Michael Reynolds - The Young Hemingway

T HE
Y OUNG H EMINGWAY

the end precedes the beginning,
And the end and the beginning were always there
Before the beginning and after the end.
And all is always now.

T. S. Eliot

Michael Reynolds

For
Raymond Douglas Reynolds
and
Teresa Barbara Reynolds

Like most books, this biography is built on the past, resting on foundations laid down by others. Some earlier scholars did parts of the life so well that I found nothing substantially new to add. Charles Fenton, for example, did a thorough job on Hemingways experience in Kansas City and Toronto portions of the early life noticeably elided in this book. Some earlier books, like Carlos Bakers Ernest Hemingway: A Life Study, I have absorbed so completely that it would be impossible to credit every point of debt. Other books, like Bernice Kerts excellent Hemingways Women, were published after I had started writing this biography. I chose to wait until I was finished writing before reading them. If, at times, I do not cite secondary sources, it is because I returned to the primary sources on which earlier scholars drew.

I am most grateful to Mary Hemingway for opening the rich Hemingway Collection at the John F. Kennedy Library to scholars. I am in her debt for previous permissions (1974, 1977, 1980) to quote from this collection, permissions which I have also exercized in this volume. I have also drawn on all excerpts from Hemingway manuscripts and letters previously in print. I am equally grateful to the Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas for permission to quote from their Hemingway family collection. I must also thank the numerous librarians at the Lilly, Firestone and Newberry libraries; the archivists at Mary Institute and Washington University in St. Louis; and interlibrary loan at North Carolina State Universitys D. H. Hill Library, all of whom assisted me at crucial stages. Equally important was the collection of Hadley Richardson Hemingway letters which her son John Hemingway made public at the Kennedy Library and for the use of which I am deeply grateful. Her letters are copyrighted in the name of John Hemingway.

I must also thank American Literature for previously publishing Hemingways Home: Depression and Suicide, which appears here in somewhat different form, and the English Department at North Carolina State, who gave me the time to write this book.

Like most books, this one could not have been written without the support of friends whose contributions can be counted but not measured: Scott Donaldson, who corrected countless errors in substance and style; Paul Smith, whose suggestions for revision were always right, even the ones I did not follow; Jim Hinkle, whose sharp eye picked the nits out; Carlos Baker, whose example, encouragement and help over the years have set a standard in this profession, and who generously shared his rich files with me; Jo August and her successor at the Kennedy Library, Joan OConnor, whose interest and assistance were priceless; Stephan Chambers at Basil Blackwell, who insisted and persisted when I could not make a decision; and Bob Bradford, who dug out curious details when I had need of them.

Above, beyond all duty was my good wife, Ann Reynolds, who was with me in the research, spotting crucial points I missed, and who lived with me that year in the book when we were very happy. Even better, she was there post-partem when the doubts began. Home, as Eliot told us, is where one starts from, always.

Michael Reynolds
Raleigh, North Carolina