Hemingway's Boat: Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost, 1934-1961

(Paperback)

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This is a literary tour de force, an invaluable, unforgettable and original portrait of Ernest Hemingway and his beloved boat, Pilar. THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 'She'd been intimately his, and he hers, for twenty-seven years - which were his final twenty-seven years. She'd lasted through three wives, the Nobel Prize, and all his ruin. He'd owned her, fished her, worked her and rode her, from the waters of Key West to the Bahamas to the Dry Tortugas to the north coast and archipelagos of Cuba.' Even in his most accomplished period, Hemingway carried within him the seeds of his tragic decline and throughout this period he had one constant - his beloved boat, Pilar. The boat represented and witnessed everything he loved in life - virility, deep-sea fishing, access to his beloved ocean, freedom, women and booze and the formative years of his children. Paul Hendrickson focuses on the period from 1934 to 1961, from the pinnacle of Hemingway's fame to his suicide. He has delved into the life of Hemingway and done the seemingly impossible- present him to us in a whole new light.

Reviews

Rich, magisterial... Unforgettable -- Ed Caesar * Sunday Times *
This is the best, most understanding portrait of Hemingway yet written -- Allan Massie * Telegraph *
To use Hemingway's favourite term of praise, it is not just enthralling, it is 'fine' -- Michael Prodger * Financial Times *
Masterly... Heartbreaking... Brilliant * New York Times *
Bewitchingly beautiful... Hendrickson is a miraculously lovely writer. He twists and turns through time, moving sensitively between the books and life. -- Olivia Laing * Observer *

Author Bio

Paul Hendrickson is the prize-winning author of Seminary; Looking for the Light; The Living and the Dead and Sons of Mississippi. He currently teaches non-fiction writing at the University of Pennsylvania and for two decades before that he was a staff writer at the Washington Post.