I’ve read a fair amount of Ernest Hemingway’s work over the years and a couple Hemingway biographies to boot, but Ken Burns’ Hemingway on PBS captures the essence of the man and shows many of his vulnerabilities.
What surprised me was the number of head injuries Hemingway sustained over his life. He was concussed during his war years as well as being injured by shrapnel which may have affected his circulation in later years. Hemingway was concussed again in Paris while trying to install a lamp. Some of Hemingway’s erratic behavior might have been caused by brain damage from these head injuries, like the Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) many National Football League players suffer from.
In my opinion, Hemingway did his best work in the 1920s with In Our Time, The Sun Also Rises, and A Farewell to Arms. In 1954, Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for Literature, but books like The Old Man and the Sea lack the scope and power of his early books. Are you a Hemingway fan? Do you have a favorite book of his? Did you watch Ken Burns’ Hemingway? GRADE: A
I thought the documentary was excellent. Like you I prefer his early work. Especially The Sun Also Rises and his short stories. I have to admit I have never read A Farewell to Arms or For Whom the Bells Toll. I have read The Complete Short Stories, The Sun Also Rises and A Moveable Feast. Also To Have and Have Not and The Old Man and the Sea both which I find minor. To bad The Old Man and the Sea is the one which is usually taught in high school. Probably because it is short and easy to discuss. After watching this I ordered a copy of his Complete short stories and will do some rereading. Always enjoyed his Nick Adams stories.
Steve. as the Hemingway documentary pointed out, the Nick Adams stories broke new ground in short story writing.
We watched the second part last night. I am spacing them out because Jackie is not a fan. Outstanding job by Burns, as always. I was thinking this morning exactly the same thing, that his best work was done early. I read FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS in high school and loved it then, but the stuff he wrote after that – TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT, THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA – did not impress me. I’ve always liked THE SUN ALSO RISES and love the short stories. Still have not read A FAREWELL TO ARMS. I have read THE GREEN HILLS OF AFRICA and DEATH IN THE AFTERNOON and A MOVEABLE FEAST and a collection of his Toronto newspaper stories and several volumes of his letters, which are fascinating, as well as several biographies.
The first part was better for a number of reasons, a main one being that “origin stories” are almost always the most interesting. That head injury happened in Paris when he pulled down a skylight and crashed it into his skull. I know about the two consecutive plane crashes in Africa that almost killed him.
There was nothing in part one that I didn’t know before, but I learned a couple of things in the second part (and looking stuff up as I was watching) that I didn’t know – Patrick Hemingway, his second son, is still alive at 92 and looks damn good, though I have no idea how long ago his interview scenes were filmed. (And no, I have ZERO sympathy as one of the other interviewees did, for Pauline Pfeiffer. Live by the sword, die by the sword. You “steal” another woman’s husband, you can expect the same to happen to you.
The other thing I learned (and I have no idea if this is covered in the last part) was that Hemingway’s third son Gregory had gender dysphoria issues his whole life (which his parents refused to deal with), went partway through reassignment surgery, had one breast implant that he later had removed, and at one point identified himself as “Gloria” Hemingway. He was a doctor who had 8 children from his first four marriages, and eventually died at 69.
Jeff, Hemingway was resilient in surviving serious war wounds, the hit from the skylight, and two plane crashes. But, there was a toll…
I was just 15 when Hemingway died in 1961 and was already aware of him. It’s almost impossible to believe a writer could be that famous today. I really started reading him in college, and have read most of his work. The stories may be his most lasting achievement, but it’s a mistake to dismiss the novels, as some do. His best novel is “A Farewell to Arms”, from that astonishing first paragraph to the bitter end. But I also love “The Sun Also Rises”, “For Whom the Bell Tolls”, and the posthumous “The Garden of Eden”. In non-fiction I could never get much interested in all the stuff about Africa and bullfighting, but I do love “A Moveable Feast”.
Ken Burns’s work has always impressed me, and “Hemingway” is one of his best. I’m hoping it will cause a renewal of interest in the books.
Michael, I think you will get your wish that interest in Hemingway’s books will increase. I can easily imagine High School and College English teachers showing Ken Burns’ Hemingway to their classes in conjunction with one of his books. I suspect Jeff Meyerson is right about The Old Man and the Sea being chosen to use in classrooms because it’s short and straight-forward.
I don’t think you have to be a fan of his work (which I am basically not) to find this enthralling. It is a look at the 20th century through a man very representative of that era. A time when men thought they had to hunt, drink, bully people and treat women badly to be manly. It also does a great job of showing how he worked. I love the commentators. I give it an A+. Michael above here has persuaded me to reread him. Maybe a renewed interest in him will make his novels better for me.
Patti, like Steve, I admire Hemingway’s short stories. He brought something new to writing short stories. Unlike Jeff Meyerson, I have not read Hemingway’s letters, but now I’m tempted to do so.
I love collections of letters. Not all, obviously, but some of them really show a lot about a person. I’ve read all the collections of Henry James letters edited by Leon Edel too.
Jeff, I occasionally read letter collections. Today’s WALL STREET JOURNAL recommends the new Volume 3 of Robert Frost’s letters.
Patti, that should be SOME men “thought they had to hunt, drink, bully people and treat women badly to be manly.” Not all, only a certain type.
Insecure men, to be sure. Getting his bell rung probably didn’t help, but he had an unfortunate start towards machismo as a kid.
Todd, and don’t forget all the alcohol Hemingway and the writers of that time (like Fitzgerald) consumed.
And how many still do. After I learned how many writers hear voices in their heads, atop all the other artist and human struggles, and how alcohol can quiet them, I realized, I believe, why alcoholism tends to be so pervasive among writers.
When I worked for the Red Cross, I met a guy who used to do legal work for Hemingway. According to him, he had a helluva time convincing the locals in Key West that Hemingway was, in fact, going to keep the house that had been in his ex-wife’s family for many years. He said there was a lot of ill-feeling, and somne talk of totrching the place.
Now, of course, Henmingway is a cottage industry in Key West.
Dan, love that story! Diane has been to Key West and saw all the Hemingway tourist traps!
We visited the house on Whitehead Street, saw the family six-toed cats, Hemingway’s typewriter, etc. It’s across from Truman’s Little White House at the very south end of town. Sloppy Joe’s moved from its original location around the corner. The original location is now the home of Captain Tony’s Saloon, made famous by Jimmy Buffett (who got his start there) in “Last Mango in Paris.”
If you have a cat allergy, stay far from that house in Key West. The original cats have left their great, great, great grandchildren there. There must be fifty or more. Also interesting in Key West was Truman’s summer white house.
Patti, cats are my Number One allergy. That’s why Diane went to Key West…and I didn’t!
That’s funny, I mentioned the cats and Truman before I read your comment. We’ve also taken the Conch Train, seen the Aquarium (and petted a shark), and seen most of the rest of Key West. I almost convinced Jackie to take a trip from there to the Dry Tortugas (70 miles west of Key West), where Dr. Samuel Mudd was imprisoned for his (alleged) role in the assassination of Lincoln, but after he got seasick on a boat trip we decided against it.
We watched the first part last night, and enjoyed it though of course some of it is rough. I have no tolerance for bull fighting or hunting (except with camera) so I ignore that. I read The Old Man and the Sea in high school, liked it, have read some of the short stories (I’m working my way through a collection) including the Nick Adams ones, a couple of novels. I didn’t finish Death In the Afternoon. We’ll watch the second part in a couple of days, probably. It’s very good.
Rick, I’ve been impressed with everything Ken Burns has produced for PBS.
JAZZ was a lumpy pudding of missed opportunity and, toward the end, of misinformation.
Todd, I confess that I didn’t watch JAZZ. But I have heard the same criticism you make from others.
I watched all three episodes and realized how little Hemingway I actually have read. Like you, I didn’t know that he had so many head injuries, which probably were concussions that led to some of his erratic behaviour in the later years. I enjoyed visiting the house in Key West about 10 years ago and seeing where he wrote. Think I will dig up the short story collections and read some of his early stories.
Kent, I believe Hemingway did his best work in those short stories of his.
Hemingway said the only real sports are bullfighting, mountaineering, and motor sports! The rest are just games!
Bob, I can agree with Hemingway on his differentiation of sports and games.
You can safely infer that this tends to magnify the flaws in his other work for me. I have to wonder how much of what was good about HEMINGWAY that I saw was the work of his partners…since Burns’s ignorance of jazz led him to be led around by Crouch and Marsalis, not the most reliable of historians of the music.
Todd, my ignorance about Jazz exceeds Ken Burns’.
Yes, while I enjoy Burns’ work, I sometimes wonder about the people he brings in as experts. One in particular on Hemingway was unknown to me. If I remember correctly, some baseball historians had questions about some of “experts” on his baseball series. I thought the country music series was quite good except for too much related to Johnny Cash. Seemed to be an effort to try to connect him to every aspect of C&W.
Kent, Todd Mason didn’t like Burns’ JAZZ. I don’t know enough about Jazz to render an opinion on that series.