Ernest Hemmingway: A Life Story by Carlos Baker
Ernest Hemmingway: A Life Story by Carlos Baker
Hardcover, ISBN 9781122020671
Publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons: NY 1969
Used - Very Good. Beautiful blue fabric boards with gilt and red lettering on face and spine which is slightly faded. No dust jacket. Small name card inserted by previous owner on ffep.
"What can anyone say about this man's life? It was filled with incredible acts of bravery and foolhardiness. He was at once gentle and kind and belligerent and cruel, depending on how much alcohol he had had at the time. He took ridiculous risks but managed to live through them though he was not unscathed. His body took a terrible hammering during the course of his life and it reminded him of that abuse more and more the older he became. He had a wonderful wife but allowed himself to fall in love with another woman whom he later cursed for being a rich predator. The only woman who seems to have stood up to him was Martha Gellhorn: that marriage was a mistake. And yet he didn't bad mouth her like he did the mother of two of his three children. He was away from home on fishing expeditions for weeks at a time. He went on safaris and killed lots of beautiful animals. He lived in Cuba up until Castro took over and the repression began. Of course, he understood that before Castro the dictatorship was corrupt and vile. But he understood and accepted the terrible behavior of man. When the Murphy's lost one of their children to a childhood disease, he consoled them by remarking that the child never had to learn what a vile world this really is. He worked very hard and to keep his sanity he was active every second he was not writing. He wrote excellent books and terrible books. And through it all his kept up an immense correspondence because he loved getting missives from others. This book answered the one question I had about Hemingway: why did he kill himself. He was developing dementia and had gone through a series of electric shock treatments in an attempt to shake him out of his depression. He made a number of attempts to get his hands on a gun before his final successful suicide. He took control of his destiny and that is another admirable thing about him. "
