So far this year we have seen two major new publications on Ernest Hemingway. Most recently we have seen Volume One of Hemingway’s complete letters, and earlier in the year Lemuria had the honor of hosting an event for Dr. Edgar Grissom to honor the publication of his descriptive bibliography for Ernest Hemingway. As if to give us a well-rounded year, this fall we have the publication of Hemingway’s Boat: Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost, 1934-1961 by Paul Hendrickson. As we get ready for a signing and reading with Paul Tuesday evening at 5:00, enjoy this review by our friend Dr. Ed Grissom. -Lisa

A Guest Post by Dr. Edgar Grissom

I have been waiting for a work like Hemingway’s Boat while not really expecting to ever see it. I have long hoped that the right individual might emerge who would posses the skill to conduct the dogged research necessary to get beyond the blinding Hemingway mythology and posses the skill to authentically portray the person, the real human being. No psychobabble involved just a portrayal of the man with all his weakness and strengths. No second guessing about how events may have occurred but rather the explicit unfolding of the events.

Hemingway the chameleon has made it difficult for any author to see beyond the many blinding colors. And no author had yet removed their ego from their rendition of Hemingway. I believe that Paul Hendrickson has accomplished this better than anyone who has ever attempted it. And there have been many, many such attempts. And that he at the same time produced such a delightful and impeccably crafted work is doubly impressive.

This is a work brimming with new information that tugs the reader’s heart that begs to be savored in small bites that engages the senses at every turn.

Paul Hendrickson has my admiration.

-Edgar Grissom

Notes:

Hemingway’s Boat: Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost, 1934-1961 (Knopf, September 2011) is also Lemuria’s First Edition Club pick for the month of December.

On Tuesday, Decemeber 6th Lemuria is proud to host a signing and reading at 5:00 and 5:30 for Paul Hendrickson. Some of Paul’s previous publications include Sons of Mississippi: A Story of Race and Its Legacy and The Living and the Dead: Robert McNamara and Five Lives of a Lost War (1996 finalist for the National Book Award)

Notable Hemingway Publications in 2011

See the trade edition of The Letters of Ernest Hemingway, 1907-1922 (Cambridge, September 2011), edited by Sandra Spanier and Robert W. Trogdon.

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Also see Cambridge’s collector’s edition of The Letters of Ernest Hemingway, 1907-1922

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Ernest Hemingway: A Descriptive Bibliographyby C. Edgar Grissom (Oak Knoll Press, June 2011)

See two previous posts on Dr. Grissom and the event at Lemuria: One from John and another from Lisa.

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