Dziękuję, Mary, że pozwoliłaś mi to razem z tobą odczuwać.
We had special guests and something absolutely new in the entertainment for Ernest's 1969 birthday party at Trail Creek Cabin. People danced to our local steel band on the silvery grass but paused frequently to look up in speculation at the nearly full moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, who had left the U.S.A. four days before, were walking around in the dust up there, gathering rocks.
PS. A coś nowego, co na pewno wyniosę z tej książki, to historie o wspólnym życiu Dietrich, Ernesta i Mary. Nie byłam świadoma, jak bliscy sobie byli.
PS.2. To naprawdę jedna z najlepszych książek, jakie przeczytałam.
Miss Mary, nie wiem, czy to jest do końca legalne, napisać tak dobrą książkę.
W "How It Was" Mary Welsh Hemingway przedstawia historię swojego życia. Są to lata dzieciństwa, okres pracy w roli dziennikarza, historia o II wojnie światowej spędzonej w Europie, no i oczywiście lata bliskiej relacji i małżeństwa z Ernestem Hemingwayem.
Ernest put himself to bed with apprehension as his companion that night, and the next morning awoke cheerful and with budding plans, as he did three hundred and sixty mornings a year in the seventeen years I shared with him.
Nie podoba mi się rozpoczynanie recenzji książki od odpowiedzi na krytykę innych, ale w tym przypadku chyba muszę tak postąpić. W opiniach innych czytelników widzę zdania o tym, jak niektóre części są do przeskoczenia, jak Ernest pojawia się dość późno, jak Mary nie jest tak interesująca, jak siebie postrzegała. Po pierwsze, nikt nie powiedział, że to książka stricte o Hemingwayu, więc nie wiem, dlaczego tyle osób się tego najwyraźniej spodziewało. Po drugie, i mam nadzieję, że was tym przekonam do lektury, Mary Welsh jest szalenie interesującą osobą i świetną narratorką historii współczesnej. Zazwyczaj części o czyimś dzieciństwie dość mnie wynudzają (co jest ciekawe, bo do własnego dzieciństwa chętnie wracam), tutaj od razu wciągnęłam się w tę opowieść i poczułam ciepło rodziców Mary. Bardzo podobały mi się fragmenty o kulisach pracy dziennikarzy i korespondentów wojennych, relacje z Londynu z czasów II wojny światowej poruszyły mnie i zaangażowały. To samo tyczy się relacji z rewolucji kubańskiej czy spotkań z rodziną Kennedy. "How It Was" nie kończy się na śmierci Hemingwaya i istnieje dla tego bardzo dobry powód. Jest to książka Mary, Mary była własną niezależną jednostką i opowiedziała własną historię. Można uważać tę opowieść za nudną (ja nie dzielę jednak tego przekonania) i to wypowiedzieć, ale... nie należy krytykować książki za to, że jest tym, czym miała być.
Mary Welsh drzemkowała sobie w jednym łóżku z Robertem Capa i jego dziewczyną, no weźcie. I wish it were me.
To opowieść Mary Welsh, a mówi też o miłości swojego życia. Małżeństwo Hemingwayów przeżywało zarówno wzloty, jak i upadki, upadki z pewnością bardzo bolesne. Zastanawiałam się jak do tych wydarzeń w retrospekcji podejdzie autorka; każde podejście byłoby w całości valid, bo to jej życie i jej narracja, kto mógłby powiedzieć, że robi to źle? A ja z jej narracji jestem cholernie dumna, choć może to dziwne być dumnym z kogoś, kogo nigdy się nie znało/z kim nigdy nie miało się związku. Mary przedstawia siebie jako osobę, która potrafi stanąć w swojej obronie, walczyć o swoją godność, wskazać wady w ukochanej osobie - co uważam za bardzo ważne. Owszem, nie słyszymy tutaj o pewnych dramatach rodziny Hemingway, ale to byłą decyzja autorki, o czym chce powiedzieć. Powiedziała jednak, kiedy następował kryzys.
A jednocześnie Mary kreuje portret męża pełen wzajemnej miłości, pięknie przedstawia nam jego postać, w jej narracji nadal jest żywy. Jestem fanką Ernesta Hemingwaya już od 5 lat i możnaby pomyśleć, że mam już o nim dość kompletne wrażenie, ale nie powiem tak, uświadomiłam sobie, że zawsze się nim zaskoczę. Teraz też się zaskoczyłam. Zaskoczyłam się skromnością, nieśmiałością, radością i spokojem; cieszę się, że Mary się tym ze mną podzieliła.
Jedyną rzeczą, do której się przyczepię, jest to, że... Ernest w ostatniej woli zaufał Mary z tym, że jego listy nie zostaną opublikowane, a tutaj są i... Trochę mi się to gryzie.
Can you imagine how much nicer it is with you than without you?
O "True at First Light" pisałam, że to taki list miłosny Ernesta do Mary. A "How It Was" czyta się jak list miłosny Mary do Ernesta, monolog późnym wieczorem.
A tak poza tym, to mam wrażenie, że te Ernestowe rozdziały nie są nawet stricte o nim. Tylko o rodzinie, wielkiej rodzinie połączonej przez nazwiska Ernest Hemingway i Mary Welsh.
Dziękuję, Mary, że pozwoliłaś mi to razem z tobą odczuwać.
We had special guests and something absolutely new in the entertainment for Ernest's 1969 birthday party at Trail Creek Cabin. People danced to our local steel band on the silvery grass but paused frequently to look up in speculation at the nearly full moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, who had left the U.S.A. four days before, were walking around in the dust up there, gathering rocks.
PS. A coś nowego, co na pewno wyniosę z tej książki, to historie o wspólnym życiu Dietrich, Ernesta i Mary. Nie byłam świadoma, jak bliscy sobie byli.
PS.2. To naprawdę jedna z najlepszych książek, jakie przeczytałam.
May 8, 2020
Ah, this book was an absolute treasure. I’ve been devouring it’s near 700 pages slowly over the last several days and I’ve allowed myself to be submerged in the 1930s-60s in film as well. I’ve enjoyed every second and indulged myself in nostalgic bliss.
•
Mary Welsh Hemingway was a talented journalist through WWII and continued to write throughout her life post war. This book begins as she finds her footing in the world of journalism in the 1940’s and ends in the 1960’s after the suicide of her husband, author Ernest Hemingway. Her life was rich in words, culture and a sometimes passionate, sometimes tumultuous marriage to Ernest. Her story takes place in London, Paris, Madrid, New York City, Havana and even on safari in Africa. I can relate to her in many ways and in many ways I staunchly disagree with some of her philosophies but her story is one that I will never regret reading. Here are some of my favorite excerpts:
⠀
“We early Minnesotans had freedoms that are now almost extinct. Freedom from public music, radio and television, from air and water pollution, from noise.”
⠀
“I took inventory of my resources and concluded that no friends my age or older could provide the wisdom my father gave me or the loyalty of his support, that nobody could take his place.”
⠀
“If events are properly reported, the reactions should be implied. What feelings haven’t I implied?” (When questioned why Mary doesn’t write more about her feelings in her work. She made me feel A LOT and I thought she implied feelings very well in this book.)
⠀
“Jousting with the English language to make it serve my purposes I enjoy the most. But entertaining friends, cooking for them with imagination, making my living places comfortable and happy-that’s working with pleasure. Long ago I worked out devices for ignoring or eluding work I don’t like.”
•
Mary Welsh Hemingway was a talented journalist through WWII and continued to write throughout her life post war. This book begins as she finds her footing in the world of journalism in the 1940’s and ends in the 1960’s after the suicide of her husband, author Ernest Hemingway. Her life was rich in words, culture and a sometimes passionate, sometimes tumultuous marriage to Ernest. Her story takes place in London, Paris, Madrid, New York City, Havana and even on safari in Africa. I can relate to her in many ways and in many ways I staunchly disagree with some of her philosophies but her story is one that I will never regret reading. Here are some of my favorite excerpts:
⠀
“We early Minnesotans had freedoms that are now almost extinct. Freedom from public music, radio and television, from air and water pollution, from noise.”
⠀
“I took inventory of my resources and concluded that no friends my age or older could provide the wisdom my father gave me or the loyalty of his support, that nobody could take his place.”
⠀
“If events are properly reported, the reactions should be implied. What feelings haven’t I implied?” (When questioned why Mary doesn’t write more about her feelings in her work. She made me feel A LOT and I thought she implied feelings very well in this book.)
⠀
“Jousting with the English language to make it serve my purposes I enjoy the most. But entertaining friends, cooking for them with imagination, making my living places comfortable and happy-that’s working with pleasure. Long ago I worked out devices for ignoring or eluding work I don’t like.”
July 28, 2021
Mary Welsh obviously was one who kept diaries as this book seems to be in many ways how you would write in a diary and then expand it with more comments and dialogue to make a book. No one could remember dates, times, what was on a menu so many years after it occurred. This book is on HER life which EH plays a secondary character.
Her life prior to EH is interesting to start ... how she gets the newspaper jobs and goes overseas to report on the war. I can not see how she could give up a very exciting career.
Book is very long and HEAVY, somewhat boring as not much happens in most of it .... just daily routines which get mundane once they are in Cuba. I am shocked I made it all the way through as I was fully not expecting to ... so many times I said .. "that's it, I am done " at the 1/4, 1/3 and even 1/2 way through.
I was annoyed at her redesign of the home in Cuba and all her grandiose ideas before they were even married, though they were probably good in the end. The killing of family pets and animals in general says a lot.
Book is very well written and that alone I think kept me interested but bored at same time.
Her life prior to EH is interesting to start ... how she gets the newspaper jobs and goes overseas to report on the war. I can not see how she could give up a very exciting career.
Book is very long and HEAVY, somewhat boring as not much happens in most of it .... just daily routines which get mundane once they are in Cuba. I am shocked I made it all the way through as I was fully not expecting to ... so many times I said .. "that's it, I am done " at the 1/4, 1/3 and even 1/2 way through.
I was annoyed at her redesign of the home in Cuba and all her grandiose ideas before they were even married, though they were probably good in the end. The killing of family pets and animals in general says a lot.
Book is very well written and that alone I think kept me interested but bored at same time.
August 11, 2021
537 pages of her self-edited diaries by Ernest Hemingway’s fourth wife, Mary Welsh. Out of print but obtainable. Not recommended exactly, but of interest to anyone trying to understand EH.
Lots of it is skimmable (e.g. she doesn’t meet Ernest until page 93) but, depending on what interests you, the interesting bits are very readable. Though (or perhaps because) she briefly reports rather than analyses, I got a vivid impression of:
his multi-faceted personality, from tender to cruel, insightful to obtuse, supertalented to superficial, fully adult to frustratingly childish, humorous to cantankerous, male chauvinist to woman’s best friend;
and of hers, as hardworking and self-sacrificing as wife-number one Hadley was, but with much more independence of thought and spirit and impressively up for fully sharing and enjoying all Ernest’s macho pursuits;
and of their marriage, severely strained but enduring.
There is (among many others) a very lovable photo of him sitting in a canvas bath in East Africa.
Lots of it is skimmable (e.g. she doesn’t meet Ernest until page 93) but, depending on what interests you, the interesting bits are very readable. Though (or perhaps because) she briefly reports rather than analyses, I got a vivid impression of:
his multi-faceted personality, from tender to cruel, insightful to obtuse, supertalented to superficial, fully adult to frustratingly childish, humorous to cantankerous, male chauvinist to woman’s best friend;
and of hers, as hardworking and self-sacrificing as wife-number one Hadley was, but with much more independence of thought and spirit and impressively up for fully sharing and enjoying all Ernest’s macho pursuits;
and of their marriage, severely strained but enduring.
There is (among many others) a very lovable photo of him sitting in a canvas bath in East Africa.
August 9, 2023
Mary must have been very difficult to live with.
She was a war correspondent, but I'm not sure how much of the war she covered. She couldn't drive, so she had to be chauffeured everywhere like a little princess. She had her hair washed and nails done once a week (DURING World War 2). I found this distasteful.
Her early life was glossed over. Much was not included in the book. She got married and divorced with merely a mention. Her affairs with men (Irwin Shaw) during the war were not discussed.
I didn't understand her relationship with Hemingway. Were they married? Barely a mention of the ceremony. There was a picture included, so apparently they were.
I didn't understand how two people who live in the same house constantly wrote to each other as if they were miles apart. Maybe in their relationship they were, as apparently they had 2 separate bedrooms.
She wrote to him several times that she was leaving him, and then never followed through, neither in her narrative nor in reality.
So much to not like about her. Not much really to like about him. They deserved each other I guess.
She was a war correspondent, but I'm not sure how much of the war she covered. She couldn't drive, so she had to be chauffeured everywhere like a little princess. She had her hair washed and nails done once a week (DURING World War 2). I found this distasteful.
Her early life was glossed over. Much was not included in the book. She got married and divorced with merely a mention. Her affairs with men (Irwin Shaw) during the war were not discussed.
I didn't understand her relationship with Hemingway. Were they married? Barely a mention of the ceremony. There was a picture included, so apparently they were.
I didn't understand how two people who live in the same house constantly wrote to each other as if they were miles apart. Maybe in their relationship they were, as apparently they had 2 separate bedrooms.
She wrote to him several times that she was leaving him, and then never followed through, neither in her narrative nor in reality.
So much to not like about her. Not much really to like about him. They deserved each other I guess.
March 28, 2021
Mary Welsh Hemingway is an interesting person in her own right but not as interesting as she thinks she is. Towards the end of book, after Ernest's death, Mary preaches to the reader on irrelevant topics, brags about lecturing JFK about Cuba, and disparages the Apollo-Soyuz project. Who asked her? And why would you use a word like "gallimaufry" anywhere at anytime? We're not impressed. But overall she writes decently and describes in detail the last years of their lives together. Lots of famous and less famous names are dropped throughout the book but that truly was Ernest's life, the literary giant that he was. Despite her pontifications and claims to fame, Mary Welsh will always just be known as Ernest's fourth and final wife.
August 18, 2023
“Dr. Rome's office at St. Mary's was a small rectangle with one window and as I entered it on time, I was dumfounded to see Ernest there, dressed in street clothes, grinning like a Cheshire cat. "Ernest is ready to go home," said Dr. Rome. I knew that Ernest was not cured, that he entertained the same delusions and fears with which he had entered the clinic, and I realized in despair that he had charmed and deceived Dr. Rome to the conclusion that he was sane. With Ernest there in the small office, I could make no protest or rebuttal. There might still be some therapy which could cure my husband. But this was no time or place for such discussion.”
September 7, 2024
This was good, if a bit long. Some of the in-depth passages about fishing and hunting and such were not really interesting to me. One gets to see Hemingway's final years through the lens of his fourth wife, as, even though this is her memoir, Ernest figures quite heavily in it.
I found it curious that they would write to each other when they were in the same house during argumentative periods, or when Mary thought he should be taken to task for some boorish behavior, rather than hashing it out verbally.
I found it curious that they would write to each other when they were in the same house during argumentative periods, or when Mary thought he should be taken to task for some boorish behavior, rather than hashing it out verbally.
May 24, 2020
The best part is the first 100 pages where she describes her strong, independent youth and her early adulthood as a journalist, war correspondent, and free-thinking woman. After she meets Hemingway, all that changes as she submits to his subjugation. He is, in her words, very immature, yet she sticks with him. The writing is detailed, as if she typed her diary; I finally just lost interest. Recommended only for Hemingway fanatics.
October 16, 2022
I gave it a 4 but struggled a bit with it.
Read
January 30, 2010Wonderful. She is a fascinating woman in her own right, and really enjoyed her own narrative. Who better to write a biography and sketch of Hem than the woman who lived with him, put up with him, shared in his outdoor and European adventures, and continually threatened to leave him. You are transported from the Midwest, the capital cities of Europe during WWII, Munich in the 1930s during the rise of Hitler, Cuba in the 1940s, Key West, New York, Idaho, Venice, and Kenya
August 3, 2013
I didn't finish the book. It was "dated' and actually got boring. Too much "name-dropping'. I was not impressed with Mary Welsh Hemingway's impression of herself after a while. I was being reminded of what an insecure "male" Hemingway was, constantly having to "thump his chest" to demonstrate or prove his masculinity, and what fool she was to put up with it. The old male-female dynamics, not worth reading, even for the historical value.
October 24, 2013
Very surprised and delighted by this bio. As an accomplished correspondent for Time Magazine, Mary Welsh could sling a few interesting words herself. Loved how this book opens and enjoying every word. Fascinating look at the Hemingway lifestyle and 1940-50s WWII era.
January 31, 2016
I've you read about Hemingway's life you have to read this one. She spent a lot of time in the latter part of the book discussing what fish they caught and how much they weighed, but her recounting of the African Safari and the plane crash is a must read.
December 27, 2008
Very good. Mary Welsh Hemingway was a pretty good writer herself and she gives a lot of intersting insights here into Hemingway and her relationship to him. She was his last wife.
April 9, 2010
Highly recommend. This woman is so intelligent and a brilliant writer herself. found the book at the flea market...soo good!
Want to read
September 6, 2011The first hundred pages have been excellent.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews