Hemingway and the Mechanism of Fame: Statements, Public Letters, Introductions, Forewords, Prefaces, Blurbs, Reviews, And Endorsements

by Matthew J. Bruccoli (Editor), Judith S. Baughman (Editor)

Ernest Hemingway was famous for being famous. He assiduously cultivated different and sometimes divergent personae--sportsman, soldier, aesthetician, patriot, drinker, womanizer, intellectual, anti-intellectual, sage, brawler, world traveler, war correspondent, big-game hunter, and even author--each chosen to foster his place in the American cultural consciousness and support the sales of his books. In every role he projected the insider's air of authority and expertise that was presumed credible, even when not wholly deserved. His success in these self-legendizing efforts to couple nonliterary celebrity with literary stature is evident in his continued fame among those familiar and unfamiliar with his books. Hemingway and the Mechanism of Fame assembles Hemingway's public writings about himself, all framed as documents of support for or criticism of other people and other products. Comprising fifty-four public statements and letters; twenty introductions, forewords, and prefaces; and twenty-nine book blurbs, reviews, and product endorsements, the collection chronicles the means by which Hemingway advanced his own standing through these literary and extraliterary writings. From his commercial endorsements for the Parker 51 pen and Ballantine ale to his Nobel Prize acceptance statement and commentary on President Kennedy's inauguration, Hemingway shows himself to be an expert marketing strategist, infusing each piece with thoughtfully crafted autobiography designed to engage his public and promote his image. Arranged in chronological order and spanning more than forty years, the selections in this volume map the development of Hemingway's most complex, studied, criticized, parodied, andcelebrated fictional character: Ernest Hemingway himself.

184 pages, Hardcover

First published November 30, 2005

About the author

Matthew Joseph Bruccoli was an American professor of English at the University of South Carolina. He was the preeminent expert on F. Scott Fitzgerald. He also wrote about writers such as Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe and John O'Hara, and was editor of the 'Dictionary of Literary Biography'.

Bruccoli's interest in Fitzgerald began in 1947 when he heard a radio broadcast of Fitzgerald's short story 'The Diamond as Big as the Ritz'. That week he tracked down a copy of 'The Great Gatsby', "and I have been reading it ever since," he told interviewers. Bruccoli graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1949, and studied at Cornell University where one of his professors was Vladimir Nabokov and at Yale University where he was a founder member of the fledgling Manuscript Society, graduating in 1953. He was awarded a master's degree and doctorate from the University of Virginia in 1960. Bruccoli, who also taught at the University of Virginia and the Ohio State University, spent nearly four decades teaching at the University of South Carolina. He lived in Columbia, South Carolina, where, according to his New York Times obituary, he "cut a dash on campus, instantly recognizable by his vintage red Mercedes convertible, Brooks Brothers suits, Groucho mustache and bristling crew cut that dated to his Yale days. His untamed Bronx accent also set him apart" (Grimes).

Over the course of his career, he authored over 50 books on F. Scott Fitzgerald and other literary figures. His 1981 biography of Fitzgerald, Some 'Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald', is considered the standard Fitzgerald biography. He has edited many of Fitzgerald's works, from 'This Side of Paradise' to Fitzgerald's unfinished final novel, 'The Love of the Last Tycoon'. Bruccoli has also edited Scott's wife Zelda Fitzgerald's only novel 'Save Me the Waltz'.

While studying Fitzgerald, Bruccoli and his wife Arlyn began to collect all manner of Fitzgerald memorabilia. Bruccoli owned the artist's copy of Celestial Eyes, the cover art by Francis Cugat which appeared on the first edition, and most modern editions, of The Great Gatsby. In 1969, Bruccoli befriended F. Scott and Zelda's daughter Frances "Scottie" Fitzgerald. In 1976, Bruccoli and the Fitzgeralds' daughter Scottie (as Scottie Fitzgerald Smith) published The Romantic Egoists, from the scrapbooks that F. Scott and Zelda had maintained throughout their lives of photographs and book reviews. Later in life Bruccoli and his wife donated their collection to the Thomas Cooper Library at USC. The collection is valued at nearly $2 million.

Bruccoli was general editor of the 'Pittsburgh Series in Bibliography', published by the University of Pittsburgh Press. As part of this series, he produced 'F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Descriptive Bibliography' and, with Richard Layman, 'Ring W. Lardner: A Descriptive Bibliography' (1976). A working draft of the Lardner book was prepared in the summer of 1973 by Bruccoli.

Along with Richard Layman, a Dashiell Hammett scholar and former graduate assistant, and businessman C. E. Frazer Clark, Jr., Bruccoli launched the 'Dictionary of Literary Biography'. The 400-volume reference work contains biographies of more than 12,000 literary figures from antiquity to modern times.

Bruccoli continued working at the University of South Carolina until being diagnosed with a brain tumor, and died June 4, 2008.

Reviews

[Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hemingway-iana for the Hemingway-phile.

This is not for the casual Hemingway reader, but if you are enough of a Hemingway-phile that you've read that he wrote introductions to such books as Kiki of Montparnasse's Kiki's Memoirs and Jimmie the Barman's This Must Be the Place this is a convenient collection to find all sorts of those shorter pieces ranging from short 1-sentence book blurbs to full-length articles such as "Who Killed the Vets?"

It is not quite complete though and a short list of what is missing would have been of help. For instance, the Chronology in the book lists an introduction to the 1942 book Men at War, but that introduction itself is missing from this collection. Still, it has most everything else that I've ever heard or read about in Hemingway biographies and much more besides.

So, this is recommended for those who've read everything else and need a fix before the next volume of the Hemingway Library Edition (expanded edition of Green Hills of Africa: The Hemingway Library Edition due in the Summer 2015 or of the The Letters of Ernest Hemingway: Volume 2, 1923 1925 i.e. Volume III are published.

[Antti Tähtinen · Rating 3 out of 5]

”The writer’s job is to tell the truth…” and truth be told, this was a dull book. 🤷🏼‍♂️

[Valerie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection featuring Hemingway writing book blurbs. His writing was petulant, rambling, and full of insider jokes. The book blurbs were not about the author or book but about EH settling old scores or trying to outshine another writer's expertise.