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Hemingway and Me: Letters, Anecdotes, and Memories of a Life-Changing Friendship
When Ernest Hemingway died on July 2, 1961, Mary Hemingway asked the Hemingway’s good friend, journalist Leonard Lyons, to announce the death of the Nobel Prize-winner to stunned readers and admirer everywhere. Both Hemingways admired Lyons for his fidelity to the truth, that “he would get the story right.” (As it turns out the “truth” was not quite what it seemed, since Mary initially denied that her husband’s death was suicide.) This memoir recounts the quarter-century long friendship between Hemingway and Leonard Lyons, which eventually came to include Lyons’s wife and three sons. In this short book Jeffrey Lyons recounts visits to Hemingway in Cuba (where “Papa” first taught him how to shoot a gun) as well as nights out with the great writer at such popular New York watering holes as the Stork Club and Toots Shor’s. Throughout the book Hemingway comes across as a hard-working, generous, and thoughtful man of letters, and not the gruff, hard drinking beast perpetually looking for a fight that he was often perceived as. This is a book about friendship, loyalty, and trust between a famed novelist and a working journalist and his family.
160 pages, Hardcover
Published May 1, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 3, 2021
Uncle Jeffrey's latest book is a look-back and celebration of the warm friendship between my Grandfather, New York Post columnist Leonard Lyons, and the iconic writer Ernest Hemingway. It's also an exploration of what that friendship brought to each other, as well as the life of Jeffery Lyons himself. "Hemingway and Me: Letters, Anecdotes, and Memories of a Life-Changing Friendship" has much to offer in terms of both education as well as inspiration.
Using research, private letters, Leonard Lyons' columns as well as first hand personal experience, Jeffrey Lyons shares with his reader not only the story of how my svelte, New York City born-and-raised Grandpa Leonard befriended the "barrel-chested" midwestern adventure-seeker, hunter-fighter-drinker-storyteller man's man Ernest Hemingway, but also of Uncle Jeff's passion for Hemingway-related exploits like traveling through Spain, and most importantly bullfighting.
Reading "Hemingway and Me: Letters, Anecdotes, and Memories of a Life-Changing Friendship," you will experience amusing anecdotes featuring movie stars like Marlene Dietrich, Marlon Brando, Ava Gardner and Gary Cooper, as well as tales featuring legendary Spanish bullfighters past and present. However it's the subtext of it all that is most revealing. Underneath the letters, columns, and notable names is the genuine warmth, admiration and full friendship found between Grandpa Leonard and Hemingway. These two very different men, from radically different backgrounds and custom to contrasting habits, somehow found a way to meet, connect and bond in a profound way.
From what I gathered from "Hemingway and Me: Letters, Anecdotes, and Memories of a Life-Changing Friendship," both Lyons and Hemingway shared a love of letters and correspondence, a passion for New York and its night clubs and restaurants, as well an appreciation for feats of strength (i.e. bullfighting, boxing, etc...), world travel, history and family.
The author's enthusiasm for Hemingway, for his father Leonard and his NY post columns, and for all things Spain and bullfighting is rampant throughout the book. The book is called "Hemingway and Me...," and the "Me" part of the title is important, as it expresses the fact that this story of Ernest Hemingway, Leonard Lyons, Cuba, Spain and the great bullfighters of history is very much Jeffery Lyons' version of events, as he gathered and researched it, as he experienced and remembered it, and as how he sees it all now, today. Far from a shortcoming, this personal, subjective take makes "Hemingway and Me: Letters, Anecdotes, and Memories of a Life-Changing Friendship" all the more worth reading. It also inspires one to explore the works of Ernest Hemingway in its entirety.
Using research, private letters, Leonard Lyons' columns as well as first hand personal experience, Jeffrey Lyons shares with his reader not only the story of how my svelte, New York City born-and-raised Grandpa Leonard befriended the "barrel-chested" midwestern adventure-seeker, hunter-fighter-drinker-storyteller man's man Ernest Hemingway, but also of Uncle Jeff's passion for Hemingway-related exploits like traveling through Spain, and most importantly bullfighting.
Reading "Hemingway and Me: Letters, Anecdotes, and Memories of a Life-Changing Friendship," you will experience amusing anecdotes featuring movie stars like Marlene Dietrich, Marlon Brando, Ava Gardner and Gary Cooper, as well as tales featuring legendary Spanish bullfighters past and present. However it's the subtext of it all that is most revealing. Underneath the letters, columns, and notable names is the genuine warmth, admiration and full friendship found between Grandpa Leonard and Hemingway. These two very different men, from radically different backgrounds and custom to contrasting habits, somehow found a way to meet, connect and bond in a profound way.
From what I gathered from "Hemingway and Me: Letters, Anecdotes, and Memories of a Life-Changing Friendship," both Lyons and Hemingway shared a love of letters and correspondence, a passion for New York and its night clubs and restaurants, as well an appreciation for feats of strength (i.e. bullfighting, boxing, etc...), world travel, history and family.
The author's enthusiasm for Hemingway, for his father Leonard and his NY post columns, and for all things Spain and bullfighting is rampant throughout the book. The book is called "Hemingway and Me...," and the "Me" part of the title is important, as it expresses the fact that this story of Ernest Hemingway, Leonard Lyons, Cuba, Spain and the great bullfighters of history is very much Jeffery Lyons' version of events, as he gathered and researched it, as he experienced and remembered it, and as how he sees it all now, today. Far from a shortcoming, this personal, subjective take makes "Hemingway and Me: Letters, Anecdotes, and Memories of a Life-Changing Friendship" all the more worth reading. It also inspires one to explore the works of Ernest Hemingway in its entirety.
July 27, 2021
Jeffrey Lyons the film critic son of columnist Sydney Lyons writes of his family and their friendship with "Papa" Hemingway. Also Lyons compiles a list of famous actors who have portrayed the legendary author.
April 6, 2026
The idea here is a memoir built around the friendship of the author's father with Hemingway. The father wrote a society column for many years and Hemingway would supply him with the occasional anecdote or tall tale which would then appear in the column. The two men met occasionally and exchanged letters for many years. Apparently the elder Lyons and Lyons the younger believed everything Hemingway sent them or told them. Not a good idea from a guy who admitted he liked to exagerate the truth to keep things interesting. He was a story-teller by profession after all.
When the author was seven he went with his family to Cuba and met Hemingway in person. This book refers to some of the letters and columns and quotes a few in full, while many others are only referred to briefly. The book would be better served if all of this material was quoted in full, since they form the basis of interest of the entire book.
The brief encounter with Hemingway is presented as life-changing. And it is an interesting anecdote. But more has to be done to make it meaningful. The book is really about the father and Hemingway.
The writing is light and breezy, and at times sloppy and even incoherent. Wasn't this thing copy edited and proofed?
The friendship story is overlaid into biographical material, mainly of Hemingway, and that material is riddled with errors. The mistakes are so bad that I began to wonder if this book was meant as comedy, as a parody of Hemingway memoirs. The writer claims to have done research, but if so that research was very poor. The mistakes never stop coming. It is ridiculous.
The book is good for the occasional bit of quoted correspondence. If Lyons had gone a little deeper into the friendship and his and even his father's own feelings and thoughts, the book would have been much better, but he keeps it shallow, surface level only, which at least helps keep it a quick read.
When the author was seven he went with his family to Cuba and met Hemingway in person. This book refers to some of the letters and columns and quotes a few in full, while many others are only referred to briefly. The book would be better served if all of this material was quoted in full, since they form the basis of interest of the entire book.
The brief encounter with Hemingway is presented as life-changing. And it is an interesting anecdote. But more has to be done to make it meaningful. The book is really about the father and Hemingway.
The writing is light and breezy, and at times sloppy and even incoherent. Wasn't this thing copy edited and proofed?
The friendship story is overlaid into biographical material, mainly of Hemingway, and that material is riddled with errors. The mistakes are so bad that I began to wonder if this book was meant as comedy, as a parody of Hemingway memoirs. The writer claims to have done research, but if so that research was very poor. The mistakes never stop coming. It is ridiculous.
The book is good for the occasional bit of quoted correspondence. If Lyons had gone a little deeper into the friendship and his and even his father's own feelings and thoughts, the book would have been much better, but he keeps it shallow, surface level only, which at least helps keep it a quick read.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews