Portrait of Hemingway

by Lillian Ross

On May 13, 1950, Lillian Ross's first portrait of Ernest Hemingway was published in The New Yorker. It was an account of two days Hemingway spent in New York in 1949 on his way from Havana to Europe. This candid and affectionate profile was tremendously controversial at the time, to the great surprise of its author. Booklist said, "The piece immediately conveys to the reader the kind of man Hemingway was--hard-hitting, warm, and exuberantly alive." It remains the classic eyewitness account of the legendary writer, and it is reproduced here with the preface Lillian Ross prepared for an edition of Portrait in 1961.
        
Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, and to celebrate the centenary of this event, Ms. Ross has written a second portrait of Hemingway for The New Yorker, detailing the friendship the two struck up after the completion of the first piece. It is included here in an amended form. Together, these two works establish the definitive sketch of one of America's greatest writers.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Journalism, Memoir, Classics, History

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1950

About the author

Lillian Ross was an American journalist and author, who was a staff writer at The New Yorker from 1945 until she retired.

Librarians note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Fergus, Weaver of Autistic Webs · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this short piece (the first part at least - the second wasn't available to me then) in the languid summer of 1968. Whether it was my parent's recommendation that I take a speed reading course, I don't remember, but I did - and this along with Galbraith's Affluent Society was our reading.

You folks must sense that I was barking up the wrong tree.

My problem was not so much dim concentration, but my desultory desire to Think while Reading - thus slowly and ponderously. The problem's real name was Dr. Asperger. So it goes.

Hemingway was a Technicolor Colossus of a man, my reading told me. So why was I just a mixed-up scatterbrain? Well, the reality as I was later to discover in my reading was that Papa Hemingway was as deeply conflicted as I was. And know what? Maybe we all are, more or less.

I think that without our conflicts we couldn't enjoy a good novel, for example. Life's no picnic. And it's far from easy. Our craving for ease, you know, has led us, as Finnigans Wake says, by "a commodius Vicus of Recirculation... Back to Eve and Adam's" - the place of doom.

The fall of man keeps recurring, and we're all accident prone. The Daemon Knows Us, to paraphrase Harold Bloom.

But now our craving for Raw Life is at a peak. Why are we always afraid of the same old, same old? Maybe, like Hemingway, we're afraid of ourselves.

I know I was. All my life I was foisted on the petard of an undying lust for life...

Now no longer. I now crave the light. The daemonic shadows aren't for me...

But, alas. They became quite real for the effervescent Titan, Hemingway.

Who was he?

He didn't know.

But his Daemon knew:

He was a sad soul ripe for the picking.

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

September 20, 2017 Update: RIP Lillian Ross (June 8, 1918 – September 20, 2017)
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...
Link to the original Hemingway article is still working as of September 2017. See https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/19...

Hemingway, warts and all

I looked up Lillian Ross's Ernest Hemingway portrait article at The New Yorker because I was intrigued by a reference to it in Paul Hendrickson's 2011 book "Hemingway's Boat". In the book, Hendrickson wrote: "So much has been written over the last six decades about Ross's profile, a precursor to what we think of as New Journalism. lt ran on May 13, 1950, and is titled "How Do You Like It Now, Gentlemen?", which is what Hemingway keeps saying aloud in the story—but to whom, and why, it isn't wholly clear."

The 1950 article is published as part of the 1999 book "Portrait of Hemingway" where it is the central piece. There is a 1961 Preface and a 1999 Afterword that have been added for the book. Ross's affection for Hemingway comes through in all of the pieces but most especially in the Afterward where she reminisces about her entire friendship with both Ernest Hemingway and his last wife Mary and the kindness and encouragement she received from them for her own writing.

For the central story, Ross meets the Hemingways at Idlewild Airport and then spends two days with them in Manhattan while they are in transit between their home at the Finca Vigia in Cuba and a trip to Venice, Italy. "How Do You Like It Now, Gentlemen?" does make Ernest Hemingway come across as a bit of a clown at first, starting with his speaking in early Hollywood Movie Indian English at the airport and the insistent downing of three doubles of bourbon & water at the airport bar before the cab ride into Manhattan. Two bottles of champagne are also consumed that first night followed by a bottle of wine at a late lunch the next day. Perhaps due to the amount of alcohol intake, Mary Hemingway is a bit befuddled when she can't identify her own mother as being someone named Adeline who has sent flowers to greet the couple on their arrival at their hotel. This last bit is covered up in the 1999 book version where the mother is identified immediately, but the original confusion can still be read in the archived New Yorker online version of the article*. Marlene Dietrich makes a cameo appearance in the article as a visitor to the Hemingway's hotel suite on the first night where she shares tales of her grandchild. Hemingway's publisher Charles Scribner Jr. and middle son Patrick Hemingway also make appearances.

The Hemingways and Lillian Ross were taken aback when some people were shocked by the portrait's first appearance. Those readers likely expected their literary icons to be held up with more esteem and pretense and not be described as scraggly bearded and wearing various ill-fitting bathrobes or coats and consuming alcohol at any available moment. The Hemingways had a right of editing to the story though and only used it for a minor detail (which didn't even originally correct the mix-up about Mary Hemingway's mother) according to Lillian Ross, so you have to admire their willingness to allow the truth to be printed. This is something present-day press agents and handlers would never allow. You may feel a bit bemused and saddened by some bits, but the whole book does leave you liking the Hemingways and not only for their generosity towards a young aspiring writer.

*access to this is via the summary screen at http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1950...
(originally posted Sept. 2013, update: link was still working as of August 2015)

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd heard this was a hatchet job, but instead it is as the author wrote:

...I tried to describe as precisely as possible how Hemingway, who had the nerve to be like nobody else on earth, looked and sounded when he was in action, talking between work periods -- to give a picture of the man as he was, in his uniqueness and with his vitality and his enormous spirit of fun intact. -- intro, p 14

Mission accomplished, and it should be noted that this occurred close to the end of his life and also after he had finished up writing --

"After you finish a book, you know, you're dead," he said moodily. "But no one knows you're dead. All they see is the irresponsibility that comes in after the terrible responsibility of writing." p 25

so give him -- and her -- a break.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this short item over the course of two days. Basically, the author is a fly-on-the-wall with Hemingway over the course of his two-day layover in New York between Cuba and Europe. Also, there is a forward and an afterword by the author; the latter of which is as interesting as the main story itself.

I wasn't real thrilled with the sections that dealt with shooting guns and fighting, but he was who he was. What I did like was that although he accepts that he is seen as Hemingway the famous author, he does despair of not being recognized for himself. I'm not much of a Hemingway fan, but found this read quite worthwhile!

[Mustapha Safadieh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This started off as an interview piece, but was later expanded to sixty-eight pages. Lillian Ross does a decent job of capturing Hemingway in his early fifties, immensely successful and in the process of editing his latest manuscript (at the time.) This was recommended to me by my English professor for the description it features, but I can't help but feel like Ross portrays Hemingway in a manner too... whimsical. He's like a wise, over-grown child, and all characters but himself and Ross treat him as such. A lot of the things she quotes Hemingway on caught my attention, including the little snippets of his conversations with F. Scott Fitzgerald and his own personal philosophies ("Who the hell should care about saving his soul when it is a man's duty to lose it intelligently...") He's an excellent writer, and commands both an air of success and a lack of interest in anything negative. Ross captures this side of him brilliantly, and while it may have been better as a shorter article or a larger narrative, I greatly enjoyed the reassurance behind the lifestyle of one of the more controversial writers of the time, and the undeniable vitality that seems to ooze off of him, despite his sickness and age.

["Fifty," Hemingway said, "on reconsideration, is not supposed to be old. It is sort of fun to be fifty and feel you are going to defend the title again,” he said. “I won it in the twenties and defended it in the thirties and the forties, and I don’t mind at all defending it in the fifties.”]

[Jeff Keehr · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read years ago that one of the reasons Hemingway killed himself is that after a lifetime of injuries, he was in such horrible physical condition that he couldn't stand to be alive. I am about halfway through the Carlos Baker biography and Hemingway has received many grievous injuries, beginning with the wounds to his legs when he was an ambulance driver in the Spanish Civil War. Years later, while riding as a passenger in a car that crashed, he received 57 stitches for a wound to his head. He suffered horrible headaches for months due to this injury, which included a concussion. During Lillian Ross's brief visit with the Hemingways in New York, they shared some meals and went shopping for a coat and visited the MOMA. Hemingway spoke like a child through much of this interview/visit. He seemed to be in good health, eating big meals and drinking constantly. But he seems to have been very careless about his physical well-being. This little cameo is interesting because you see the many sides of the artist: the child, the boxer, the competitive writer and the father. He refers to Ross as 'daughter,' which can be seen as endearing or condescending, depending on your interpretation of that noun. His wife refers to him as 'Papa.' But more often than not he behaves like a child. He was a jumble of contradictions and they are all revealed in this brief portrait.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a piece in the New Yorker magazine in the late 40's. I recently re-read it because Ms. Efron's book recounts an interaction with this author. The way she tells it, Ms. Lilian's bio of Hemingway was a scathing critique. The preface to this book acknowledges the controversy, but Ms. Ross disagrees, she claims it was written in a straightforward manner---not analyzing, just describing. This, by the way, is one of the traits I find contribute to the bland about the style of writing in this magazine, to this day.

In any case, this profile is a detailed account of Ernest, and I like Ernest quite a bit. I am always happy for these kinds of literary insights. He does come across as a real ego, and his "jokey" way of talking is stupid sounding. There is not a whole lot to it, she follows him around NYC for a few days. He visits with his son and his publisher, goes to the museum, buys some clothes. Drinks a ton and talks talks talks.

I did not immediately realize the author was the mistress of Mr. Newyorker himself, William Shawn, and I did know about their relationship. They were not quite Hepburn and Tracy, but it seemed to work for her. Everyone hates her memoir about their life, though, so I will read that as soon as I can get my hands on it!

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

one of the funniest things i've ever read.

[Nora · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the first literary journalism pieces I have read, and it was great to see a personal side of Hemmingway. Very telling.

[Stephan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great fun to read this. Good writing.

[sendann · Rating 5 out of 5]

"for the children...." Awesome, hilarious, probably a bit insulting if you hold Hemingway sacred.

[Nick Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most darling and delicious piece. Ross will make you wish you lived in that era. The dialogue is just so pretty. Oh, Papa . . .

[Matt Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short, but fascinating.

[Molebatsi · Rating 5 out of 5]

PORTRAIT OF HEMINGWAY, BY LILLIAN ROSS
This is an account of two days spent by Ernest Hemingway in New York, en route to Europe from Cuba, in 1950. It was written for the New Yorker magazine by Lillian Ross, then twenty-five years old.
The profile starts with a preface that offers context on the Hemingways, Ernest and his wife Maria, from Ross’ perspective.
Hemingway rarely came to New York, except to pass through from somewhere to somewhere else. In this instance, he was from Cuba to Europe and would stop over in New York for some errands – visit the Bronx Zoo, Metropolitan Museum, Museum of Modern Art, aand Museum of Natural History, and see a bullfight.
Whilst on a stopover in New York, Hemingway plans to meet an old friend Marlene Dietrich, access and singer.
Lillian Ross would spend the two days with the Hemingways for this profile that would be published in the New Yorker and became an instant hit. The portrait would develop a life of its own and evoke all sorts of emotions, for and against it. Hemingway was said to be fine with it.
Ross meets up with the Hemingways at the airport and shadows them for their two days in New York. He didn’t like the city and called it phony. Paris in France and Venice in Italy, he called home.
Hemingway talks about the war, writing, and writers as he sips champagne in his hotel sitting with the Ross while his wife unpacks. Marlene Dietrich arrives and she and Hemingway catch up.
The following morning Hemingway calls Ross over to talk as his wife is still in bed.
On their last day in New York they visit the Metropolitan Museum where they view paintings by various masters – Fransesco Francia, Van Dyck, Reuben, Breughel, El Greco, Reynolds, Manet and others.
The viewing lasted two hours to the hotel for lunch and where Hemingway met his agent to sign the contract for his new book.

[Megan Lindemann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was originally a New York Times article by Lillian Ross in 1950. For 2 days, she ate, shopped, chatted and went to an art museum with Hemingway and his wife Mary. In the article, it was only what was done and said, there were no opinions given by Ross. After the article and for the book publication an afterward was written by Ross which gave a sweet synopsis of the friendship that blossomed from that initial New York meeting.
I have always enjoyed Hemingway's work (The Sun Also Rises being one of my favorite books) but know only a very base level of his life and what he was like as a person. Reading the way he talked and what he wrote in his letters to Ross was really like reading another one of his novels. He was not a "phony" as he would say and his work really did mirror how he saw it. One of my favorite parts of the article was when they were in a taxi going to the museum and Hemingway said that the birds in the city don't "fly like they really mean it."
I enjoyed reading this little glimpse into Hemingway's older life and it might actually persuade me enough to read the LARGE biography I have on my shelf.
I would not recommend this to anyone who hasn't read any of his work or has no interest in him.

[Kian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hemingway according to this acted like a character out of a Hemingway novel which doesn’t surprise me.

This was the first “portrait” I have read and it was so nicely written and so particular about certain things that i asked myself multiple times throughout how Rose could have remembered all those seemingly trivial details. Sweet and short (it was a new yorker article after all) Rose manages to capture the essence of Hemingway and makes him accessible to the audience in a way i haven’t seen often. Reminded me in some parts of “A Moveable Feast” which is quite fitting.

Well in the end i realized that being an author like hemingway means that you speak weirdly and mysteriously and then have some great quotes here and there. Something which I aspire to do more from now on.

[Nancy Chapple · Rating 4 out of 5]

She lets him talk; she describes him in that cool, distanced New Yorker style. Over two days in New York, he talks and talks. When he talks about writing, it's interesting: "When the people are talking, I can hardly write it fast enough or keep up with it, but with an almost unbearable high manifold pleasure. I put more inches on than she will take, and then fly her as near as I know to how she should be flown, only flying as crazy as really good pilots fly crazy sometimes." "The test of a book is how much good stuff you can throw away." "I learned to write by looking at paintings in the Luxembourg Museum in Paris. I never went past high school. When you've got a hungry gut and the museum is free, you go to the museum."

[Hannah Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

For receiving such criticism then for such a groundbreaking piece that contributed to new journalism… I genuinely think Ross, being one of the few women in this dominating field at the time, was criticized almost triple not because of her writing but because she was a woman, met their writing idol and portrayed him in a true but questioning light. Even Hemingway said he liked it and they became good friends in life but they wouldn’t give her a break :/

[Erin Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't read what this IS exactly before buying, so was surprised at how short it is. That's on me! The profile is great, but the afterword is really something. Written from a place of love that refuses hagiography and is truly true and honest and all those beautiful adjectives the big guy banged on about

[Sarp Nalbantoglu · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Who the hell should care about saving his soul when it is a man’s duty to lose it intelligently, the way you would sell a position you are defending, if you could not hold it, as expensively as possible, trying to make it the most expensive position that was ever sold. It isn’t hard to die […] No more worries […] It takes a pretty good man to make any sense when he’s dying.”

[Seamus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting but short little portrait of two days with Hemmingway in 1950, first written for a newspaper profile at the time. A sympathetic perspective. He seems a bit sad and lost, like his mind is already escaping him from his hard living and accidents.

[Bob Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insightful personality sketch of Ernest Hemingway, better known as Papa, to those closest to him. Ross had inside access to Hemingway during times with his family and friends. A fast read as it was such a short book.

[Emily Laurent-Monaghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting as a formal analysis of the 'profile' genre.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Knowing really nothing about Hemingway outside of his writing, this was a lovely introduction.

[Sergio Remon Alvarez · Rating 5 out of 5]

A preface and an afterword sandwiches the meat of this book which is a profile written for the New Yorker in nineteen-fifty by Lillian Ross. Lillian Ross would subsequently become a friend of the Hemingways. The profile, is of course, the main reason to read this book, as it captures Ernest Hemingway at a specific time in his life during a short stop to New York City while on his way to Venice. He shows up with a suitcase carrying a manuscript containing what would become "Across the River and Into the Trees." They go shopping at the Old Abercrombie and Fitch store for a jacket and bedroom slippers and where Hem runs into an old friend. He pontificates on the state of New York City (a city full of phonies) on certain boxers, and how his newest book might be as good as the Sun Also Rises and Farewell to Arms (as we all know, the critics subsequently disagreed). They go the Metropolitan Museum of Art and look at Rubens, Goyas, Cezannes and Degas among others and they meet up with Charles Scribner.

But the real gem of the book is contained in the preface and afterword. In the preface, Lillian Ross tells about the public reaction to the profile. People who hated Hemingway and his personality took it as a reaffirmation of everything they thought and hated about him. Certain people who loved Hemingway took the profile to be a vicious lampooning of their favorite author and person. Some, actually took it for what I was, an honest, unfiltered snapshot of the author over a span of two days. The afterword focuses on the ensuing relationship between Lillian Ross and the Hemingways and makes clear her opinions on the man; she was fond of him.

This book is not a critique on Ernest Hemingway. For that, "Papa, a personal Memoir" by Gregory Hemingway might be a better place to go. Instead,it is portrait of Ernest, and to a lesser extent, Mary, a shy Patrick and Charles Scribner, who, as it turns out, is a terrible shot (though not so bad he couldn't shoot a rabbit.)

[Paul]

This is actually just a New Yorker article with comments from the author. The story was considered scandalous when it came out in the early '50s, but it's just a kind, descriptive portrait of Hemingway that shows how affable and friendly he was and what a great correspondent he was. He hated days in which he got no letters.

Anyone who has read books about Hemingway's childhood, when his mother dressed him and his older sister in frilly dresses until he was old enough to figure out what the hell was going on, will welcome this portrait of a spirited, warm man who always talked in baseball or bullfighting analogies.

His wife Mary never believed he had committed suicide, but his father, who probably didn't like his son dressed in a dress and was under the thumb of his battleaxe wife, also committed suicide, so it was kind of a family tradition.

Gracefully written and both informative and entertaining.

[Todd Kinsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Insightful Read

I had read excerpts of Mrs. Ross' insightful interview with Earnest Hemingway a number of years ago. Somehow I stumbled across this short book and had to read the interview in its entirety.

Hemingway has long been one of my favorite writers and historical figures for that matter. Ross shows Earnest as he is with his family. Ross was given unprecedented access to the future Nobel winner. She shows that Hemingway is at once warm, playful, thoughtful, intelligent and an alcoholic egomaniac.

Hemingway was not ashamed of his biography which originally appeared in The New Yorker in the spring of 1950. Ross was a family friend and he wanted to show the world what he was really like, and the real Hemingway was a complex, multifaceted man. If you're a fan of Hemingway you may find yourself shocked yet amazed.

[Niket Mistry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been fascinated about Hemingway as a personality and a man from his potrayal in a movie called "Midnight in Paris" and his actual life completely resembled what I felt about Hemingway. Stark, clear, and an inncuously honest friend. The author Lillian Ross desrobes her brief encounters with Hemingway and his family without meddling with any type of fiction or story telling. My love for Hemingway grew more after reading this book.
A short, simple and precise experience of how Hemingway was a human being and his love for baseball, shooting and fighting.

[Emmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't like Hemingway. I don't like his books. Then, a coworker recommended I give him another chance. So, when I stumbled upon this book at a used bookshop, I decided to give it a go.

The interview, which was more of an experience than an interview, was surprisingly warm, touching, and vulnerable. In short, I loved it.

While I still haven't read or reread any of Hemingway's books since college, I'm going to give him a chance. If nothing else, I know I like "Papa" as a person.

[E Jeanne Harnois · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wanted to reread Lillian Ross's essay on Hemingway and couldn't find the anthology on my shelves, so I bought this book. I am so glad I did! The preface and afterward, both written by Ross, provide additional material about their friendship. Reading that material with the essay puts it in context and left me understanding Hemingway better and liking Lillian Ross even more than I did before.