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The Paris Husband: How It Really Was Between Ernest and Hadley Hemingway
“A seasoned author and Hemingway scholar, Scott Donaldson brings this remarkable story to life with precision, lending keen new insight into Hemingway’s elusive character. A masterful work and a cracking good read.”—Valerie Hemingway, author of Running With the My Years with the Hemingways
Ernest Hemingway was not only one of the most important 20th-century American writers, but also a man whose adventurous and colorful life has become the stuff of legend. War correspondent, ambulance driver, and big-game hunter, he was married four times and his love life was inextricably bound up with his artistic endeavors. His first marriage to Hadley Richardson—with whom he lived in Paris in the early 1920s—has long fascinated readers. Their passionate, complicated, and ultimately “doomed” relationship coincided with Hemingway’s formative years as a member of the so-called Lost Generation, and the failed marriage had a lifelong impact on the man and his writing.
In The Paris Husband, author and Hemingway scholar Scott Donaldson deftly separates fact from fiction to present a spellbinding and clear-eyed account of this seminal period in Hemingway’s life. Brilliantly utilizing all essential primary and secondary sources—including the author’s notebooks and drafts—Donaldson breathes new life into this ageless story, providing revelatory insights into Hemingway’s character and exploring the nuances of a magical, yet troubled, love affair.
For anyone interested in Hemingway’s development as an artist and why, as an older man, he continued to revisit this transformative and painful episode in his life, The Paris Husband is a lucid, accessible, and compelling narrative that will engage both diehard Hemingway fans, as well as those just discovering this iconic writer.
Benefits of reading The Paris Husband:
Get a glimpse of Hemingway’s life in Paris during his formative years as a member of the Lost Generation. Understand the passionate, complicated, and ultimately doomed relationship between Hemingway and Richardson. Learn how this failed marriage impacted Hemingway’s writing and his life.
What's included in The Paris Husband:
Separates fact from fiction to present a spellbinding and clear-eyed account of this seminal period in Hemingway’s life. Provides revelatory insights into Hemingway’s character. Explores the nuances of a magical, yet troubled, love affair. Don't miss out! Buy The Paris Husband now before the price changes!
Ernest Hemingway was not only one of the most important 20th-century American writers, but also a man whose adventurous and colorful life has become the stuff of legend. War correspondent, ambulance driver, and big-game hunter, he was married four times and his love life was inextricably bound up with his artistic endeavors. His first marriage to Hadley Richardson—with whom he lived in Paris in the early 1920s—has long fascinated readers. Their passionate, complicated, and ultimately “doomed” relationship coincided with Hemingway’s formative years as a member of the so-called Lost Generation, and the failed marriage had a lifelong impact on the man and his writing.
In The Paris Husband, author and Hemingway scholar Scott Donaldson deftly separates fact from fiction to present a spellbinding and clear-eyed account of this seminal period in Hemingway’s life. Brilliantly utilizing all essential primary and secondary sources—including the author’s notebooks and drafts—Donaldson breathes new life into this ageless story, providing revelatory insights into Hemingway’s character and exploring the nuances of a magical, yet troubled, love affair.
For anyone interested in Hemingway’s development as an artist and why, as an older man, he continued to revisit this transformative and painful episode in his life, The Paris Husband is a lucid, accessible, and compelling narrative that will engage both diehard Hemingway fans, as well as those just discovering this iconic writer.
Benefits of reading The Paris Husband:
Get a glimpse of Hemingway’s life in Paris during his formative years as a member of the Lost Generation. Understand the passionate, complicated, and ultimately doomed relationship between Hemingway and Richardson. Learn how this failed marriage impacted Hemingway’s writing and his life.
What's included in The Paris Husband:
Separates fact from fiction to present a spellbinding and clear-eyed account of this seminal period in Hemingway’s life. Provides revelatory insights into Hemingway’s character. Explores the nuances of a magical, yet troubled, love affair. Don't miss out! Buy The Paris Husband now before the price changes!
157 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 11, 2018
45 people are currently reading
242 people want to read
About the author
Scott Donaldson
28 books10 followersScott Donaldson was one of the nation's leading literary biographers. His books include the acclaimed Edwin Arlington Robinson: A Poet's Life and Archibald MacLeish: An American Life, which won the Ambassador Book Award for biography. His other works are Poet in America: Winfield Townley Scott; By Force of Will: The Life and Art of Ernest Hemingway; Fool for Love: F. Scott Fitzgerald; John Cheever: A Biography; and Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald: The Rise and Fall of a Literary Friendship.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
July 19, 2018
Before reviewing this book, I want to give a shout out to the author that recommended this. I appreciate the offer to read it as it was fascinating and I am now even more intrigued to read his future work! Now onto my review. Hopefully, this is not the first time I read more books by Scott Donaldson.
I have to admit that I was always intrigued by Ernest Hemingway. I read a few books about him, whether in a subtle sense or in a fictional way based on true events. Let me first start off by saying that the writing style is unique and beautiful. It lures you in from the beginning and it does not let go. I often had to reread sentences just to soak in all the well-written paragraphs. A beautiful writing style always lures me in because it is so rare to find these days. Back to the book. I learned a lot about Ernest's affairs, his commitment to his work as a struggling writer and other things. This was a very fascinating and remarkable work of nonfiction. I am now even more intrigued to read more about Ernest, and the things I discovered that took me by surprise.
Another winner! It was clearly one of the best books I read as of late, thanks again to the author for recommending this book!
—
May 18, 2021
The Paris Husband: How It Really Was Between Ernest and Hadley Hemingway, published in 2018, was the last book published during Scott Donaldson’s lifetime, before his death in December 2020. (Donaldson’s obituary states that a volume about F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel Tender Is the Night will be published posthumously.) Donaldson wrote several books about Ernest Hemingway: a 1977 biography, By Force of Will, the excellent 1999 volume Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, which examines the sometimes contentious relationship between Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, and 2009’s Fitzgerald and Hemingway: Works and Days, a book that collected Donaldson’s numerous articles about the two authors.
The Paris Husband examines Ernest Hemingway’s first marriage, to Hadley Richardson. Ernest and Hadley were married from 1921 to 1927, a formative time in the young writer’s life and career. Donaldson’s expertise on Hemingway shows in his deft use of Hemingway’s unpublished writings, in which the author often reveals more of his inner emotions. Throughout the book, Donaldson attempts to set the record straight about Ernest’s marriage to Hadley.
Donaldson knows that Hemingway himself was not always accurate in his descriptions of his own life and actions. To cite just one example, after the theft of a valise from a Paris train station that contained nearly all his early writing, Hemingway claimed in his memoir A Moveable Feast that he took the first train back to Paris when Hadley told him what had happened. Donaldson provides evidence to the contrary, writing that Hemingway didn’t return to Paris until a month and a half later.
The reader is given evidence of Hemingway’s habit of duplicity, as he wrote journalism articles under a pseudonym for a news service, even though he was under exclusive contract at the time to the Toronto Star. Not surprisingly, Hemingway’s duplicity was eventually discovered by his boss at the Star.
Donaldson corrects errors or misstatements by others—in A.E. Hotchner’s Hemingway in Love, Hotchner informs the reader that Hemingway met his second wife Pauline Pfeiffer through Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Donaldson reports that Ernest met Pauline for the first time in mid-March of 1925, about two months before he met Fitzgerald for the first time. (p.93) To be fair to Hotchner, he often took Hemingway at his word, and Hotchner didn’t always do the extra work to report Ernest’s inaccuracies to the reader.
We learn that Ernest acquired his nickname of “Papa” from Gerald Murphy, due to Ernest’s “instructive attitude.” (p.110) In other words, Ernest was a mansplaining expert who thought he knew everything.
Hemingway was ruthless in every aspect of his writing career. When F. Scott Fitzgerald convinced Hemingway that he should try to change publishers in order to join Fitzgerald at Scribner’s, Hemingway figured out a way out of his contract with Boni & Liveright. If Boni & Liveright rejected a book that Hemingway submitted to them, he would become a free agent. Hemingway then rushed through writing a novella The Torrents of Spring, that was a parody of Sherwood Anderson, who had been a benefactor of Hemingway’s, and provided Ernest with letters of introduction when he and Hadley moved to Paris. Anderson was also one of Boni & Liveright’s leading authors. Predictably, they rejected The Torrents of Spring, and thus Hemingway was free to move to Scribner’s. Maxwell Perkins, Fitzgerald’s editor at Scribner’s, was willing to publish the sub-standard The Torrents of Spring in order to be able to publish Hemingway’s first real novel, The Sun Also Rises.
It’s interesting to me that Hemingway didn’t seem to care about what effect publishing The Torrents of Spring would have on his own literary reputation. Hemingway had published a successful book of short stories, In Our Time, and he was in the build-up phase to the all-important first novel, which would be The Sun Also Rises. Wasn’t he worried that publishing a mean-spirited satirical novella would blunt the momentum of his career? Or was he just filled with such overconfidence that it didn’t matter? I strongly suspect the latter. It ended up being a moot point, as The Torrents of Spring didn’t damage Hemingway’s career at the time, and subsequent critics have paid little attention to it.
By the time The Sun Also Rises was published, Hemingway’s marriage to Hadley was on the verge of breaking up. Hemingway was filled with remorse about his affair with Pauline, and as a gesture of kindness to Hadley, Ernest wrote Scribner’s that all the royalties to The Sun Also Rises should be given to her. I’d be fascinated to know how many millions of dollars that gift was worth over the years.
Donaldson offers perhaps the best succinct summary of A Moveable Feast, Hemingway’s posthumous memoir of Paris during the 1920’s, writing: “A Moveable Feast is an odd book, half fond reminiscence and half ill-tempered attack.” (p.133) It’s an accurate judgement, as throughout the book Hemingway veers between romanticizing his poverty and attacking anyone who isn’t Hadley or Ezra Pound. (Hemingway’s poverty was overstated, as he and Hadley had a yearly income of about $2,000 from her trust fund, at a time when most Americans made less than $800 a year.)
In one of the drafts for A Moveable Feast that never made it into either the 1964 edition of the book or the 2009 “restored edition,” Hemingway wrote: “If you deceive and lie with one person against another you will eventually do it again.” (p.135) That piece of self-knowledge was hard won through the collapse of Ernest’s first two marriages. For a writer as committed to documenting the truth as Hemingway was, that line should have made it into the book. Oh well, for devoted Hemingway fans, it’s in Donaldson’s book.
The Paris Husband is an interesting examination of Ernest and Hadley’s marriage, and it’s a good corrective to read after the self-mythologizing A Moveable Feast.
The Paris Husband examines Ernest Hemingway’s first marriage, to Hadley Richardson. Ernest and Hadley were married from 1921 to 1927, a formative time in the young writer’s life and career. Donaldson’s expertise on Hemingway shows in his deft use of Hemingway’s unpublished writings, in which the author often reveals more of his inner emotions. Throughout the book, Donaldson attempts to set the record straight about Ernest’s marriage to Hadley.
Donaldson knows that Hemingway himself was not always accurate in his descriptions of his own life and actions. To cite just one example, after the theft of a valise from a Paris train station that contained nearly all his early writing, Hemingway claimed in his memoir A Moveable Feast that he took the first train back to Paris when Hadley told him what had happened. Donaldson provides evidence to the contrary, writing that Hemingway didn’t return to Paris until a month and a half later.
The reader is given evidence of Hemingway’s habit of duplicity, as he wrote journalism articles under a pseudonym for a news service, even though he was under exclusive contract at the time to the Toronto Star. Not surprisingly, Hemingway’s duplicity was eventually discovered by his boss at the Star.
Donaldson corrects errors or misstatements by others—in A.E. Hotchner’s Hemingway in Love, Hotchner informs the reader that Hemingway met his second wife Pauline Pfeiffer through Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Donaldson reports that Ernest met Pauline for the first time in mid-March of 1925, about two months before he met Fitzgerald for the first time. (p.93) To be fair to Hotchner, he often took Hemingway at his word, and Hotchner didn’t always do the extra work to report Ernest’s inaccuracies to the reader.
We learn that Ernest acquired his nickname of “Papa” from Gerald Murphy, due to Ernest’s “instructive attitude.” (p.110) In other words, Ernest was a mansplaining expert who thought he knew everything.
Hemingway was ruthless in every aspect of his writing career. When F. Scott Fitzgerald convinced Hemingway that he should try to change publishers in order to join Fitzgerald at Scribner’s, Hemingway figured out a way out of his contract with Boni & Liveright. If Boni & Liveright rejected a book that Hemingway submitted to them, he would become a free agent. Hemingway then rushed through writing a novella The Torrents of Spring, that was a parody of Sherwood Anderson, who had been a benefactor of Hemingway’s, and provided Ernest with letters of introduction when he and Hadley moved to Paris. Anderson was also one of Boni & Liveright’s leading authors. Predictably, they rejected The Torrents of Spring, and thus Hemingway was free to move to Scribner’s. Maxwell Perkins, Fitzgerald’s editor at Scribner’s, was willing to publish the sub-standard The Torrents of Spring in order to be able to publish Hemingway’s first real novel, The Sun Also Rises.
It’s interesting to me that Hemingway didn’t seem to care about what effect publishing The Torrents of Spring would have on his own literary reputation. Hemingway had published a successful book of short stories, In Our Time, and he was in the build-up phase to the all-important first novel, which would be The Sun Also Rises. Wasn’t he worried that publishing a mean-spirited satirical novella would blunt the momentum of his career? Or was he just filled with such overconfidence that it didn’t matter? I strongly suspect the latter. It ended up being a moot point, as The Torrents of Spring didn’t damage Hemingway’s career at the time, and subsequent critics have paid little attention to it.
By the time The Sun Also Rises was published, Hemingway’s marriage to Hadley was on the verge of breaking up. Hemingway was filled with remorse about his affair with Pauline, and as a gesture of kindness to Hadley, Ernest wrote Scribner’s that all the royalties to The Sun Also Rises should be given to her. I’d be fascinated to know how many millions of dollars that gift was worth over the years.
Donaldson offers perhaps the best succinct summary of A Moveable Feast, Hemingway’s posthumous memoir of Paris during the 1920’s, writing: “A Moveable Feast is an odd book, half fond reminiscence and half ill-tempered attack.” (p.133) It’s an accurate judgement, as throughout the book Hemingway veers between romanticizing his poverty and attacking anyone who isn’t Hadley or Ezra Pound. (Hemingway’s poverty was overstated, as he and Hadley had a yearly income of about $2,000 from her trust fund, at a time when most Americans made less than $800 a year.)
In one of the drafts for A Moveable Feast that never made it into either the 1964 edition of the book or the 2009 “restored edition,” Hemingway wrote: “If you deceive and lie with one person against another you will eventually do it again.” (p.135) That piece of self-knowledge was hard won through the collapse of Ernest’s first two marriages. For a writer as committed to documenting the truth as Hemingway was, that line should have made it into the book. Oh well, for devoted Hemingway fans, it’s in Donaldson’s book.
The Paris Husband is an interesting examination of Ernest and Hadley’s marriage, and it’s a good corrective to read after the self-mythologizing A Moveable Feast.
August 31, 2020
Having read the Paris Wife and many other books about Hemingway this was a lot of repeat for me. I still enjoyed it and did learn more about the great writer.
September 25, 2018
Fascinating and readable but lacks an index
Although this is a short book, its length is appropriate to its main subject matter - the six year period of Ernest Hemingway's marriage to Hadley Richardson. In a very readable way, it really helps you to understand more about the two individuals concerned and their relationship. This is done largely through Scott Donaldson's narrative but there also well chosen examples of letters and telegrams from Hemingway to some of the women with whom he was romantically involved, plus some material deleted from "A Moveable Feast" which throws light on Hemingway's guilt at the way his first marriage ended. Instead of finishing the book at the breakdown of the marriage, the relationship is put into the context of Hemingway's subsequent life in the last chapter, which I found a useful feature - the pattern of serial affairs, creating a wife in the wings before the previous relationship finished, had its origin with Hadley, who replaced her friend, Katy Smith, in Hemingway's affections to become his wife.
This thoroughly researched book could be improved still further with the addition of some photographs, a bibliography and an index for those reading a physical book, which, of course, does not have the search feature of the Kindle edition
Although this is a short book, its length is appropriate to its main subject matter - the six year period of Ernest Hemingway's marriage to Hadley Richardson. In a very readable way, it really helps you to understand more about the two individuals concerned and their relationship. This is done largely through Scott Donaldson's narrative but there also well chosen examples of letters and telegrams from Hemingway to some of the women with whom he was romantically involved, plus some material deleted from "A Moveable Feast" which throws light on Hemingway's guilt at the way his first marriage ended. Instead of finishing the book at the breakdown of the marriage, the relationship is put into the context of Hemingway's subsequent life in the last chapter, which I found a useful feature - the pattern of serial affairs, creating a wife in the wings before the previous relationship finished, had its origin with Hadley, who replaced her friend, Katy Smith, in Hemingway's affections to become his wife.
This thoroughly researched book could be improved still further with the addition of some photographs, a bibliography and an index for those reading a physical book, which, of course, does not have the search feature of the Kindle edition
August 10, 2018
Three stars if read alone. 4.5 stars if read before Paris Wife.
March 12, 2025
A sparse read
This was written after The Paris Wife (McLain) and I did wonder whether the title was a dig at that novel - perhaps suggesting that what McLain had written was somehow misleading or lacking in detail. For that reason I expected The Paris Husband to be rather dense with the minutiae of Hemingway's first marriage . However this wasn't the case and the book itself was surprisingly sparse - I read it in one sitting and although I learned a little more about Hadley Richardson I was surprised at the brevity of the text. On the one hand I was pleased not to have to wade through laborious chunks relating to the reportage years of Hemingway , but on the other I was a little disappointed to learn little new about their relationship. With the exception of speculation about the lost manuscripts there was little here that I didn't already know. I'd done a little research myself having read both of McLain's books on Hemingway's wives ( The Paris Wife and Love and Ruin), I'd read A Moveable Feast and I'd looked online for details about his key relationships but I was still quite surprised that this booked offered little more than I already knew. I gave it 4* because it was well written, I galloped through it and ultimately enjoyed it, but for people better read than myself who are far better acquainted with the life and !oves of Hemingway I suspect it will be disappointing .
This was written after The Paris Wife (McLain) and I did wonder whether the title was a dig at that novel - perhaps suggesting that what McLain had written was somehow misleading or lacking in detail. For that reason I expected The Paris Husband to be rather dense with the minutiae of Hemingway's first marriage . However this wasn't the case and the book itself was surprisingly sparse - I read it in one sitting and although I learned a little more about Hadley Richardson I was surprised at the brevity of the text. On the one hand I was pleased not to have to wade through laborious chunks relating to the reportage years of Hemingway , but on the other I was a little disappointed to learn little new about their relationship. With the exception of speculation about the lost manuscripts there was little here that I didn't already know. I'd done a little research myself having read both of McLain's books on Hemingway's wives ( The Paris Wife and Love and Ruin), I'd read A Moveable Feast and I'd looked online for details about his key relationships but I was still quite surprised that this booked offered little more than I already knew. I gave it 4* because it was well written, I galloped through it and ultimately enjoyed it, but for people better read than myself who are far better acquainted with the life and !oves of Hemingway I suspect it will be disappointing .
May 15, 2025
I listened to this book in the car, and I was definitely entertained, however, not completely captivated. As some of the other reviews point out, it is not the most detailed book. The author name drops many, many friends of ernest hemingway, it almost felt too much as so few of them the readers got any detailed background on. It felt unnecessary at times.
The author did, however, do a fantastic job depicting hadley and ernest's relationship and how they had similar childhood relationships with their own parents. Hadley becoming not just a wife and a lover and a mother to their child, but also a nurturing mother figure to Ermest. Which further proves the saying, "behind every great man is a great woman." She clearly paved the way for him to become a great man and a great writer. And he owes much of his success to her.
I loved how, in the end, hadley had no regrets or hard feelings towards the end of their marriage and constantly spoke positive of ernest even though he clearly regretted many of his decisions and the break up of his first and greatest marriage.
The grass isn't always greener. Anyone who is doubting their marriage needs to read this book and see what can happen when you confuse lust with love. Love is more than a feeling, it's a commitment. Or, as I sometimes joke with my wife, it's a contract on the wall.
The author did, however, do a fantastic job depicting hadley and ernest's relationship and how they had similar childhood relationships with their own parents. Hadley becoming not just a wife and a lover and a mother to their child, but also a nurturing mother figure to Ermest. Which further proves the saying, "behind every great man is a great woman." She clearly paved the way for him to become a great man and a great writer. And he owes much of his success to her.
I loved how, in the end, hadley had no regrets or hard feelings towards the end of their marriage and constantly spoke positive of ernest even though he clearly regretted many of his decisions and the break up of his first and greatest marriage.
The grass isn't always greener. Anyone who is doubting their marriage needs to read this book and see what can happen when you confuse lust with love. Love is more than a feeling, it's a commitment. Or, as I sometimes joke with my wife, it's a contract on the wall.
August 27, 2018
Interesting read for lovers of "The Paris Wife" and addicts of Hemingway/Hadley memorabilia. His take emphasises the theory that it was Hadley's loss of the valise containing all of Hemingway's early works that served as the catalyst for the subsequent breakdown of their marriage. But it also points out that Hemingway, being especially vulnerable to adoration by attractive women, more than likely would have strayed in any case. If it hadn't been Pauline, it would have been someone else. Short but engrossing book and well researched.
March 3, 2022
Read for Short book book club. I am not personally interested in Hemingway or his history, or really in reading his books... but I found this to be kind of interesting. Journalistic writing, free of excessive description or flowery language, which I appreciated... at least at first. I found Hemingway to be a bit of a narcissist and a drama queen.
July 10, 2024
Written in response to “The Paris Wife” and another book on the relationship between Hemingway and Hadley, this book provided some similar insights to the previous. There were some details that I had not known, but there was information that had been previously mentioned in other books. I enjoyed it and the ending that provided a “what happened next” type of finale.
September 15, 2018
The other perspective
This book brought a lot of information that wasn't in the book "The Paris wife". I think of "The Paris Wife" as Historical fiction , whereas this book reads as a research paper. I enjoyed the new information, but the book wasn't as enjoyable.
This book brought a lot of information that wasn't in the book "The Paris wife". I think of "The Paris Wife" as Historical fiction , whereas this book reads as a research paper. I enjoyed the new information, but the book wasn't as enjoyable.
October 1, 2018
Some Great Added Info
Though I've read a lot about Hadley and Hemingway, this book added some new insights. Worth the read if you are a Hemingway nut like me.
Though I've read a lot about Hadley and Hemingway, this book added some new insights. Worth the read if you are a Hemingway nut like me.
January 15, 2019
Informational. But would have like more.
June 18, 2019
If you enjoyed The Paris Wife, you will really like this.
October 28, 2019
Well written. Hadley’s loss of the valise was only part of Hemingway’s issues. However, the author tends to make it a central issue. This story is a good read after reading “The Paris Wife”.
June 27, 2022
Read like a term paper
May 16, 2023
Interesting read learning about Hemingway and Hadley with clues to their relationship within his novels.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews