The Letters of Ernest Hemingway: Volume 3, 1926–1929

by Ernest Hemingway, Rena Sanderson (Editor), Sandra Spanier (Editor)

The Letters of Ernest Hemingway, Volume 3: 1926–1929, featuring many previously unpublished letters, follows a rising star as he emerges from the literary Left Bank of Paris and moves into the American mainstream. Maxwell Perkins, legendary editor at Scribner's, nurtured the young Hemingway's talent, accepting his satirical novel Torrents of Spring (1926) in order to publish what would become a signature work of the twentieth The Sun Also Rises (1926). By early 1929 Hemingway had completed A Farewell to Arms. Hemingway's letters of this period also reflect landmark events in his personal life, including the dissolution of his first marriage, his remarriage, the birth of his second son, and the suicide of his father. As the volume ends in April 1929, Hemingway is setting off from Key West to return to Paris and standing on the cusp of celebrity as one of the major writers of his time.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Literature, Biography Memoir

750 pages, Hardcover

First published September 30, 2015

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

[Nathan "N.R." Gaddis]

Projected (.17.) seventeen volumes? Not bad. Not bad.

http://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/pub...

All I've got to say is that more authors deserve more treatment of this kind....

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

As always, the Cambridge Edition of Hemingway's letters is laid out in an easy-to-read fashion, with consistently helpful footnotes and supplemental information. This was a momentous part of Hem's life including his divorce from Hadley and marriage Pauline, the birth of his second child, and the death by suicide of his father. It was also a momentous period for him professionally as The Sun Also Rises and his short stories brought him a great deal of attention from readers and critics. I enjoyed Hemingway's reactions to his critics--much of his vitriol was justified: people can find really stupid reasons for criticizing a piece of literature that simply isn't to their taste. His letters to his parents and sister were touching and contrasted starkly with the sharp wit of his letters to Pound and Fitzgerald. Through these letters we see that Hemingway had a hard time navigating the world of publishing, the attention of the spotlight, and the consequences of his personal choices.

I had decided to read no further than this volume of letters (it becomes somewhat exhausting after a while), but I find myself feeling curious about the coming years. I may circle around to volume 4 someday.

[Kbrooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Covering the period from the publication of The Sun Also Rises to completion of the manuscript for A Farewell to Arms, these letters capture Hemingway at a professional and personal crossroads. It's always fascinating to see the different personae Hem adopts, tailoring his language to each correspondent. His letters to Fitzgerald are full of brotherly ribbing, his letters to Pound mirror the latter's wordplay and neologisms, letters to his mother and father are mostly deferential with occasional bitter notes of "parents just don't understand." Not least, this volume includes the dissolution of Hem's marriage to his first wife Hadley (to Hem's eternal regret, it seems) and his affair with and eventual marriage to the far more glamorous Pauline Pfeiffer. His letters to Pauline during their forced separation (at Hadley's request) reveal a Hemingway of rare vulnerability. Later on, when he shrugs off his father's suicide with a few ironic phrases, you sense how much ambivalence and grief he was likely hiding. (What's that about icebergs, again?) I think this is my favorite installment thus far--by turns witty, lively, acerbic, and heartfelt. And writers will find plenty of great working advice in here...e.g. 1) resist the distractions of miscellaneous paying gigs to concentrate on developing your craft, and 2) insist on walking away from your completed draft to go fishing for three months.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

My love of reading 90 year old gossip knows no bounds and there is some juicy bits in here. Personal favorite: reading the many drafts of him firing his first publisher after they refused to print torrents of spring. We also see him leave Hadley for Pauline, the death of his father and him falling out (or at least beginning to fall out) with some writers he once held esteemed.

Definitely a good read for Hemingway enthusiasts who want to see his life events in his own words. Absolutely wonderful, I’ll have to read every volume now!

[Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder · Rating 5 out of 5]

“There is never an end to Paris.” - Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

Some might add that there is never an end to the Hemingway marketing and publishing industry. It is a great time to be a Hemingway obsessive. On the one hand, Cambridge University Press is up to Volume 3 (1926-1929) of a projected 17 Volume set of the “Hemingway Letters". On the other hand, Scribners is in the process of issuing a “Hemingway Library Edition” of the previously published works with unpublished chapters or drafts added as appendices (also up to their 3rd book, or 4th if you count the “Restored Edition” of "A Moveable Feast"). Everywhere else you turn there is another new biography, memoir, novel or film based on the larger-than-life author and/or his 4 wives.

This 3rd volume of the letters contains those written from 1926-27 Europe with a March 1928 to March 1929 year in America on the verge of an April 1929 return to Paris. The lion’s share (about 20%) are those to his editor Maxwell Perkins regarding publishing, editing and royalty (with occasional hunting & fishing) issues. But there are also plenty of gossipy ones to authors & poets such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, Archibald Macleish, John Dos Passos, Morley Callaghan, Sherwood Anderson, Owen Lister and assorted family & friends.

There is a whole other course of Papaology 101 provided by the excellent footnotes to each letter that give context to each historical person or incident or any somewhat obscure reference or term mentioned.

Admittedly, this is not for the casual fan. If you read the previous Volumes you already know the high quality that you can expect here and you will not be disappointed. The only regret will be in realizing that the entire collection may not see final publication until the year 2043, if they continue publishing only one volume every two years. By that time, someone will likely have found another way to keep the Hemingway industry in perpetual production.

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Volume 3 continues the same meticulous quality that characterizes the first two volumes in the series. Covering the years from January 1926 through April of 1929, the letters follow Hemingway in Europe through the publication of The Torrents of Spring, The Sun Also Rises and Men Without Women and in the United States as he completes A Farewell to Arms.
The introductory material and the notes are indispensable.

[Caroline Mathews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enough, already. I really couldn't stop myself. You know how it is.

[Stephanie Graser · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love the man, you will love his letters.