Ernest Hemingway: A life story - Carlos Baker

This biography brings into sharp focus a picture of one of the most unusual men of our time, whose immense gusto spanned six full decades. The life of Ernest Hemingway, previously blurred by legends and half-truths, has never until now been represented as it was, nor has the relationship between his actual experiences and his works of fiction been shown in its true perspective.

To the task of separating Hemingway the man and artist from the myths about him, Carlos Baker brings the patience and judgment of a professional scholar and the finesse and insight of an experienced novelist. He has been able to draw on sources hithero unavailable, such as Hemingway's own diaries, letters and unpublished  works, and the personal testimony of the artists and writers, sportsmen and soldiers, and indeed all the men and women, famous or obscure, who played a part in Hemingway's extraordinary career.

The result is a biography rich in new information and fresh insights, one which will shake the conceptions of many who have held an over-simplified view of Hemingway or have accepted uncritically some of the popular legends about his life. For behind the myths and the mystique lay a personality of baffling complexity - volcanic, mercurial, frequently tortured, consumed with anxiety, ever active, and above all, always interesting. 

Few readers will not experience a profound sense of shock at the total unpredictability of the man, including his extremes of callousness and kindness to those closest to him.. Yet from the beginning Hemingway possessed a personal magnetism of astonishing power, and for most of his adult life this quality drew clusters of the famous and the near-famous around him. To the phenomenon - Hemingway human and artistic - which was Ernest Hemingway, Carlos Baker brings an unexcelled knowledge of the writer and his work.