Books, Arts & Manners: A Fictional Self

Ernest Hemingway and His World By Anthony Burgess

Scribner’s, 128 pp., $10.95 Like Lord Byron a century before, Ernest Hemingway became a legend in his own time. He was a big man, and what he did (or claimed to have done), he did in a big way. He stood with his big beard and big gun, having written yet another big book, and the pose somehow struck a chord in the American consciousness. Being as big as legend, however, had its price—especially since the legend was based largely on invention and exaggeration. As a writer, Hemingway became unwilling to take necessary risks. Much the same was true of his personal life. Forever on stage, Hemingway was an actor who played but one part. Being big thus entailed playing it safe, but playing it safe was a form of betrayal. The bearded Papa, his stomach hanging over his belt, was a parody of the handsome young man who wrote such original and brilliant works as In Our Time and The Sun Also Rises. Our picture of Hemingway is filled with paradoxes. It is clear that he wore a mask, but it is difficult to know what was beneath it. Anthony Burgess’ Ernest Hemingway and His World is trying to be an attractive (there are over a hundred photographs) summary of Hemingway’s life. Yet there is more to writing a biography, even one as short as this, than merely mixing facts and anecdotes with occasional off-hand interpretations. Burgess’ central theme is that “Hemingway the man was as much a creation as his books, and a far inferior creation.”

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Ernest Hemingway and His World By Anthony Burgess

Scribner’s, 128 pp., $10.95 Like Lord Byron a century before, Ernest Hemingway became a legend in his own time. He was a big man, and what he did (or claimed to have done), he did in a big way. He stood with his big beard and big gun, having written yet another big book, and the pose somehow struck a chord in the American consciousness. Being as big as legend, however, had its price—especially since the legend was based largely on invention and exaggeration. As a writer, Hemingway became unwilling to take necessary risks. Much the same was true of his personal life. Forever on stage, Hemingway was an actor who played but one part. Being big thus entailed playing it safe, but playing it safe was a form of betrayal. The bearded Papa, his stomach hanging over his belt, was a parody of the handsome young man who wrote such original and brilliant works as In Our Time and The Sun Also Rises. Our picture of Hemingway is filled with paradoxes. It is clear that he wore a mask, but it is difficult to know what was beneath it. Anthony Burgess’ Ernest Hemingway and His World is trying to be an attractive (there are over a hundred photographs) summary of Hemingway’s life. Yet there is more to writing a biography, even one as short as this, than merely mixing facts and anecdotes with occasional off-hand interpretations. Burgess’ central theme is that “Hemingway the man was as much a creation as his books, and a far inferior creation.”