Books, Arts & Manners: A Modern Byron

Conversations with Ernest Hemingway, edited by Matthew Bruccoli (Mississippi, 204 pp., $22.95 cloth; $11.95 paper)

Hemingway, a modern Byron, was the most charismatic American author of our time. As an old newsman, he knew the value of publicity and always told lively if inaccurate stories. At 47, he looked virile enough “to make bobby-soxers swoon by the droves.” Even in New York, he shot ducks, boxed in Stillman’s Gym, and acted like his fictional characters. He emerged from the African jungle, after two plane crashes, clutching a bunch of bananas and a bottle of gin, exclaiming: “My luck—she is running very good.” During the interviews at the end of his life, the public personality displaced the serious writer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Meyers

Mr. Meyers is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the author of John Huston: Courage and Art.

Featured Tags

Conversations with Ernest Hemingway, edited by Matthew Bruccoli (Mississippi, 204 pp., $22.95 cloth; $11.95 paper)

Hemingway, a modern Byron, was the most charismatic American author of our time. As an old newsman, he knew the value of publicity and always told lively if inaccurate stories. At 47, he looked virile enough “to make bobby-soxers swoon by the droves.” Even in New York, he shot ducks, boxed in Stillman’s Gym, and acted like his fictional characters. He emerged from the African jungle, after two plane crashes, clutching a bunch of bananas and a bottle of gin, exclaiming: “My luck—she is running very good.” During the interviews at the end of his life, the public personality displaced the serious writer.