Ernest Hemingway

Children's Literature

Hemingway's adventurous life and personal relationships provided the subject matter for his novels. What this biography does best is illustrate that connection. Hemingway lived each minute to the fullest, participating courageously in two wars, running with the bulls in Spain, socializing with famous artists in Paris, and hunting and fishing throughout the world. He gave meaning to these remarkable experiences with a clear writing style that won him the Nobel Prize for a new narrative voice that was as powerful as it was concise. This biography also reveals the troubled life that often overshadowed his literary success. Readers will discover a robust sportsman, a daring adventurer and a dedicated writer whose goal was always to write "one true sentence." They will also encounter a moody, boastful and heavy-drinking man whose amorous affairs led to four marriages and whose depression led to suicide. Yannuzzi's treatment of his flaws is straightforward and non-judgmental, not unlike Hemingway's own method of "writing in clear sentences without explaining or overstating too much." Readers will gain an interesting and fair overview of the legendary author in this addition to the "People to Know" series. It includes black-and-white family photographs, index, notes, chronology and additional reading. 1998, Enslow, $20.95. Ages 11 to 15. Reviewer:Betty Hicks

School Library Journal

Gr 6-10-After reading this biography, even those unfamiliar with Hemingway will discover how his vivid and adventurous life impacted his writing. The stories he wrote were peopled with the characters he met along life's unpredictable pathways, including his four wives. As Yannuzzi explains, that life is what made Hemingway a legend and a masterful storyteller, but it is also what eventually led to the writer's tragic demise. The text is enhanced by average-quality black-and-white photographs, the majority of which are of Hemingway and his family. The list for further reading includes three Internet sites. While the style is not especially lively, the text is clear and unbiased, and the details of Hemingway's life keep readers turning pages.-Linda Wadleigh, Oconee County Middle School, Watkinsville, GA

Kirkus Reviews

Part of the People to Know series, this biography of Hemingway begins with his reemergence as a writer, after a ten-year hiatus, with The Old Man and the Sea, then travels back to his childhood, early journalistic experiences, and adventures in WWI. Most of the rest of the book covers his writing, his series of wives, his failing health, and eventual suicide. Yannuzzi (Zora Neale Hurston, 1996, etc.) does not gloss over Hemingway's human failings, but neither does she judge him. The result is a straightforward telling of the highlights of his troubled life. The consequence of the dual focus on Hemingway as artist and adventurer is that neither side of his personality is explored in great depth, but the facts are presented clearly and fluidly, and readers gain an especially good sense of his daily routine and the pleasures of his life. (b&w photos, not seen, chronology, further reading, notes, index) (Biography. 11-13)