Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald: The Rise and Fall of a Literary Friendship

by Scott Donaldson

A chronicle of a fascinating literary friendship and rivalry traces the respect, the envy, and artistic competition that drove Hemingway and Fitzgerald and portrays the Paris of the Lost Generation of expatriates, including Gertrude Stein. 17,500 first printing.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, History, Biography Memoir, American, Literary Criticism, Writing

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Scott 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.

Reviews

[Orsodimondo · Rating 4 out of 5]

DAGLI AMICI MI GUARDI IDDIO



Francis Scott Fitzgerald, qui spesso chiamato Scott, raramente Fitz, visse solo quarantaquattro anni.
Nato nel 1896, morì nel 1940, per problemi cardiaci che molto dipendevano dal suo alcolismo.
Solo quarantaquattro anni e almeno due capolavori, Il grande Gatsby e Tenera è la notte: i diritti cinema dei quali non raggiunsero mai le quotazioni di quelli di Hemingway, che, per esempio, con Per chi suona la campana portò a casa centomila dollari.
Per Fitzgerald bere e scrivere per mantenersi – e così facendo, potersi permettere una vita costantemente al di sopra delle sue economie, pagare gli studi della figlia (diciannovenne quando il padre morì), e le cure della moglie che passava da una clinica psichiatrica all’altra – divennero tutt’uno, diventando i suoi maggiori problemi. L’alcolismo non lo avvicinò soltanto alla morte, ma gli rese tutta la vita un alto e basso, una teoria di gaffe e figuracce – tra l’altro, reggeva male l’alcol, si ubriacava subito; scrivere per guadagnare lo portò a scrivere tanti racconti che avrebbe preferito evitare, e lo tenne lontano dai romanzi, che alla fine si contano su una mano. D’altra parte, il bere a un certo punto gli rese difficile mantenere la concentrazione sulla lunga distanza (romanzo)

Nella sala da musica Gatsby accese una lampada solitaria accanto al pianoforte. Avvicinò un fiammifero tremante alla sigaretta di daisy e sedette con lei su un divano in fondo alla stanza, dove non c’era altra luce se non quella dell’atrio, che batteva sul pavimento scintillante.


Ernest Hemingway a diciannove anni soldato a Milano (1918).

Ernest Hemingway è nato tre anni dopo, 1899, e sopravvisse all’amico rivale altri ventuno anni, quando decise di togliersi la vita nel 1961.
Come bevitore non era certo da meno dell’amico rivale: quindici martini – il cocktail, non certo il vermouth – più tre cocktail whiskey-champagne e non so quanto champagne prima di svenire. Scriveva:
Mi piace vedere un uomo ubriaco. Un uomo non esiste finché non è ubriaco.
E ancora:
Io bevo da quando ho quindici anni e poche cose mi hanno dato più piacere.
C’è da chiedersi quale fosse il senso del proibizionismo.
Per Hemingway anche il bere si trasformava in una competizione. E sicuramente reggeva l’alcol molto meglio di Fitzgerald, che si ubriacava subito diventando presto noioso e molesto.
La depressione fu un fattore importante nell’alcolismo di Hem: beveva per sconfiggerla, o almeno allontanarla – ma più beveva meno riusciva ad arginarla.


Scott e Zelda.

Il libro di Donaldson sono due parziali autobiografie incrociate e agganciate, quelle dei due autori del titolo. Come autobiografie sono abbondantemente incomplete: ma l’obiettivo di Donaldson è raccontare l’amicizia tra i due.
Che nacque a Parigi a metà degli anni Venti, e questo fu l’unico periodo in cui si frequentarono con buona assiduità, dalla metà del 1925 alla fine dell’anno seguente. Dopo di che, dopo che Scott si prodigò come un matto presso il suo editor Maxwell Perkins, la sua casa editrice Scribner’s, e il suo agente, per promuovere la carriera del giovane esordiente Hemingway, e quindi dopo aver procurato a Hem agente, editor e casa editrice, averlo aiutato a passare da sorpresa e speranza letteraria a certezza e successo, i due si scrissero più che incontrarsi.
Ma se l’amicizia rimase sincera e viva per Scott, divenne invece per il super competitivo Hemingway ennesima occasione di stoccate, critiche, fendenti, insulti, con una spregiudicatezza al limite del cinismo: senza farsi il minimo scrupolo nel criticare o nel prendere le distanze dalla persona che forse più di tutti aveva contribuito al suo successo, ma ammorbidendo in zona firma con la chiusa “con amicizia e affetto il tuo Ernest”. Inutile dire che una volta morto Scott, Hem fu libero di sparare.


Hemingway in un safari in Kenya con la quarta e ultima moglie, Mary (1953).

I capitoli più belli mi sono sembrati quelli che mettono a confronto i due sulla base della stessa problematica: per esempio, il bere, l’alcolismo, per esempio la sessualità, per esempio il successo, l’affermazione.
Donaldson chiude il suo poderoso studio come segue:
Come amico, Hemingway trattò Fitzgerald con estrema crudeltà. Si servì del suo appoggio e poi lo allontanò. Lo insultò nelle lettere e nelle opere e dopo la sua morte fece di tutto per screditarlo. Eppure, tra loro esisteva un sentimento profondo. Ciò che Scott amava di Ernest era la versione idealizzata di quel tipo d’uomo – coraggioso, stoico, autorevole – che lui non sarebbe mai stato. Ciò che Ernest amava di Scott era la vulnerabilità e il fascino che il personaggio in cui si era calato gli imponeva di disprezzare. In effetti, erano tutti gli ingredienti di una storia toccante: quella di un grande scrittore che non si risparmia le umiliazioni, cercando invano il sodalizio con un altro scrittore dal cuore duro come la pietra.
Donaldson si dimentica di dire che anche l’altro scrittore era un grande.


Rara immagine insieme.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found it very entertaining and fascinating to learn more about these literary greats, however I must say (if you are considering reading it) that a) one must be predisposed to mildly-nerdy adoration of both personas and their respective work and also that b) one should be relatively familiar with said work (at least a handful of each ones' "masterpieces"). It was shocking to learn of the failings and misgivings of each, especially in their convoluted treatment of each other, however I think I will be able to appreciate their writing even more now and would highly recommend this book to people of similar interest.

[Diem · Rating 5 out of 5]

My second reading of this book pushed up my rating of it. Funny what a careful and more nuanced reading will do for your enjoyment of a book.

Admittedly, this is a book more suited for a true monomaniac than any other sort of reader. If you're not really interested in either or both authors then this may not be the best way to spend your time. If you are interested you really shouldn't miss this analysis of their relationship.

The author runs a tight ship. There are no histrionics, no wild forays into dark woods where lurk the specters of history-disturbing implausibilities (Hem & Fitz were lovers, Hem & Fitz harbored secret erotic feelings for each other). It is possible that the author errs on the side of giving each man the benefit of the doubt too frequently with a tendency to defend Fitzgerald more than Hemingway. But then, Fitzgerald needed defending more than Hemingway. He was more inclined to bad behavior and was infinitely more emotionally fragile.

This isn't a biography of either man but biographical information certainly plays a supporting role. The writing is engaging and tight and informative without ever becoming dry.

Alcoholism is a terrible thing. The author does a very fine job of refusing to glamorize this condition to which both men eventually lost themselves. But it isn't a morality tale and he doesn't scold or clutch his pearls about their drinking. He just presents it and let's the deeply horrible nature of the thing reveal itself.

It took me a long time to read this because I kept stopping to read works by the authors themselves as the works would arise in the Donaldson book.

[Mark Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway are two of the most famous American authors of the 20th century. They had a contentious relationship that literary biographer Scott Donaldson chronicles in his 1999 book Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald: The Rise and Fall of a Literary Friendship. Donaldson has written biographies of both authors, so he is well-suited for the task of constructing a book about their interactions.

Hemingway and Fitzgerald’s friendship started out well enough. They first met in Paris in 1925. Donaldson shows how Hemingway, writing of this meeting decades later in A Moveable Feast, misled the reader in order to carry out his own vendetta against Fitzgerald’s posthumous resurgence. Fitzgerald, already a famous and well-established author, read Hemingway’s early stories and was bowled over by his talent. Fitzgerald worked hard behind the scenes to try and arrange for Hemingway to join him in publishing his books at Scribner’s, under the watchful eye of editor Maxwell Perkins. Fitzgerald was something of a one-man promotion team for Scribner’s—Hemingway was the fifth author he had recruited for the firm. Fitzgerald also helped Hemingway edit The Sun Also Rises. Specifically, Fitzgerald advised Hemingway that he should slice off a lengthy introduction that gave the reader background information about the characters. Hemingway took Fitzgerald’s advice about The Sun Also Rises and followed him to Scribner’s.

The Sun Also Rises became a huge success when it was published in 1926, and Ernest Hemingway became what Scott Fitzgerald had been a few years before—the Next Big Thing. Hemingway and Fitzgerald would never again be so close. Something changed in the next couple of years. When Hemingway’s next novel, A Farewell to Arms, was being edited in 1929, Fitzgerald bombarded Hemingway with suggestions for edits, and even ideas about the ad copy that Scribner’s could use to sell the book. This time, Hemingway ignored most of Scott’s ideas. Hemingway also didn’t want Scott and Zelda to know where he was living in Paris, for fear that their drunken antics would cause him to be evicted.

During the 1930’s, their friendship drifted apart, and Fitzgerald never joined Hemingway for a fishing trip on his boat on Key West, despite Ernest’s suggestions. Fitzgerald wrote in his notebooks that he and Hemingway had meet “Four times in eleven years (1929-1940). Not really friends since ’26.” (p.162)

The 1930’s were a difficult time for Fitzgerald. His wife Zelda suffered a series of mental breakdowns, and spent most of the rest of her life in various hospitals and sanitariums. Scott and Zelda lived apart, but never divorced. Scott now had considerable expenses, as he had to pay for Zelda’s care, and also for private schools for their daughter Scottie. Scott was also deeply in debt to Scribner’s, as he was continually borrowing against the advance for his long-awaited fourth novel, Tender is the Night, which finally appeared in 1934 after a long and painful gestation. It was nine years after The Great Gatsby, which was an eternity in those days. Although correctly regarded as classics today, neither book was a sales sensation. Fitzgerald was regarded by many book critics as being a relic of the 1920’s Jazz Age that he had chronicled so well. A brief snippet into Fitzgerald’s misery during this time can be seen from his Ledger entry for September 1932, which read: “Drinking increased. Things go not so well.” (p.234)

Hemingway was also not terribly prolific at writing novels during the 1930’s, as he had an eight-year gap between A Farewell to Arms in 1929 and To Have and Have Not in 1937. But he filled the intermediate years with non-fiction about bullfighting and safaris, which further burnished his macho image in the public eye. Hemingway’s reputation was quickly headed towards legend, while Fitzgerald was forgotten and neglected.

In 1936 the final break in their relationship came, as Hemingway criticized Fitzgerald in print in his short story “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.” Published in Esquire in August of 1936, Hemingway included a passage where his narrator ruminates about the rich:

“He remembered poor Scott Fitzgerald and his romantic awe of them and how he had started a story once that read ‘The very rich are different from you and me.’ And how some one had said to Scott, Yes, they have more money. But that was not humorous to Scott. He thought they were a special glamorous race and when he found they weren’t it wrecked him as much as any other thing that wrecked him.”

Fitzgerald had never started a short story that way. The third paragraph of “The Rich Boy,” the story that Hemingway was referencing, begins:

“Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.”

Donaldson shows how the “yes, they have more money” line has become so twisted, with Fitzgerald supposedly offering his observation, and Hemingway then responding with the punch line. In fact, according to Maxwell Perkins, what actually happened was Hemingway had said that he was getting to know the rich, and the author Mary Colum responded with, “The only difference between the rich and other people is that the rich have more money.” (p.198) For whatever reason, Hemingway then rewrote the incident to make the punchline at Fitzgerald’s expense.

After the publication of “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” Fitzgerald wrote Hemingway a short letter that began: “Please lay off me in print.” He then asked Hemingway to cut his name when the story appeared in a book. After some back and forth with Maxwell Perkins, Hemingway finally agreed, changing the name to Julian. In 1939 Fitzgerald wrote Maxwell Perkins that Hemingway’s turn against him had a “pointless childish quality—so much so that I never really felt any resentment about it.” (p.203)

After Fitzgerald’s death from a heart attack in 1940, Hemingway rarely had a good word to say about his former friend. As Donaldson writes: “What becomes clear, in reading through Ernest’s correspondence…is that Hemingway repeatedly and systematically denigrated Fitzgerald during the two decades remaining to him, and that these attacks were occasioned or at least intensified by the posthumous revival of Fitzgerald’s reputation.” (p.253)

A sentence about Fitzgerald that Hemingway crossed out for A Moveable Feast read: “He needed professionals or normally educated people to make his writing legible and not illiterate.” (p.270) What a mean thing to write. Yes, Fitzgerald was a notoriously terrible speller, but Hemingway wasn’t much better. Fitzgerald was especially bad with proper names, often writing “Hemminway,” which no doubt rankled Ernest. There’s no generosity from Hemingway towards Fitzgerald, and I think it speaks to Hemingway’s personality that he was unwilling or unable to acknowledge Fitzgerald’s great talent. Hemingway’s mean-spirited comment about Fitzgerald being “illiterate” is one of the oldest critical attacks on him—that he was a natural talent, a sort of holy fool who magically put words together, but who had no idea how he did it. That’s untrue. Both men worked extremely hard to perfect their craft.

Donald Ogden Stewart, who knew both Hemingway and Fitzgerald, once said of Hemingway, “The minute he began to love you, or the minute he began to have some sort of obligation to you of love or friendship or something, then is when he had to kill you. Then you were too close to something he was protecting.” (p.315)

Fitzgerald and Hemingway were opposites in many ways. Where Fitzgerald wore his emotions on his sleeve, Hemingway was harder to pin down. Donaldson writes that Hemingway’s jilting by Agnes von Kurowsky, who was a Red Cross nurse who he met after being wounded in World War I, and his mother’s angry behavior towards him at around the same time “compelled him to sever ties before friend or lover could strike a blow to the heart.” (p.50) That certainly fit the pattern of his relationship with Fitzgerald. The thought occurred to me that maybe Hemingway’s deliberate distancing of himself from his own emotions influenced his writing style. Perhaps that’s one reason why his writing is so blunt, with so little outward emotion.

In one chapter, Donaldson chronicles the alcoholism of both writers. Both Hemingway and Fitzgerald waged lifelong battles with the bottle, with only limited success. Sober, Scott Fitzgerald was by all accounts a charming man. Drunk, he was impossible. While alcohol brought out in Zelda a tendency towards physical self-destruction—she once threw herself down a flight of stone steps when Scott was flirting too much with Isadora Duncan, and on another occasion dove thirty-five feet off a cliff into the ocean—Scott had a tendency towards social self-destruction. He would behave terribly to his friends, and the drunken antagonism of the evening inevitably led to the ashamed hung-over apology the morning after. Hemingway was a late blooming alcoholic compared to Fitzgerald, but by the time he was in his 50’s he was imbibing a massive amount of alcohol as part of his daily ritual.

The most bizarre letter between the two writers that Donaldson uncovered was one from Hemingway to Fitzgerald, written in December of 1935. In it, Hemingway tells Fitzgerald that if he is really, truly feeling depressed and despondent, he should take out a large life insurance policy and come down to Key West. There, Ernest could take Scott to Cuba on his boat and make sure that Scott got killed. Hemingway then went into great, satirical detail about making sure the Princeton Museum got Fitzgerald’s liver. The whole thing might have been a macabre joke, but there’s an underlying sadness, as the letter comes from someone whose family was plagued by suicides, and who would much later commit suicide himself. One wonders what Fitzgerald thought of the letter when he received it. (p.177-8)

One possible connection between the authors that Donaldson does not examine is “Shaggy’s Morning,” an odd Fitzgerald short story that ran in the May, 1935 issue of Esquire. “Shaggy’s Morning” was written from the point of view of a dog, and according to Fitzgerald scholar Matthew J. Bruccoli, the story “may or may not have been intended as a parody of Hemingway.” (Some Sort of Epic Grandeur, p.397) I think the story was Fitzgerald’s parody of Hemingway’s hard-bitten sentences and terse stoicism. Here’s a sample:

“In the front yard I howled. I don't know why—then I went to look for the Brain. When I didn't find her I began to figure that maybe something had happened to her, too, and she wouldn't be back any more. I went up on the porch and waited, but she didn't come, so I scratched on the screen and went in and howled a little at the Beard, who gave me a head scratch.”

To make Fitzgerald and Hemingway compete with each other seems superfluous. You don’t have to like only one and not the other—they are not mutually exclusive. They were both brilliant and talented writers with many great works between them. While I prefer Fitzgerald’s writing style, I enjoy Hemingway as well. These two men created some of the most vibrant prose of the 20th century.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before reading this I knew each author equally well (that is to say, not too well at all, having unforgivably read only the requisite novels assigned in high school and college). Thus I am not sure whether it was the author's biases, the factual circumstances, or my own predilections that led me to ally myself with Fitzgerald over Hemingway throughout this biography. Regardless, I think this a wonderful portrait of a complex relationship. The structure, which mixes the chronological with the thematic, leads to repetition which can grate at times, but largely serves to isolate significant strands while constantly presenting a sense of the whole.

[Su E · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book about a friendship between two men, six decades before I was born – Why am I crying?

[Jess the Book Freak · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm delving deeper into Fitzgerald's life by reading about his up and down relationship with Hemingway. To think just two months ago, I knew next to nothing about them, but now I know how much their careers and lives influenced each other... for better and for worse.

This book does a good job of detailing the parallel lives of these two literary giants. Their origins, similar jilted loves, and their fateful meeting in Paris. While there's much to admired about their literary accomplishments, their personal lives were filled with struggles (alcoholism, tumultuous relationships, failing careers...) I didn't know Fitzgerald had such a role in getting Hemingway started in his career, but it sounds like Hemingway was already a rising star. Then there was the tragic reversal of Fitzgerald's career because of his alcoholism by the thirties and his writings becoming devalued out of the Jazz Age. Hemingway could be very critical, scathing but also very fond of Fitzgerald's writing and potential.

Their personalities butted against each other and I still wondered about the inner workings of why their friendship ultimately failed. But it seems that a multitude of reasons got in the way, which this book explores. They had a whole lot going on. I'm glad their letters have survived and could be examined. It gives a glimpse of who they are through each other's eyes.

[Brian Page · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hemingway Vs. Fitzgerald: The Rise and Fall of a Literary Friendship by Scott Donaldson is a wonderfully nuanced account of the destructive co-dependent relationship between Hemingway & Fitzgerald. This book distills a lifetime of scholarly study into both men by the late Scott Donaldson. The depth of Donaldson’s scholarship is astounding. The book is truly focused on the relationship; it’s not biography, per se, although, obviously, the literary relationship & competition formed significant aspects of their lives. Not surprisingly, their lives and biographies encompassed far more than the literary rivalry. I was particularly struck by two aspects of their relationship: First, how young they both were when the battle lines solidified. Immaturity obviously played a role. And second, how they both continued to proclaim love & respect for each other even in the most vicious of their communications, right to the very end. Anyway, this is a captivating account and one that I highly recommend.

[Judith Squires · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have always thought that Fitzgerald was a better writer than Hemingway, although I've enjoyed reading both. And having read several biographies of both men, I feel Hemingway was truly a nasty man, particularly when it came to his jealousy and spite directed at fellow authors. Fitzgerald mentored him and helped him early on and he rewarded that friendship with vicious insults. This book recounted all of that, much of which has been revealed before. I don't think it added much new in the way of scholarship. The one thing I did learn was that Hemingway also was very disparaging of William Faulkner. I've never been a Faulkner fan, being bored stiff by his endless paragraphs and his regionalism, yet Hemingway seemed to really have it in for him. As for Fitzgerald, at least he kept working and providing for Zelda and their daughter, having a loyalty and love, that Hemingway sadly never experienced.

[Dave Hanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book, Scott Donaldson traces the conjoining and eventual diverging career paths of Fitzgerald and Hemingway, describing in detail how their friendship, both personal and literary, came together as part of the Lost Generation in Paris but quickly fell apart somewhere between The Great Gatsby and The Sun Also Rises. Using the subjects' own words (via letters, diaries, and conversations with others), Donaldson meticulously recounts how both writers achieved literary stardom while simultaneously battling, and eventual succumbing to, their personal demons.

[Stefanie Robinson · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is meant to discuss the friendship and rivalry of two literary greats: F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. Unfortunately, this book was about as dry as kindling in July, and there was no real substance to it. I have read other books about both of these people that were well researched and written in an engaging way...this one did not do it for me. I got it for a good price and it did help me meet my reading challenge goal, but that is about all I have to comment on this book. If you wish to try it, I hope you enjoy it.

[Chance Nix · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like this book. It gave me insight into two of my favorite writers. After reading this book, my opinion on Hemingway changed. I always thought the stories about him were just people who didn't like him but after reading the way he goes about things, especially with F. Scott, I no longer saw him the same. I enjoyed this book and anyone who is a fan of the roaring twenties literary giants will enjoy this.

[Tatiana · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is such a lovingly well done book. Definitely not for people with only a casual interest in these two, otherwise you’re going to get lost in references to every obscure book or short story. Took off one star because it really drags in places and took off another because it REALLY drags after Fitzgerald dies. The interesting thing about this book was the interaction between the two men and when one of them is dead it stalled a bit.

[Catrina Gilbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fascinating analysis of their effect on each other. Non-fiction that sounds like fiction but it was just their lives! Shattered any illusion of them one could have solely by their published work, and yet it makes you understand them more. These men wrote from what they knew and where they were. Fascinating.

[Jennie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great content, but I didn't love how the book was organized or written.

[Simona Moschini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quando hai letto molte biografie, finisce per essere un sollievo, nonché una piacevole sorpresa, trovarne ogni tanto una seria, onesta e documentata. Questa lo è.

[Lana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually hilarious at times.
I love their rivalry so much, I put them next to each other on my shelves.

[Lilli]

internalized homophobia: the novel

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look at these two authors side by side. It really focuses on their interactions and relationship, rather than just being a report on the two’s lives separately.

[David Rullo · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was quite disappointed with this book. I don't really feel like I learned much about the friendship between Hemingway and Fitzgerald. Sure, Donaldson writes about the fact that they were friends in Paris and he recounts a few times Fitzgerald showed up drunk at Hemingway's; he also recounts a few stories that Hemingway told in "A Movable Feast" but that's it really. There are no stories about the two in Paris. Where did they spend time? How did they become such good friends? Did the two couples dine together? You won't find out reading this book.

What you do find out is that they were friends; Hemingway wrote and said some fairly catty things about Fitzgerald; Fitzgerald worshiped Hemingway. Don't expect much more.

Donaldson also has a habit of bringing different writers, contemporaries, friends, companions of the two into different stories with no introduction. You have no idea how they connect to the two writers or what they meant in their life. They are simply there and then they are gone.

This is not a linear story of the writer's friendship. This is more a description of Hemingway being annoyed at Fitzgerald and Fitzgerald being drunk. I would probably stick with the novels and short stories the two penned and some of the more famous biographies unless you've read everything else out there about the two.

[Kayle · Rating 3 out of 5]

At the end of this book I was reminded of the quote from Moulin Rouge, "The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return." The stories friendship between Hemingway and Fitzgerald was ill-fated and should have been ill-advised. What Donaldson reveals is a destructive relationship that dims the stars of two authors whose caricatures, as passed down through popular culture, I've always fancied myself admiring. It's clear by the final page with whom the author's sympathies lies. At times a tedious read, only because of the author's respect for his subjects, it's still a book I'm glad I read and I feel better for it.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the book. I don't know if Hemingway was this big of a douche but he was constantly putting Fitzgerald down and unfortunately Fitzgerald allowed it. I agree totally with what I perceived from Scott's assessment that Hemingway saw in Fitzgerald what he didn't like in himself and simply had to take his angst out on him. The haircut stuff with Hemingway and his wife trying to be androgynous is an example of his internal conflict between portraying the tough guy image and his own internal desires/feelings.

[David Sperry · Rating 3 out of 5]

The polarized, egotistic struggles behind this complex friend/rival relationship are presented superbly. Donaldson guides the reader through the fact/fiction behind these titans of 20th C. lit and their works, which not only helped to define a generation but influence our popular conceptions of the quintessential "American writer" even now.

[M. Sarki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well worth reading if you are interested in the relationship between these two men. Rather than a tell-all book this focuses on the more scholarly and psychological ideas regarding their literary and extremely competitive friendship. It does show both men in what seems to me a more honest light than the mythical ideas surrounding them.

[Paige · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is extremely well written and it flowed seamlessly. I adore both Hemingway and Fitzgerald, so this book entertained me greatly. As well as it's informational aspect, I really enjoyed the pictures that were included, we all know what hem and fitz looked like but it was great so see pictures of Gerald and Sarah Murphy who are mentioned frequently in the book, as well as others.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book to read if you are a fan of both authors. It is well written, well researched, and definitely gets into the minutae of the friendship and both authors lives....which is wonderful if you're a JazzAge-ophile! Some passages seemed to be rehashed multiple times in the book in different sections or this would have been a 5 star for me.

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book a lot. Having loved A Movable Feast, I like the relatively objective view of the Fitzgerald/Hemingway relationship. The waste of their talents due to booze is really the worst thing about both of these men.

[SJ L · Rating 2 out of 5]

Revenge loving, the way that every story is only about the person who writes it. This is the kind of book where the subject matter is interesting but the writing falls short because you can tell they wrote it as part of their PhD thesis.

[William C. Montgomery · Rating 2 out of 5]

Scott Donaldson is obviously a college professor because his writing style is academic and dull. But the subject matter is endlessly fascinating. If these authors interest you at all, this book is a well documented resource. Too bad the readability is so poor.

[Lexi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting look at the relationship between these two writers and their contemporaries. Particularly interesting was the exploration of each writer's battle with booze, similarities and differences. A bit dry and dense but full of interesting citations and insights.