Almost Hemingway: The Adventures of Negley Farson, Foreign Correspondent

by Rex Bowman, Carlos Santos

Would it surprise you to learn that there was a contemporary of Ernest Hemingway’s who, in his romantic questing and hell-or-high-water pursuit of life and his art, was closer to the Hemingwayesque ideal than Hemingway himself? Almost Hemingway relates the life of Negley Farson, adventurer, iconoclast, best-selling writer, foreign correspondent, and raging alcoholic who died in oblivion. Born only a few years before Hemingway, Farson had a life trajectory that paralleled and intersected Hemingway’s in ways that compelled writers for publications as divergent as the Guardian and Field & Stream to compare them. Unlike Hemingway, however, Farson has been forgotten.

This high-flying and literate biography recovers Farson’s life in its multifaceted details, from his time as an arms dealer to Czarist Russia during World War I, to his firsthand reporting on Hitler and Mussolini, to his assignment in India, where he broke the news of Gandhi’s arrest by the British, to his excursion to Kenya a few years before the Mau Mau Uprising. Farson also found the time to publish an autobiography, The Way of a Transgressor, which made him an international publishing sensation in 1936, as well as Going Fishing, one of the most enduring of all outdoors books.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, a fellow member of the Lost Generation whose art competed with a public image grander than reality, once confessed that while he had to rely on his imagination, Farson could simply draw from his own event-filled life. Almost Hemingway is the definitive window on that remarkable story.

Genres: Biography

362 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 31, 2021

Reviews

[Dennis P · Rating 2 out of 5]

Negley Farson deserved better than this - much better.
First off, the title is insulting to Farson. It is amateurish, ( hot button - soundbite, anyone ? ), and then the real ' moral ' of this bio begins.
If you've read any Farson books at all, you will know he had a real issue with alcohol, which he admitted and which he fought.
But these authors must have concluded that constant mentioning of Farson's alcohol habits / drinks of choice would help tell their story. So, they have given this issue top billing and never give it a rest.
The Hemingway reference is telling because he too suffered from similar demons, but in 2 of his bio's, Hotchner's and Baker's they each gave it mention, covered it, and then got on with the business at hand.
A comprehensive Farson bio was overdue, and deserved, but this result is pretty sad.

[Russel Henderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful little biography about a life, and a way of life, largely forgotten. With rare exceptions, today’s nomads are outsiders, while Farson was an insider, albeit a reluctant one. Farson’s wanderlust permeates every page, as do his demons (particularly drink). He did not write literature as did Hemingway, only fiction; Hemingway’s best fiction is the reason we read his nonfiction and Farson’s prose is just not of that caliber. But the authors make the case for his inclusion in the pantheon of travel writers, alongside the Bruce Chatwins and Patrick Leigh Fermors of the 20th Century.

[Mark O'brien · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book starts slow, but soon picks up pace. Farson's life was amazing, although his work and his name have vanished, victims of the transitory nature of journalism and the changing world of news coverage. Farson had an amazing knack for being in the right place for news -- Russia, Gandhi, Africa.
He led a captivating life, full of energy and ideas battling with alcoholism, a quarrelsome marriage and a bad leg.

[Rgroves · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read and well written. Subject matter probably not interesting to most people. Forgotten foreign correspondent who was much more than his stated profession and led a fairly extraordinary life only to be swallowed up by alcohol addiction.

[Jill List · Rating 5 out of 5]

Negley Farson lived for adventure. He traveled continents by plane, train, boat, on horseback and on foot. Although American, he spent most of his adult life in Great Britain, Europe or Russia. Definitely worth the read as his descriptions are vivid and reflect a changing time,