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Book SynopsisAn Ernest Hemingway Biography Like No Other“...illuminates his life and works in ways not seen before.” —Sigrid Nunez, National Book Award winner and author of The Friend and What Are You Going Through
#1 New Release in Historical Latin America Biographies
Discover Hemingway’s biography through the eyes of a fellow author and journalist. New York Times bestselling author of Salt, Mark Kurlansky turns his historical eye to the life of Ernest Hemingway. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, The Importance of Not Being Ernest shows the huge shadow Hemingway casts.
The perfect gift for writers. By a series of coincidences, Mark Kurlansky’s life has always been intertwined with Ernest Hemingway's legend, starting with being in Idaho the day of Hemingway’s death. The Importance of Not Being Ernest explores the intersections between Hemingway’s and Kurlansky’s lives, resulting in creative accounts of two inspiring writing careers. Travel the world with Mark Kurlansky and Ernest Hemingway in this personal memoir, where Kurlansky details his ten years in Paris and his time as a journalist in Spain—both cities important to Hemingway’s adventurous life and prolific writing.
Paris, Basque Country, Havana and Idaho. Get to know the extraordinary people he met there—those who had also fallen under the Hemingway spell, including a Vietnam veteran suffering from the same syndrome the author did, two winners of the Key West Hemingway look-alike contest, and the man in Idaho who took Hemingway hunting and fishing.
In this unique gift for writers, find:
- A memoir full of entertaining and illuminative stories
- Little-known historical facts about Hemingway’s life
- Anecdotes about those who suffer from what the Kurlansky calls “hemitis”
Readers of Haruki Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley in Search of America, or The Boys will love The Importance of Not Being Ernest.
Trade Review“Kurlansky (Salt: A World History) focuses on all of the coincidental intersections between his life and Ernest Hemingway’s in this multi-genre work. Part travel memoir, part history, it trapeses through France, Spain, Cuba, Idaho, and finally New York, connecting literary and moments and personal experiences in Kurlansky’s and Hemingway’s lives. Reports from Kurlansky’s and Hemingway’s careers as foreign correspondents, then expats, in Spain and Paris blend seamlessly with Kurlansky’s descriptions of regional conflicts and cultures, and each chapter is connected by watercolor stills from Kurlansky’s travel diaries, which add an authentic touch to the storytelling. Beyond his astute humor, Kurlansky handles the contradictions between ‘Hemingway, the man’ and ‘Hemingway, the myth’ with genuine reverence and a critical eye. He gives us another lens through which to view Hemingway’s work: geography; he argues that Hemingway himself impacted the places he traveled as much as did his writing. VERDICT: An absolute delight! Full of personality, Kurlansky’s book will enchant history, literature, and Hemingway fans alike."
—Library Journal, Starred Review
“The ghost of Hemingway has haunted and inspired at least three generations of American writers. Mark Kurlansky is no exception, and his detailed, self-deprecating account of the presence of that ghost is as brilliantly revealing of Hemingway as it is of Kurlansky himself. He knows his Hemingway, the life and the works, and he knows his Kurlansky, and he’s bitingly honest about both writers. Kurlansky, however, comes off as a hell of a lot more likable.”
—Russell Banks, author of Continental Drift, Cloudsplitter, and Lost Memory of Skin
“For all that’s already been written about Hemingway,The Importance of Not Being Ernest illuminates his life and works in ways not seen before. Our Not-Ernest is a superbly knowledgeable and entertaining guide, and the book artfully braids the Hemingway narrative with Kurlansky’s own rich experiences as a world-traveling journalist and bestselling author. Kurlansky’s idea for a memoir was inspired; the result is a brilliant and original achievement, a feast for readers, whether fans of Papa or not.”
—Sigrid Nunez, author of the National Book Award-winning novel, The Friend, and What Are You Going Through
Table of ContentsPROLOGUE: A Dream Intrudes
CHAPTER ONE: Entrances and Exits
CHAPTER TWO: A Writer Must Escape
CHAPTER THREE: The Grass in Paris
CHAPTER FOUR: The Patent-leather Soul of Spain
CHAPTER FIVE: Cuba and the Unspeakable Feast
CHAPTER SIX: Idaho and the Last Escape
EPILOGUE: Unnatural New York
BIBLIOGRAPHY
