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Hemingway at War: Ernest Hemingway's Adventures as a World War II Correspondent
In the spring of 1944, Hemingway traveled to London and then to France to cover World War II for Colliers Magazine.
Obviously he was a little late in arriving. Why did he go? He had resisted this kind of journalism for much of the early period of the war, but when he finally decided to go, he threw himself into the thick of events and so became a conduit to understanding some of the major events and characters of the war.
He flew missions with the RAF (in part to gather material for a novel); he went on a landing craft on Omaha Beach on D-Day; he went on to involve himself in the French Resistance forces in France and famously rode into the still dangerous streets of liberated Paris. And he was at the German Siegfried line for the horrendous killing ground of the Huertgen Forest, in which his favored 22nd Regiment lost nearly every man they sent into the fight. After that tragedy, it came to be argued, he was never the same.
This invigorating narrative is also, in a parallel fashion, an investigation into Hemingway’s subsequent work—much of it stemming from his wartime experience—which shaped the latter stages of his career in dramatic fashion.
Obviously he was a little late in arriving. Why did he go? He had resisted this kind of journalism for much of the early period of the war, but when he finally decided to go, he threw himself into the thick of events and so became a conduit to understanding some of the major events and characters of the war.
He flew missions with the RAF (in part to gather material for a novel); he went on a landing craft on Omaha Beach on D-Day; he went on to involve himself in the French Resistance forces in France and famously rode into the still dangerous streets of liberated Paris. And he was at the German Siegfried line for the horrendous killing ground of the Huertgen Forest, in which his favored 22nd Regiment lost nearly every man they sent into the fight. After that tragedy, it came to be argued, he was never the same.
This invigorating narrative is also, in a parallel fashion, an investigation into Hemingway’s subsequent work—much of it stemming from his wartime experience—which shaped the latter stages of his career in dramatic fashion.
312 pages, Hardcover
First published December 6, 2016
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1217 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
December 15, 2016
Misleading title. The majority of this book deals with Allied liberation of the European continent. Hemingway appears about every 25 or so pages and is gone in a couple of paragraphs. If you care to read an account of the European theatre of war read Antony Beevor's The Second World War. If you are looking for a book regarding Hemingway's adventures in WWII this isn't it. You will get more information about Hemingway's role as a corespondent from MichaelReynold's book Hemingway: The 1930s Through The Final Years.
February 2, 2026
This is the story of Ernest Hemingway's experiences in WWII as a correspondent. He was working for "Collier's" but, actually, he was looking for material for a novel on the great conflict.
He flew with the Royal Air Force, was on a landing craft at Omaha Beach on D-Day ( but didn't land on the beach), and he was with the French Resistance, following Free French forces into Paris. Paris meant a lot to Hemingway, as a young writer living there with his first wife, Hadley, so it was important for him to help liberate the City of Light.
After that, he was with the 22nd Regiment in the Hurtgen Forest, south of the German city of Aachen. That battle was a horrendous killing ground which decimated the regiment-and author Terry Mort argues that Hemingway was never the same after that experience. The changes in him brought on by the war helped to bring on the worsening of the manic-depressive illness that would lead him to kill himself, in Mort's view.
Mort himself is a veteran of war-in Vietnam. I would think he understands how war can change a man. And, sadly, Hemingway's postwar novel "Across the River and into the Trees" proved to be a very dull novel, one of Hemingway's worst. This is Mort's opinion, as this is one novel of Hemingway's that I have not read. The main character is a colonel, who is an unlikeable character. And there is no story... Fortunately, we have such great unforgettable novels as "For Whom the Bell Tolls."
He flew with the Royal Air Force, was on a landing craft at Omaha Beach on D-Day ( but didn't land on the beach), and he was with the French Resistance, following Free French forces into Paris. Paris meant a lot to Hemingway, as a young writer living there with his first wife, Hadley, so it was important for him to help liberate the City of Light.
After that, he was with the 22nd Regiment in the Hurtgen Forest, south of the German city of Aachen. That battle was a horrendous killing ground which decimated the regiment-and author Terry Mort argues that Hemingway was never the same after that experience. The changes in him brought on by the war helped to bring on the worsening of the manic-depressive illness that would lead him to kill himself, in Mort's view.
Mort himself is a veteran of war-in Vietnam. I would think he understands how war can change a man. And, sadly, Hemingway's postwar novel "Across the River and into the Trees" proved to be a very dull novel, one of Hemingway's worst. This is Mort's opinion, as this is one novel of Hemingway's that I have not read. The main character is a colonel, who is an unlikeable character. And there is no story... Fortunately, we have such great unforgettable novels as "For Whom the Bell Tolls."
June 9, 2020
Το διάβασα ευχάριστα, νομίζω όμως θα το ξεχάσω γρήγορα. Ο τίτλος μπορεί να θεωρηθεί και παραπλανητικός σε σοβαρό βαθμό καθώς οι αναφορές στα γεγονότα που προηγήθηκαν και ακολούθησαν την απόβαση των συμμάχων στην Νορμανδία μοιράζονται εξίσου το βιβλίο μες τις αναφορές από τη ζωή και τη δράση του Έρνεστ Χέμινγουεϋ ως πολεμικού ανταποκριτή. Έτσι κάποιος που θέλει να διαβάσει για τη D-Day σίγουρα μπορεί να βρει πληρέστερα βιβλία στο θέμα και κάποιος που θέλει να διαβάσει αποκλειστικά για τον Χέμινγουεϋ μάλλον θα απογοητευτεί.
January 13, 2017
I was interested in this book because my father had told me that Hemingway was embedded with his unit (4th Infantry, 22nd Regt) during W War II, and I wanted to read about Hemingway's experience with my father's group. The book was disappointing at first and rather dull. It told a great deal about war -- such as a tedious chapter involving how various bombers were fashioned -- but little about Hemingway's role in the war.
The book became far more interesting to me toward the end. Even the writing seemed better. I don't know if it was because so much near the end of the book was about the Battle of Hurtgen Forest, and the author reported things about the battle in just the way my father had told me they were or because the author actually related much more about Hemingway the man, or both. The book was worth reading for me because of the material about Hurtgen Forest alone. I was able to see the photos of the men whose names I had learned through looking through my Dad's Fourth Infantry yearbook over and over in my childhood.
Another way that the book was interesting to me was its record of Hemingway's experiences with Col. David Bruce of the OSS, who happens to be a local hero in my rural county because his family has in the past considered Charlotte Co., VA to be the family's ancestral U. S. homeplace. Also because of the man's considerable generosity to his native county throughout the years, the late David K. E. Bruce continues to be a well known local figure. I had only known that he and Hemingway had traveled to the Paris Ritz in advance of the Allies and had "liberated the bar" there. This book offered so much more information about their relationship.
I was fortunate to find in this book so much that already interested me, and it affected me emotionally to read of the horrible fighting that someone so close to me had endured. Hemingway's praise of the 22nd Regiment and his happiness being among the GIs in that group will always remain with me.
The book became far more interesting to me toward the end. Even the writing seemed better. I don't know if it was because so much near the end of the book was about the Battle of Hurtgen Forest, and the author reported things about the battle in just the way my father had told me they were or because the author actually related much more about Hemingway the man, or both. The book was worth reading for me because of the material about Hurtgen Forest alone. I was able to see the photos of the men whose names I had learned through looking through my Dad's Fourth Infantry yearbook over and over in my childhood.
Another way that the book was interesting to me was its record of Hemingway's experiences with Col. David Bruce of the OSS, who happens to be a local hero in my rural county because his family has in the past considered Charlotte Co., VA to be the family's ancestral U. S. homeplace. Also because of the man's considerable generosity to his native county throughout the years, the late David K. E. Bruce continues to be a well known local figure. I had only known that he and Hemingway had traveled to the Paris Ritz in advance of the Allies and had "liberated the bar" there. This book offered so much more information about their relationship.
I was fortunate to find in this book so much that already interested me, and it affected me emotionally to read of the horrible fighting that someone so close to me had endured. Hemingway's praise of the 22nd Regiment and his happiness being among the GIs in that group will always remain with me.
July 28, 2020
A gift from my daughter for Father’s Day, my dad’s favourite author was E. Hemingway and I have as well read several of his books. This book was great at seeing how Hemingway thought and acted which carried over into his novels. The book also showed how the war affected him and probably lead to him taking his own life.
September 17, 2017
Hemingway was primarily a fiction writer when he opted to be a war correspondent for Colliers Magazine in the Spring of 1944. His decision to leave his comfy digs in Cuba to make the trek is influenced heavily by his interest in fellow writer/journalist Martha Gellhorn. The two would compete as writers and fall in love. “Hem” liked women who were “good at things—especially the things that mattered to him,” author Terry Mort opines.
Hemingway thought Gellhorn was a “hater” who labeled those that disagree with her as fascists, a term like racist today—“so scattered around as to be almost useless as a conveyor of meaning.”
The author portrays Hemingway as a hands-on journalist who often embellished when writing about his war coverage exploits, more often than not, in the first person. Although, it seems clear that he did participate in some actual military operations and stayed close to Colonel Buck Lanham when a German bunker was captured in the Siegfried Line.
No Hemingway book is complete without mentioning “Hems” frustration with women—“you can sweat out the beer, and you can sweat out whiskey. But you can’t sweat out a woman.”
It is unfortunate that Mort only spends a couple of lines on the connection between Hemingway and the likes of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. However, the prose and depth of the war coverage are excellent. I recommend this book.
Hemingway thought Gellhorn was a “hater” who labeled those that disagree with her as fascists, a term like racist today—“so scattered around as to be almost useless as a conveyor of meaning.”
The author portrays Hemingway as a hands-on journalist who often embellished when writing about his war coverage exploits, more often than not, in the first person. Although, it seems clear that he did participate in some actual military operations and stayed close to Colonel Buck Lanham when a German bunker was captured in the Siegfried Line.
No Hemingway book is complete without mentioning “Hems” frustration with women—“you can sweat out the beer, and you can sweat out whiskey. But you can’t sweat out a woman.”
It is unfortunate that Mort only spends a couple of lines on the connection between Hemingway and the likes of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. However, the prose and depth of the war coverage are excellent. I recommend this book.
August 12, 2020
English review below the Greek one...
Ο τίτλος και η περιγραφή στο οπισθόφυλλο δεν θα μπορούσαν να είναι πιο παραπλανητικά. Οι πληροφορίες για τον Χέμινγουεϋ, είτε γενικά είτε στον Β' Παγκόσμιο, είτε για κάποιον πόλεμο δικό του όπως είναι ο ακόμα πιο παραπλανητικός τίτλος στα Ελληνικά, είναι απειροελάχιστες και ο συγγραφέας αναλώνεται σε στρατηγικές, τεχνογνωσία, πολιτικές και άσχετα ζητήματα μέρους του Β' Παγκόσμιου και σε κάποια περιστατικά και μάχες όπου κάποιες φορές βρέθηκε κι ο Χέμινγκγουέυ. Σαν να μην φτάνουν όλα αυτά, η γραφή είναι έτσι κι έτσι και ηχεί περίεργα στην ελληνική μετάφραση, πολλά σημεία επαναλαμβάνονται, ακόμα και αυτούσιες προτάσεις από κεφάλαιο σε κεφάλαιο, ενώ και οι απόψεις και τα αυθόρμητα συμπεράσματα του Μορτ εμφανίζονται πολύ συχνά και είναι γραμμένα σαν θέσφατα.
Γενικά μου αρέσει η ιστορία καθώς και να διαβάζω επί παντός επιστητού, για αυτό και τελείωσα το βιβλίο, ωστόσο ήμουν προετοιμασμένη για κάτι άλλο αυτή τη στιγμή και το θεωρώ και λίγο εμπαιγμό άλλα να υπόσχεσαι στους αναγνώστες σου και άλλα να προσφέρεις... Φλύαρο και κάπως ανούσιο βιβλίο...
"Hemingway at War: Ernest Hemingway's Adventures as a World War II Correspondent" is an irrelevant title to what this book features. Mort narrates and describes all kind of episodes, history, politics, diplomacy, war technology and tactics, trivia, all kind of diverse information other than anything having to do with Hemingway in something like 90% of the book. As if this wasn't irking enough, the writting was so and so, very repetitive and sometimes verbose, while the author's strong bias on various subjects were too obvious and annoying.
Generally speaking, I like History and generic knowledge on various stuff and varying my reading, so I finished the book in two long afternoons. But when I chose to read this book I was expecting something completely different to what it was, so I feel kind of cheated.
Ο τίτλος και η περιγραφή στο οπισθόφυλλο δεν θα μπορούσαν να είναι πιο παραπλανητικά. Οι πληροφορίες για τον Χέμινγουεϋ, είτε γενικά είτε στον Β' Παγκόσμιο, είτε για κάποιον πόλεμο δικό του όπως είναι ο ακόμα πιο παραπλανητικός τίτλος στα Ελληνικά, είναι απειροελάχιστες και ο συγγραφέας αναλώνεται σε στρατηγικές, τεχνογνωσία, πολιτικές και άσχετα ζητήματα μέρους του Β' Παγκόσμιου και σε κάποια περιστατικά και μάχες όπου κάποιες φορές βρέθηκε κι ο Χέμινγκγουέυ. Σαν να μην φτάνουν όλα αυτά, η γραφή είναι έτσι κι έτσι και ηχεί περίεργα στην ελληνική μετάφραση, πολλά σημεία επαναλαμβάνονται, ακόμα και αυτούσιες προτάσεις από κεφάλαιο σε κεφάλαιο, ενώ και οι απόψεις και τα αυθόρμητα συμπεράσματα του Μορτ εμφανίζονται πολύ συχνά και είναι γραμμένα σαν θέσφατα.
Γενικά μου αρέσει η ιστορία καθώς και να διαβάζω επί παντός επιστητού, για αυτό και τελείωσα το βιβλίο, ωστόσο ήμουν προετοιμασμένη για κάτι άλλο αυτή τη στιγμή και το θεωρώ και λίγο εμπαιγμό άλλα να υπόσχεσαι στους αναγνώστες σου και άλλα να προσφέρεις... Φλύαρο και κάπως ανούσιο βιβλίο...
"Hemingway at War: Ernest Hemingway's Adventures as a World War II Correspondent" is an irrelevant title to what this book features. Mort narrates and describes all kind of episodes, history, politics, diplomacy, war technology and tactics, trivia, all kind of diverse information other than anything having to do with Hemingway in something like 90% of the book. As if this wasn't irking enough, the writting was so and so, very repetitive and sometimes verbose, while the author's strong bias on various subjects were too obvious and annoying.
Generally speaking, I like History and generic knowledge on various stuff and varying my reading, so I finished the book in two long afternoons. But when I chose to read this book I was expecting something completely different to what it was, so I feel kind of cheated.
April 1, 2020
Love him or hate him, I think we can all agree that Hemingway lived his life large.
As a fan of his and also a daughter of the “Greatest Generation” I knew I should read this book.
My father and father-in-law were both “over there”.
There are so many questions I wish I had asked them. But life happens, you’re raising a family, time marches on and suddenly they’re gone.
Hemingway spent his entire life trying to prove his masculinity his mother robbed him of at such an early age. Always putting himself in dangerous situations and thriving on them.
It’s no surprise that he was in his element in the European Theater in Adolf’s war, being with people he admired and respected for their bravery.
This book paints a great picture of how things were and it tells where Hemingway was in the timeline.
As a war correspondent, there is great controversy as to the accuracy of the stories he sent to Collier’s for publication. How much truth was there in his claimed participation in the action? That is left up to speculation. He was, after all, a writer of fiction and most of his fiction was based at least loosely on his real life experiences.
Whether he was there for the adventure or to gather information and ideas for future novels, Collier’s certainly provided him with the opportunity.
As a fan of his and also a daughter of the “Greatest Generation” I knew I should read this book.
My father and father-in-law were both “over there”.
There are so many questions I wish I had asked them. But life happens, you’re raising a family, time marches on and suddenly they’re gone.
Hemingway spent his entire life trying to prove his masculinity his mother robbed him of at such an early age. Always putting himself in dangerous situations and thriving on them.
It’s no surprise that he was in his element in the European Theater in Adolf’s war, being with people he admired and respected for their bravery.
This book paints a great picture of how things were and it tells where Hemingway was in the timeline.
As a war correspondent, there is great controversy as to the accuracy of the stories he sent to Collier’s for publication. How much truth was there in his claimed participation in the action? That is left up to speculation. He was, after all, a writer of fiction and most of his fiction was based at least loosely on his real life experiences.
Whether he was there for the adventure or to gather information and ideas for future novels, Collier’s certainly provided him with the opportunity.
April 9, 2021
Sorry, Terry Mort. I wanted to like your book and very nearly gave it at two-star rating but it just doesn't work on so many levels. This was more like "A History of Some of World War II, with an appearance by Special Guest Star, Ernest Hemingway." Clearly the author spent time and effort researching the book, but there were no fresh insights into Hemingway: he was a complicated guy, sometimes the source material is contradictory, and maybe he was this or did that, we can't really say for sure. I was definitely looking for something better than that. There is lots of good information here about military matters but then read John Keegan if you want to know about WW II.
I won't continue to pick through the mild pleasures or irritations I found here. I must, however, complain that the constant repetition of information in the last 40 pages or so was simply painful. Did the editor go on vacation? Was there a contract demanding a certain number of pages? Nobody wants to read padding.
All in all, there might be enough Hemingway material here for a magazine article. If you're really interested in Hemingway, invest in one of the biographies.
I won't continue to pick through the mild pleasures or irritations I found here. I must, however, complain that the constant repetition of information in the last 40 pages or so was simply painful. Did the editor go on vacation? Was there a contract demanding a certain number of pages? Nobody wants to read padding.
All in all, there might be enough Hemingway material here for a magazine article. If you're really interested in Hemingway, invest in one of the biographies.
December 4, 2018
I stumbled across this book while trying to answer a question about Hemingway's belief in the hereafter. I never did find an answer to that question but I did stumble across this book in the Hemingway biographies and thought it looked intriguing. It's an interesting mix of history and an exploration of the Hemingway legend. Though he embellished his war record in odd ways, the author finds evidence that he was a heroic character and experienced brutal combat which led to The Black Ass depression he struggled with the rest of his life.
February 3, 2017
A good survey of WWII history more than history on EH. It was a worthwhile read, but it wasn't solely focused on EH. Not the best writing style, took some time to adjust to his style. Somewhat repetitive at points. Written favorably toward EH though. I liked it overall yet wasn't blown away by it.
June 10, 2025
I have always been quite fascinated by the mystic of Ernest Hemingway. I suppose the Sandra Bullock movie of "In Love and War" only fueled that interest.
This book naturally goes into the grit of war, not the romance side.
This book naturally goes into the grit of war, not the romance side.
February 5, 2017
As much about the war especially around D-Day and general tactics as it is about Hemingway. Writing is often repetitious.
January 20, 2018
Misleading tittle, Ernest takes about 1% of the book,
October 8, 2021
Passable. "There is no friend as loyal as a book."
September 23, 2025
Good summary and "starter" book on Hemingway's adventures in WW II.
December 29, 2021
Although there were some interesting facts I learned about Hemingway from reading this book, I did not find the book to be an enjoyable read. Too many sidetracks almost like the author was arguing with himself. I rate the books I read as if I would or would not want to read them again. This one I would not want to read again.
April 13, 2017
This book sounded like an interesting lead. Unfortunately, I lost interest after about 100 pages and gave up on it.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews