A Moveable Book
July 22, 2009 11:23 PM Subscribe
A new edition of Hemingway's memoir A Moveable Feast, edited by the author's grandson, purports to complete the book as Hemingway intended it.
Reviews are
mixed. Now, the man who wrote the book on Hemingway and gave A Moveable Feast its title claims that the new edition is merely an attempt to by the editor to censor the negative portrayal of his grandmother.
Hemingway Reassures Fitzgerald About His Penis:posted by pracowity at 12:33 AM on July 23, 2009 [5 favorites]
There certainly are some priceless stories in there about Hemingway and Fitzgerald. Personally, I like the disastrous roadtrip.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 12:38 AM on July 23, 2009
posted by Solon and Thanks at 12:38 AM on July 23, 2009
I'd always heard that A Moveable Feast was pieced together by fragments after the author's death, so I was surprised, when I read in the Hotchner Op-Ed this weekend, that the book was ready for publication before Heminway's death. There is certainly a discrepancy between Hotchner's claim that Hemingway worried that the book needed a final sentence, and the grandson's position that Mary Hemingway, "cobbled the manuscript together from shards of an unfinished work and that she created the final chapter."
posted by ActingTheGoat at 12:41 AM on July 23, 2009
posted by ActingTheGoat at 12:41 AM on July 23, 2009
That last New York Times link is incredible -- I was not expecting the complete awesomeness that begins with this sentence: "In 1956, Ernest and I were having lunch at the Ritz in Paris with Charles Ritz, the hotel's chairman, when Charley asked if Ernest was aware that a trunk of his was in the basement storage room, left there in 1930." What an enjoyable read!
Big tangent, but I know one of the few craftswomen who worked on those customised trunks for Vuitton. She retired to the south of France to be with her mother, who was my previous apartment building's "grandma", which is how we met. The two of them have some great stories about their life in Paris too.
posted by fraula at 1:08 AM on July 23, 2009
Big tangent, but I know one of the few craftswomen who worked on those customised trunks for Vuitton. She retired to the south of France to be with her mother, who was my previous apartment building's "grandma", which is how we met. The two of them have some great stories about their life in Paris too.
posted by fraula at 1:08 AM on July 23, 2009
What fraula said. That's one way to win an argument, no?
posted by bardic at 1:58 AM on July 23, 2009
posted by bardic at 1:58 AM on July 23, 2009
I really need to read Hemmingway again. It's been too many years. I'll skip the edited version of A Moveable Feast, though.
posted by maxwelton at 3:02 AM on July 23, 2009
posted by maxwelton at 3:02 AM on July 23, 2009
Hemmingway would be a good pseudonym for someone writing Hemingway spoofs...
I just reread A Moveable Feast, and, frankly, really began to dislike Hemingway a lot in the last chapters. Here he was, in the 1950s, bullying Scott Fitzgerald, who was a dead and almost forgotten artist of a previous generation, on its way to making a comeback.
How insecure can you be, if you choose to pick your fights with the death? If you just piss on the man who helped you in he editing of your first novel, and getting the thing published?
posted by ijsbrand at 4:37 AM on July 23, 2009
I just reread A Moveable Feast, and, frankly, really began to dislike Hemingway a lot in the last chapters. Here he was, in the 1950s, bullying Scott Fitzgerald, who was a dead and almost forgotten artist of a previous generation, on its way to making a comeback.
How insecure can you be, if you choose to pick your fights with the death? If you just piss on the man who helped you in he editing of your first novel, and getting the thing published?
posted by ijsbrand at 4:37 AM on July 23, 2009
The issue of which is the authentic final draft of a text totally fascinates me. This also came up with Noel Polk's "restored" version of All The King's Men (e.g.).
posted by prefpara at 6:09 AM on July 23, 2009
posted by prefpara at 6:09 AM on July 23, 2009
How insecure can you be, if you choose to pick your fights with the death?
But Hemingway didn't publish it. He hemmed. You can't be sure how much of this thing he would have published, and it what final form, had he not put a shotgun to his head first.
posted by pracowity at 6:21 AM on July 23, 2009
But Hemingway didn't publish it. He hemmed. You can't be sure how much of this thing he would have published, and it what final form, had he not put a shotgun to his head first.
posted by pracowity at 6:21 AM on July 23, 2009
ijsbrand: How insecure can you be, if you choose to pick your fights with the death? If you just piss on the man who helped you in he editing of your first novel, and getting the thing published?
You are overlooking how absolutely hilarious it is, though.
posted by shakespeherian at 6:36 AM on July 23, 2009
You are overlooking how absolutely hilarious it is, though.
posted by shakespeherian at 6:36 AM on July 23, 2009
I prefer Woody Allen's commentary: http://www.ibras.dk/comedy/allen.htm#Lost
posted by jefficator at 7:22 AM on July 23, 2009
posted by jefficator at 7:22 AM on July 23, 2009
For sale: Edited Hemingway. Final draft?
posted by never used baby shoes at 7:48 AM on July 23, 2009
posted by never used baby shoes at 7:48 AM on July 23, 2009
never used baby shoes: For sale: Edited Hemingway. Final draft?
I consider this eponysterical since your username always reminds me of that story.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:49 AM on July 23, 2009
I consider this eponysterical since your username always reminds me of that story.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:49 AM on July 23, 2009
I haven't yet read "A Moveable Feast" but it's always been on my list to get to someday, because I love reading about that period of time in Paris. Thanks for this post, because now I know which edition to avoid!
posted by dnash at 8:08 AM on July 23, 2009
posted by dnash at 8:08 AM on July 23, 2009
I haven't yet read "A Moveable Feast" but it's always been on my list to get to someday, because I love reading about that period of time in Paris.
If you want to double up, Hemingway dips a little from the same well in part of Islands in the Stream. It's characters sitting around reminiscing about Paris, but still interesting.
posted by COBRA! at 8:13 AM on July 23, 2009
If you want to double up, Hemingway dips a little from the same well in part of Islands in the Stream. It's characters sitting around reminiscing about Paris, but still interesting.
posted by COBRA! at 8:13 AM on July 23, 2009
This is bad advertising for the revised edition; nothing sells better then bad news, scandal and gossip. I am curious to know how many people after reading this article will go out and purchase the original edition of this book because their curiosity has been peaked. I added A Moveable Feast (the original version) to my reading list, sorry grandma Hemingway.
posted by tothemoon at 9:22 AM on July 23, 2009
posted by tothemoon at 9:22 AM on July 23, 2009
To anyone interested in Hemingway's early years in Paris, I highly recommend Hemingway: the Paris Years by Michael Reynolds.
posted by marxchivist at 9:28 AM on July 23, 2009
posted by marxchivist at 9:28 AM on July 23, 2009
I just reread A Moveable Feast, and, frankly, really began to dislike Hemingway a lot in the last chapters. Here he was, in the 1950s, bullying Scott Fitzgerald, who was a dead and almost forgotten artist of a previous generation, on its way to making a comeback.
Not only that, most of the stuff about Fitzgerald is half-truths at best. The penis thing almost certainly didn't happen that way, if it happened at all.
posted by drjimmy11 at 9:56 AM on July 23, 2009
Not only that, most of the stuff about Fitzgerald is half-truths at best. The penis thing almost certainly didn't happen that way, if it happened at all.
posted by drjimmy11 at 9:56 AM on July 23, 2009
"Zelda said that the way I was built I could never make any woman happy and that was what upset her originally. She said it was a matter of measurements. I have never felt the same since she said that and I have to know truly."
Dude, F. Scott, trust me. Women say that shit to me all the time, and that hasn't stopped me from having a good time.
posted by Telf at 10:44 AM on July 23, 2009
Dude, F. Scott, trust me. Women say that shit to me all the time, and that hasn't stopped me from having a good time.
posted by Telf at 10:44 AM on July 23, 2009
Makes me want to go back and re-read A Moveable Feast. Thanks.
posted by blucevalo at 11:20 AM on July 23, 2009
posted by blucevalo at 11:20 AM on July 23, 2009
F. Scott freaking out and losing his mind over anything Zelda said was apparently what got him into most of his difficulties in the first place.
posted by blucevalo at 11:22 AM on July 23, 2009
posted by blucevalo at 11:22 AM on July 23, 2009
The penis thing almost certainly didn't happen that way, if it happened at all.
How do you reckon?
posted by pracowity at 11:53 AM on July 23, 2009
How do you reckon?
posted by pracowity at 11:53 AM on July 23, 2009
He was there?
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:11 PM on July 23, 2009
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:11 PM on July 23, 2009
Here's the grandson's essay about the new edition at Powells.com/
posted by LeLiLo at 8:44 PM on July 23, 2009
posted by LeLiLo at 8:44 PM on July 23, 2009
If I recall correctly, there was a scene in which Hemingway dropped in on Stein & Toklas unannounced, was let in by the help, but then slipped back out before anyone came down to meet him because he heard Stein talking like he'd never heard one person talk to another. Something to that effect. What the hell were we supposed to make of that? Or did I dream it?
posted by pracowity at 6:14 AM on July 24, 2009
posted by pracowity at 6:14 AM on July 24, 2009
That sounds exactly like a reliable Gertrude Stein anecdote.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:42 AM on July 24, 2009
posted by shakespeherian at 7:42 AM on July 24, 2009
What the hell were we supposed to make of that? Or did I dream it?
That Gertrude Stein had the power to drive Ernest Hemingway insane in 25 seconds flat?
posted by blucevalo at 8:24 AM on July 24, 2009
That Gertrude Stein had the power to drive Ernest Hemingway insane in 25 seconds flat?
posted by blucevalo at 8:24 AM on July 24, 2009
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