The first folder in my writings is the non-fantasy, non-science fiction folder mostly non-fiction. My first edition was passed on to a friend whose favorite book was “A Movable Feast”, a discovery in a discussion about books we like. So I surprised her with the first ediont.
A Movable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Life is funny but not so much for Hemingway’s life in Paris during the 1920’s. I first read about this work in Tom Dardis’ The Thirsty Muse, a biographical musing about alcohol and writing, focusing on F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Eugene O'Neill with a nod to Ring Lardner Sr. In it Dardis talked about the relationship between Fitzgeral and Hemingway mentioning that Hemingway discussed it in A Movable Feast. Later I would read a biography about Gertrude Stein that would also mention Hemingway and A Movable Feast.
In the ensuing years I always meant to read this last work of Hemingway’s but just didn’t get around to it. Last year at a Friend’s of the Library sale, I purchased an older copy in their better books section for $4.00 and later picked up a newer copy forgetting about the older copy. During the summer, I finally put Feast in the reading queue and opened up the older copy. I’m always curious about used copies and what people have left in them or written in them. This copy had an inscription telling a friend they hoped they would enjoy the book. What caught my eye was the date 1964. Knowing Hemingway died in the early 60’s, 1961 to be exact and that A Movable Feast was published posthumously, I decided to take a closer look at my older copy. Seems that for $4.00, I had purchased a first edition Hemingway albeit posthumously. So instead of being the reading copy, it went up on display with my other collector item books. But it also made me determined to find my other copy and finally read about Hemingway’s life in Paris.
Feast was written at the end of Hemingway’s career reminiscing about the beginnings of his writing career in Paris. A. E. Hotchner wrote a biography about Hemingway noting that Hemingway was having trouble writing at the end, a fate that befell Fitzgerald. This drying up and not being able to market the book added to Hemingway’s depression. Combined with what seemed to be a growing paranoia that the FBI was keeping tabs on him after moving to Idaho led friends and family seeking help for Hemingway. This help included electroshock therapy which was to offset the paranoid delusion. Nowadays electroshock therapy is also tied to losing the more creative functions of the brain. Hotchner in a revised edition of his book added a chapter as a confession. In that chapter he disclosed that Hemingway wasn’t being delusional or paranoid about the FBI. In fact with the Freedom of Information Act of the 1970’s Hotchner read that they had been keeping tabs on Hemingway and there were FBI agents appearing monthly in the town Hemingway lived in.
Back to A Movable Feast. The book has a mixed tone and my interest would wax and wane depending on the chapter. My understanding was that Hemingway was taking old snippets and trying to rewrite them so that they would be marketable. The personal vignettes about himself and his wife, feel unfiltered but are also interesting only that you get a picture of Paris. The interactions seem quaint, stilted, wooden. They feel like a writer early in his career writing a slice of life piece without having found his voice.
The book comes more to life when Hemingway is writing about his interactions with others of the Lost Generation- Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald and others. There is an acknowledgement of their place in his life but also a disdain for them. His own insecurities also come through especially if you know a little about the man. There is a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde feel to these vignettes. Here was a man approaching his 60’s editing what he wrote in his 20s. Hemingway is writing the tales as if they are unfolding but then he is editing them knowing how the story ends. The most telling is the final chapters discussing his early times with F. Scott Fitzgerald with an allusion to rocky friendship going forward. He spends a little time exalting Fitzgerald's genius but then spends more time attacking his writing in an off handed manner and explaining why Fitzgerald couldn’t write after The Great Gatsby.
I’m glad I finally took the time to tackle Feast and it solidified some of my thoughts about Hemingway. As a friend said after researching a little about Fitzgerald and Hemingway, he could understand my fascination with the gentlemen. I’ve read more about them than actually reading their works.