Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois, in July of 1899. Hemingway was the first born child of Dr. Clarence Edmonds and Grace Hall Hemingway. Despite Mrs. Hemingway’s strong musical influences, during young Hemingway’s high school years he discovered his passion for writing. Moreover, he began writing for the school’s newspaper called the Tabula and ended up editing it during his senior year. After high school, Hemingway became a reporter for The Kansas Star. Six months later, he quit his job as a reporter to join the Red Cross Ambulance Corps. Until 1918, when his career ended as an ambulance driver, when he was struck by a trench mortar shell, which he was later received a Silver Medal for assisting victims despite his own injuries. In 1920, Hemingway returned home shorty, and by the advice of a mutual friend, he married Hadley Richardson. Soon after, Hadley and Ernest settled in Paris, which sets the stage for his book called A Moveable Feast. In this book Hemingway shows his loyalties towards his faithful friends.
The first friend Hemingway introduces is Miss Gertrude Stein. Miss Stein and her companion lived in an upscale garden apartment. This lend Hemingway to question Stein’s sexuality. Regardless, Hemingway enjoyed his talks with Stein about different painters and writers. Miss Stein called Hemingway’s writing inaccrochable and refers to it as something a painter would paint but could not sell. On one occasion Miss Stein brought up the topic of homosexuals and how it was only appropriate for women because, “They do nothing that they are disgusted by...and they can lead lives together,” which leads the reader to question her sexuality. In the chapter A Strange Goodbye, Hemingway over hears a fight while waiting at Stein’s front door. He hears Stein asking “pussy” to please stay, which might confirm she question sexuality.
Sylvia Beach, was the owner of Shakespeare and Company, a book store. Hemingway and Beach’s friendship spawned from her pure kindness. During their first conversation Beach acknowledges Hemingway’s finical status by his address, and makes humorous small talk about restaurants in the area. He was bedazzled by how she allowed him to barrow her books without first paying the deposit. Thrilled by this great book store Hemingway hurries home to tell his wife, who insists that the debt be repaid at once. Afterwards, Hemingway stopped by the book store to check his mail, and become discouraged by the lack of profit from his book sold in Germany. This discouragement lead to Hemingway unloading some of his money troubles on Beach. Although the book does not mention it, this may be where Beach begins to lend him money.
Hemingway’s first meet with Scott Fitzgerald, ends with him fainting on a bar. Apparently, this was a lasting impression on Hemingway, and he agrees to go on a paid for trip with Fitzgerald. Hemingway was enthusiastic about the trip and thought, “sense I had not yet read, The Great Gatsby, I thought of him as a much older writer,” he would soon be disappointed. Ready to leave for Lyon, Hemingway found no sign of Fitzgerald, and decides to continue on the journey. Days later Hemingway finally meets up with Fitzgerald and realizes this is not the paid for trip promised to him, yet he decides to make the best of the situation. While on the car ride back to Paris, Fitzgerald falls into a drunken stupor, Hemingway is then forced to take care of the withering Fitzgerald. Throughout, all of Fitzgerald’s complaints, Hemingway continues to try lift his spirits.
Hemingway befriends a writer named Ezra Pound. Although, Hemingway did not understand Pound’s taste for art, he still admired Pound’s kindness. Since Pound has already befriended the writers within the area, Hemingway happily takes his advice on how to deal with the worst of them. Pound tries to inspire other people’s kindness, with his charity called “Bel Esprit.” A program he started to help out a fellow writer who has no time to write because of his long hours at the bank. Bel Esprit is a collection of people gathering, money to help T. S. Eliot find the time to write. Hemingway did not have the same enthusiasm as Pound did about Bel Sprit. Regardless of whether he annoyed Pound with his nickname for the writer, “Major Eliot,” Hemingway was active member of the Bel Esprit. Thanks to the publication of The Waste Land, Pound’s Bel Esprit, helped free Eliot from his job at the bank.
Hemingway doesn't seem to show the same loyalties as spouse. In the beginning of the book it seemed that Hadley was his best friend, this bond slowly starts to fade as the book continues. In the opening chapters, Hemingway took his wife out “racing” to gamble on horses or they would go on walks together. Often Hemingway admired the things like private toilet that she gave up to be with him. Even still Hemingway never mentions how Hadley was heiress to a trust fund. Seamlessly Hemingway’s attention shifts to patrons at the cafes he frequents so often. As time goes on the couple start to miss connections and the only real time the spend together is on their vacations. On one occasion Hadley and son were sent out to vacation early and while away Hemingway acquired a new love interest.
Hemingway faithfulness prevails as a friend, yet isn’t quite as bold as a husband. This book took Hemingway nearly 3 years to finish. The time line of this book and the characters pertaining to it, is roughly from 1921 to 1926 in the city of Paris. Even though in the Preface of this book Hemingway mentions how all of these characters might be fictional, when indeed they are not, but the thing to remember is this on side of the story. As Hemingway’s health starts to decline he moves from Cuba to Idaho. In 1961, just two day after being released from the hospital, from his last suicide attempt, Hemingway deliberately shot himself with his favorite shotgun. It wasn’t until three years after Hemingway’s death that A Moveable Feast was first published. Until 2009, when Hemingway’s son published a rewritten edition of the same book that supposedly was the last draft Hemingway ever worked on.
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