My Brother, Ernest Hemingway

Leicester Hemingway

My Brother, Ernest Hemingway was the only biography Ernest knew about, and he was pleased with it--although he asked his brother to postpone publication while he was still alive. First published in 1962, Leicester’s biography provides a revealing and intimate portrait of one of the great writers of our century. Ernest Hemingway was a legend in his own time, whose life was as dramatic as any of the characters in his novels and short stories. He won both the Nobel and the Pulitzer prizes for literature, and the literary style he created has been imitated but never matched.

Leicester was the archetypal kid brother, 16 years younger than the great man, whom he adored and in whose footsteps he followed, becoming a respected writer, sharing his brother’s love for high risk and adventure, and, when his health failed, choosing to end his own life as Ernest had done. In this poignant biography, Leicester has given us insight into his world-renowned brother’s life and career as no one else could. His reminiscences allow us to better understand what prompted so many of the familiar Hemingway responses, and the experiences from which he derived material for his novels and stories.

“With an engaging style, unique access to family documents, and the understanding that only a younger brother could possess, the author provides a sensitive portrait of the public and private character of one of the greatest American writers. This edition, containing letters and family documents never before published, will intrigue both literary scholars and the general public. It deserves a place on the bookshelf of every serious reader.” — James Nagel, Eidson Distinguished Professor of American Literature at the University of Georgia, author of Hemingway in Love in War (soon to be a major motion picture) and several definitive studies of Hemingway’s work

“This remarkable memoir has a special place on my Hemingway shelf, for it is a resource that no scholar, no library, no one interested in Hemingway should be without. Here is the insider’s view that no biography can duplicate. This new and fuller edition will replace my own worn and tattered copy.” — Michael Reynolds, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies at North Carolina State University, author of numerous articles and books on Hemingway including a serial biography on the author, and a member of the editorial board of The Hemingway Review

Praise for the first edition of My Brother, Ernest Hemingway:

“Does the customary biographical things and does them skillfully, but it does more also — it presents information about the Hemingway who is actually expressed in his books. Here is biographical relevance with aesthetic relevance.” — Colin Campbell, Christian Science Monitor

“Much in this chronicle is familiar in outline but fresh in detail — the older brother’s offhand remarks to the younger, an aspiring writer, on reading and writing; happy days fishing in the Caribbean and grim and cosmic ones at war; and boasting, fighting, working, drinking, hunting. The best and less-than-best of one of the most famous American writers of his century is in these pages.” — J. K. Hutchens, New York Herald Tribune Books

Hardbound $21.95 ISBN 1-56164-098-0 Size: 5 1/2 x 8 1/4 292 Pages 16 pages b&w photos