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Reynolds' Hemingway #5
Hemingway: The Final Years
Hemingway's triumphs as a writer during the 1940s and 1950s accompanied a life of risk and danger. Michael Reynolds discovered the truth about Hemingway's activities during the war years, which included running a counterintelligence operation in Havana. The postwar period was the most productive of Hemingway's writing life, when he authored the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Old Man and the Sea and received the Nobel Prize. Even as Hemingway graced the cover of Life magazine, his physical and mental health deteriorated while his public image as hunter and sportsman continued to demand the strenuous life. In 1961 he committed suicide, leaving behind the stuff of which American myths are made.
420 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1999
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206 people want to read
About the author
Michael S. Reynolds
25 books20 followersAs part of Reynolds' lifelong research, aided by his wife and editor Ann, he followed Hemingway's travels through Spain, France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Key West, Fla., and visited the novelist's childhood home in Oak Park, Ill.
Reynolds served on the editorial board of the Hemingway Review. He also helped establish the Hemingway Society, which presents the annual Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award for the best first work of fiction published in the U.S., and organized its biannual conferences for Hemingway scholars. The professor was particularly delighted with the 1996 conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, one of Hemingway's familiar stomping grounds, which was attended by five friends of the late author.
Internationally respected, Reynolds was consulted in 1992 about 20 newly discovered newspaper stories allegedly written by Hemingway for the Toronto Star in the early 1920s. Some of the articles, which Reynolds and other scholars authenticated, were found in the Hemingway section of the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, the world's leading center of Hemingway studies.[More...]
Reynolds served on the editorial board of the Hemingway Review. He also helped establish the Hemingway Society, which presents the annual Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award for the best first work of fiction published in the U.S., and organized its biannual conferences for Hemingway scholars. The professor was particularly delighted with the 1996 conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, one of Hemingway's familiar stomping grounds, which was attended by five friends of the late author.
Internationally respected, Reynolds was consulted in 1992 about 20 newly discovered newspaper stories allegedly written by Hemingway for the Toronto Star in the early 1920s. Some of the articles, which Reynolds and other scholars authenticated, were found in the Hemingway section of the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, the world's leading center of Hemingway studies.[More...]
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
February 27, 2023
The final volume of a splendid multi-book biography. The entire series is noteworthy and recommended.
October 10, 2014
This is both for The 1930's and for The Final Years. I agree these are wonderfully researched and very good reads. I'm in the middle of a reassessment of Hemingway anyway and have gone back to re-read and read all his work. I never thought much of his style in the few books I read when I was young because I wasn't after straightforward, to the point prose but was more into sentences two paragraphs long and lyrical to boot. As I've gotten older I appreciate more the boiling down of prose to it's essence as few writers can do.
Among women, there is so much hostility towards Hemingway because of the way he treated women and people in general and for his obvious extreme machismo, which today seems so boorish.
These books explain better his cyclical mood swings and depression and near hysteria between books and these symptoms are more more understood today than 30 years ago. He only had extremes and those were either as a grandiose asshole or as the most fascinating and powerful personality ever. I decided to stick to his words.
The intensity and driven behavior towards writing which he displayed all his life leave me breathless. His writing was his life. His adventures and loves were fodder for his books. His writing made him and saved him and propelled him and overwhelmed him.
To be able to write For Whom The Bell Tolls, and The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms puts him among other literary geniuses.
Among women, there is so much hostility towards Hemingway because of the way he treated women and people in general and for his obvious extreme machismo, which today seems so boorish.
These books explain better his cyclical mood swings and depression and near hysteria between books and these symptoms are more more understood today than 30 years ago. He only had extremes and those were either as a grandiose asshole or as the most fascinating and powerful personality ever. I decided to stick to his words.
The intensity and driven behavior towards writing which he displayed all his life leave me breathless. His writing was his life. His adventures and loves were fodder for his books. His writing made him and saved him and propelled him and overwhelmed him.
To be able to write For Whom The Bell Tolls, and The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms puts him among other literary geniuses.
November 4, 2015
The fifth and final volume in this still definitive study of the life and inspirations of Hemingway is the hardest to read. Not because the writing suffers as Hemingway's did in the final decade of his life, but rather because this section deals with the slow descent of Papa into premature senility, fragility, and madness. Beginning with the stunning success of For Whom the Bell Tolls, the writer's life begins to take a deluded descending spiral as he convinces himself that he can help the World War II effort by patrolling Key West for U Boats (discovered by Reynolds for the first time). He follows his own self defeating cycle of leaving his wife for another woman but this time the cycle leads to diminishing results. Despite his success with The Old Man and the Sea and achieving the pinnacle successes of the Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes, Hemingway can only write intermittently and never self-contentedly. Coupled with a number of instances of his penchant for suffering significant injuries, Hemingway's brain pays the price. In the final years, he is a tragic shell of himself left with only one option, the only thing he still knows how to do well. Brilliant and essential for all literary history buffs and Hemingway enthusiasts.
November 19, 2015
“The Hemingway’s January to June 1957 liquor bill from Licores Manzarbeitia in Havana was $1,550.49 for eighteen bottles of liquor and fifty-five cases of wine during a period where there were almost no Finca visitors.” That’s $12,761 in today’s currency.
January 12, 2012
Incredible final volume of an epic saga -- Hemingway's tragic end told in lurid detail!
This is the final book in a series and it made me want to go right back and read the other four. Hemingway's adventures in China, in World War II, his last safaris in Africa, his epic drinking bouts, all are captured (if not celebrated) in lavish detail.
But Reynolds also shows the tragedy building up, and connects it to Hemingway's past. There are incredibly revealing passages about how he relates to his wives, and how much he was continuing to act out against his mother. And also descriptions of his odd behavior that are eerily connected to the instability of his father, "the Doctor," a strangely erratic man who also ended his life by suicide.
I knew the basic facts of Hemingway's decline and fall. The drinking, the plane crashes, the crumbling mental state. But Reynolds gives incredible detail, without ever diminishing the tragedy. I never had any idea how many medications Hemingway was on towards the end, or that he suffered through a horrific course of shock treatments. By the time you finish this tragic story, you will no longer be tempted to judge Hemingway for his choice to end his life in 1961.
"The wonder is, he hath endured so long"
This is the final book in a series and it made me want to go right back and read the other four. Hemingway's adventures in China, in World War II, his last safaris in Africa, his epic drinking bouts, all are captured (if not celebrated) in lavish detail.
But Reynolds also shows the tragedy building up, and connects it to Hemingway's past. There are incredibly revealing passages about how he relates to his wives, and how much he was continuing to act out against his mother. And also descriptions of his odd behavior that are eerily connected to the instability of his father, "the Doctor," a strangely erratic man who also ended his life by suicide.
I knew the basic facts of Hemingway's decline and fall. The drinking, the plane crashes, the crumbling mental state. But Reynolds gives incredible detail, without ever diminishing the tragedy. I never had any idea how many medications Hemingway was on towards the end, or that he suffered through a horrific course of shock treatments. By the time you finish this tragic story, you will no longer be tempted to judge Hemingway for his choice to end his life in 1961.
"The wonder is, he hath endured so long"
December 4, 2013
This is the last book in this five volume biog and I now know more about Hemingway than is healthy. It is an insightful collection of books, full of great analysis about Hem's writing process. I still have a love/hate relationship with Hemingway but these books examine where these conflicts come from and how I can put them in their proper perspective. EM was such an important writer for mid twentieth century readers (and writers) and he left his prints all over America and large parts of Europe. Looking past the macho bombast and all the blood he is such a 'true' writer.
January 1, 2017
Wonderful conclusion to this monumental work -from young “Jerry Salinger,” sent in 1945, when Salinger was in a German hospital recovering from “combat fatigue.” Salinger writes Hemingway that their talks a couple of years earlier were “the only hopeful minutes of the whole business.” Touchingly, he spells Hemingway’s self-ascribed nickname “Poppa.”
Reynolds who devoted his career to EH, is a master.
Reynolds who devoted his career to EH, is a master.
April 28, 2015
I have read extensively about EH and this was a period of time that was not covered as completely in other bio's. Therefore I thoroughly enjoyed reading much more about his life with Martha and the final years of his life with Mary. Mary maybe wasn't a saint herself, but she gets extra points for staying with EH till the bitter end. A well written bio.
October 3, 2011
Impeccably researched, insightful, compassionate, and ultimately, of course, very very sad.
November 4, 2011
I love the way the writer treated his subject. I will go back and read more from this collection of Hemingway biographies.
October 17, 2024
Well, it took me eight years, but I have finally completed Michael Reynolds' five part biography of Ernest Hemingway. Like the previous volumes, the book closely follows Hemingway's activities, almost day by day. This one covers the years of his peak popularity following the publication of For Whom the Bell Tolls, his stint as a war correspondent/free lance soldier in World War II, his marriages to Martha Gellhorn and Mary Welsh and his long mental decline in the 1950s, coinciding, oddly enough, with a tremendous output of writing, much of it published long after his death.
It's an exhausting endeavor and Hemingway is presented as a pretty repulsive person. Between the drinking, the fascination with slaughtering animals, the stupid macho posturing, and the emotional abuse of his wives, it gets pretty hard to take. Normally in a literary biography, you get a lot of analysis of the author's works, but there is little of that here. Reynolds is much more interested in the drama of Hemingway's life than he is in his writing and the book suffers as a result. It is chronological to a fault, ending abruptly with Hemingway's suicide. I was surprised at the sudden ending when one considers that, at the time of his death, Hemingway was working on four books that would be published posthumously, Islands in the Stream, A Moveable Feast, The Dangerous Summer, and The Garden of Eden. I would have liked to see a discussion of the books and of the public reception when they were published. It was almost as if Reynolds was worn out by his decades-long project and just wanted to get it over with.
In that, I am with Reynolds. The long biography, particularly the time spent with the older Hemingway, has pretty much finished any interest I might have had in reading any more of the man's literary output. Glad it's over and ready to move on to other things.
It's an exhausting endeavor and Hemingway is presented as a pretty repulsive person. Between the drinking, the fascination with slaughtering animals, the stupid macho posturing, and the emotional abuse of his wives, it gets pretty hard to take. Normally in a literary biography, you get a lot of analysis of the author's works, but there is little of that here. Reynolds is much more interested in the drama of Hemingway's life than he is in his writing and the book suffers as a result. It is chronological to a fault, ending abruptly with Hemingway's suicide. I was surprised at the sudden ending when one considers that, at the time of his death, Hemingway was working on four books that would be published posthumously, Islands in the Stream, A Moveable Feast, The Dangerous Summer, and The Garden of Eden. I would have liked to see a discussion of the books and of the public reception when they were published. It was almost as if Reynolds was worn out by his decades-long project and just wanted to get it over with.
In that, I am with Reynolds. The long biography, particularly the time spent with the older Hemingway, has pretty much finished any interest I might have had in reading any more of the man's literary output. Glad it's over and ready to move on to other things.
June 19, 2021
So very readable and fascinating. Comprehensive, beautifully written, poetically incisive at times. My one gripe with this book is that there is a major deficiency in how Reynolds writes about the Hemingway women. He has so much depth when getting you into Hemingway's mind and modus operandi, but aside from the powerful quotes he uses from Mary's letters to Ernest during their marriage. he is incredibly superficial when it comes to her. I didn't expect biographical detail, but he really seemed to have almost a lack of interest in what made her tick. Not even a few words about how she handled his death and estate as his widow..
December 20, 2018
The final installment of Michael Reynolds' biography of Hemingway is just as expansive as his previous volumes. What I like most about his biographical style is that Reynolds is sympathetic and yet avoids the descent into hero worship.
It's unfortunate that mental illness was so misunderstood then (not that we've made much progress today, unfortunately - the stigmas are still very much with us).
Hemingway is still an egotistical and blustery jackass, but over the years, I've come to recognize the genius of his prose (and I haven't yet gone through his entire oeuvre).
It's unfortunate that mental illness was so misunderstood then (not that we've made much progress today, unfortunately - the stigmas are still very much with us).
Hemingway is still an egotistical and blustery jackass, but over the years, I've come to recognize the genius of his prose (and I haven't yet gone through his entire oeuvre).
March 25, 2013
Written by Professor and Associate Dean of North Carolina State University, Michael S. Reynolds takes readers on an independent journey of one of the great American literature's finest minds, Ernest Hemingway. Beginning in July 1940 and ending in 1961, Reynolds provides a thorough research of the game plans Hemingway executed both professionally and personally.
The beauty of womanhood will not be found in this book nor will Hemingway's relationships with his sons: Jack ("Mr. Bumby"), Patrick ("Mouse"), and Gregory ("Gigi"; the daughter). There is no mention of Hemingway's personal relationship with his two sisters. The desire to have a natural desire daughter was never fulfilled by his four wives. To fulfill this desire, Hemingway had numerous adulterous affairs with younger women. Three of the Hemingway wives did not play the unfair games of love. The fourth stayed the longest. One personal friend asked Mary Welsh Hemingway how she stood back and let her husband verbally abuse her, humiliate her in public, and turn the other cheek to the women.
This is not a sympathetic portrayal of Ernest Hemingway. Some parts are missing from an eye-gripping biography. For example, the years travel from when the sons are young to adulthood. Not much is written about their brotherhood/son bonding at Finca. Every time the sons visit for holidays and summers, groups of Hemingway's famous friends are invited. Was Hemingway really this shallow? Hemingway told his sons to write him twice a month. What was their relationship throughout the years? Without this information, there is no feeling of brotherhood bonding as reflected in Stephen Crane's short story, "The Open Boat."
The great Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy, is mentioned towards the end. This comparison impresses me. Towards the end of their lives, both men grew their white hair longer and lived in a dysfunctional way. Hemingway does not create his own religion. In fact, he mocks his mother's religion. For Hemingway, ECT treatments (electroshock) become a religion to his cure of bipolar. Tolstoy was not alive to undergo ECT. The result of ECT treatments in Hemingway ended in a tragic suicide with his favorite.
As a child, both Ernest Hemingway and his Father, Dr. Clarence Hemingway, traveled down the same path of being residents at St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester, New York. No evidence supports wither or not Dr. Hemingway underwent ECT. In the end, both men committed suicide. In a way, Hemingway went home to be with his Father on his own terms. Hemingway received his medals in literature and was able to have enough financial independence that would be able to provide for his family if he passed away. This worry of being able to provide for his family was heavy while serving his country.
I find the last three wives to be bonded by the profession of journalism. In later years, Mary Hemingway became a journalist/writer. The only wife who did not write was Hadley. Hadley seemed to be the ideal wife had Hemingway not cheated on her with Pauline. The link of the first three wives was their birth place of Saint Louis, Missouri. Ernest Hemingway's co-dependency on women made him a man. Without a woman in his life, Hemingway would probably have left the world long before 1961. When Hemingway married these women, his high expectations of the ideal wife seemed to be unreal. So, the women suffered in the end.
In closing, I was impressed with the extensive research Reynolds dug up for this biography. I find some areas of Hemingway's life to be vague. Maybe this information was not available at the time Reynolds wrote this biography. The great Americsn writer and the man must be separated when reading. If not, a reader may be left disappointed. We must accept Hemingway the way he was and not what we wish him to have been.
The beauty of womanhood will not be found in this book nor will Hemingway's relationships with his sons: Jack ("Mr. Bumby"), Patrick ("Mouse"), and Gregory ("Gigi"; the daughter). There is no mention of Hemingway's personal relationship with his two sisters. The desire to have a natural desire daughter was never fulfilled by his four wives. To fulfill this desire, Hemingway had numerous adulterous affairs with younger women. Three of the Hemingway wives did not play the unfair games of love. The fourth stayed the longest. One personal friend asked Mary Welsh Hemingway how she stood back and let her husband verbally abuse her, humiliate her in public, and turn the other cheek to the women.
This is not a sympathetic portrayal of Ernest Hemingway. Some parts are missing from an eye-gripping biography. For example, the years travel from when the sons are young to adulthood. Not much is written about their brotherhood/son bonding at Finca. Every time the sons visit for holidays and summers, groups of Hemingway's famous friends are invited. Was Hemingway really this shallow? Hemingway told his sons to write him twice a month. What was their relationship throughout the years? Without this information, there is no feeling of brotherhood bonding as reflected in Stephen Crane's short story, "The Open Boat."
The great Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy, is mentioned towards the end. This comparison impresses me. Towards the end of their lives, both men grew their white hair longer and lived in a dysfunctional way. Hemingway does not create his own religion. In fact, he mocks his mother's religion. For Hemingway, ECT treatments (electroshock) become a religion to his cure of bipolar. Tolstoy was not alive to undergo ECT. The result of ECT treatments in Hemingway ended in a tragic suicide with his favorite.
As a child, both Ernest Hemingway and his Father, Dr. Clarence Hemingway, traveled down the same path of being residents at St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester, New York. No evidence supports wither or not Dr. Hemingway underwent ECT. In the end, both men committed suicide. In a way, Hemingway went home to be with his Father on his own terms. Hemingway received his medals in literature and was able to have enough financial independence that would be able to provide for his family if he passed away. This worry of being able to provide for his family was heavy while serving his country.
I find the last three wives to be bonded by the profession of journalism. In later years, Mary Hemingway became a journalist/writer. The only wife who did not write was Hadley. Hadley seemed to be the ideal wife had Hemingway not cheated on her with Pauline. The link of the first three wives was their birth place of Saint Louis, Missouri. Ernest Hemingway's co-dependency on women made him a man. Without a woman in his life, Hemingway would probably have left the world long before 1961. When Hemingway married these women, his high expectations of the ideal wife seemed to be unreal. So, the women suffered in the end.
In closing, I was impressed with the extensive research Reynolds dug up for this biography. I find some areas of Hemingway's life to be vague. Maybe this information was not available at the time Reynolds wrote this biography. The great Americsn writer and the man must be separated when reading. If not, a reader may be left disappointed. We must accept Hemingway the way he was and not what we wish him to have been.
May 22, 2016
Reynolds has done a fantastic job of researching and writing about Hemingway's life. I have now read and studied his series of five books. I am particularly interested in what influenced Hemingway's writing, how he polished his craft, and how he fit writing into his life.
I've learned a lot from this series and highly recommend them.
I've learned a lot from this series and highly recommend them.
September 18, 2009
Great revelations about a great writer
May 31, 2015
The Reynolds series is the definitive archive for Hemingway biography.
Read
July 4, 2015Enjoyed this series. Taught me much about the author and life itself.
October 15, 2018
This is by far the best book I have read this year. It is the last of a series of books by Michael Reynolds on Hemingway's life and work. It was the only one available at the Spring Hill Library. There are over 20 pages of notes at the end of the book reflecting an incredible amount of research. Hemingway was a character he would have loved to write about. During WWII he convinced the US Navy to rig his fishing boat, the "Pilar" as a submarine hunter. He patrolled the Strait of Florida, the channel between Key West and Cuba. While in Colorado with his fourth wife, Mary, she passed out and was rushed to the ER. The doctor said that she needed a transfusion but her veins had collapsed and he could not start a line. Hemingway grabbed a scalpel, opened her arm at the elbow, found a vein, and started a line. The doctor then took over and started a transfusion. It should be noted that the young Hemingway was an ambulance driver in WWI and treated many wounded before transport. I could go on, but I will just encourage reading this book that is difficult to put down.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews