Hemingway's Finale.

I have just been listening to The Restored Edition of Enerst Hemingway's A Moveable Feast, the last book worked on by Ernest Hemingway shortly before his death. It is a Simon and Schuster audio with a preface by Patrick Hemingway (his son) and an inttroduction by Sean Hemingway (his grandson).

Although Hemingway worked on this last work, he was unable to finish the book or select the title since his memory had been erased by the electric shock treatments he received at the Mayo clinic. As Hemingway said it wouldn't be so bad to lose your memory if you didn't realize you had lost it, but to realize you had lost it without having a memory was unbearable.

The title was selected by his final wife, Mary Hemingway, who also provided editing and the title for the first release in 1964. Some editing has been retained with other changes not deemed relative to the author, dismissed.

I got to thinking how appropriate it would have been if this book had been reproduced in a final Fine Press edition by the Limited Editions Club. For after all, is not The Limited Editions Club itself A Moveable Feast.

That would truly be a fantastic fine press book!

Yes, and I think it is one which could be illustrated with archival photographs of people and Paris scenes. Photogaphs of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, Ford Madox Ford, and Gertrude Stein would be in order, as well as Hemingway's first two wives.

I doubt if you have seen many negative reviews since the editing had mostly to do with rearranging chapters chronologically and substituting the second person for the third person as the author probably wanted.

The last chapter, which Hemingway never wrote, was changed to present Sean's grandmother, Pauline, in a more favorable light. Hemingway's history, along with his posthumously published novel, the Garden of Eden, has set out the menage a trois experienced by first wife, Hadley, Hemingway himself, and second wife, Pauline. The book is a masterpiece and the last chapter doesn't matter since Hemingway didn't write it. I don't particularly like Sean's fiddling with the last chapter, but he was asked to do this by his Uncle Patrick, Hemingway's son, and his literary executor after the death of Mary Hemingway. But whether you read the 1964 version or the 1909 version, the book is still a masterpiece, and the last chapter in both versions was not written by Hemingway. Your suggestion that Sean's edited version garnered negative reviews is just not true, unless you take the last chapter as the delineating chapter for the entire book, which it was not.

Easton Press published the Complete Works of Hemingway in a beautiful 20-volume set. While not letterpress, it was an excellent set. You can see some pictures here

http://www.veryfinebooks.com/Easton_Press_HEMINGWAY_WORKS_Leather_Bound_p/470-12...

If you click on the link you will undoubtedly notice the extravagant price. The set can be expensive, but I've heard of people who have managed to snag good deals on ebay.

I had the Hemingway set, but was forced to sell it for lack of room. It was the one where every book was bound differently. It was a good deal for the buyer. Also sold the Easton scott fitzgerald set. Fortunately, I had read all of both sets. Now if I could just sell the Easton reprint of the LEC shakespeare. At $850 plus postage it is a steal!

The set you linked to is not the one to buy. You want the earlier set with all the different bindings. The oneyou are showing looks like a set of encyclopedias.

I'm not familiar with an earlier set? In this set each cover is unique and beautiful, and there are original illustrations (or at least an original frontispiece). Did the set you have include all 20 volumes?

All but one. I can't remember the title. Light of Day or something like that. His first posthumous novel, the Garden of Evil was included. I still believe the older set is the one to acqure.

Just read the critique from the Huffington Press. The critic's shorts must have been fitting him to tight. The first nineteen chapters were the same, but Sean did a hatchet job? I still stick by my earlier post. Sean should have left well enough alone. but he didn't ruin the book. Anyone who is familiar with Hemingway and has read Garden of Eden knows that Ernest had a three-way sexual situation with wife #1 and #2. This did not need to be edited out or omitted, but the book is kind to Hadley when she and Ernest were in love and in Paris in the early years. Also, before they got into their trois a menage, Hadley and Pauline were more than likely lovers. The book doesn't deserve the scathing critique given in the Huffington. In fact it reads as if the critic had not read the book, but just wanted to be nasty to probably the greatest writer of the 20th century.

The critique by A. E. Hotchner is probably the best. He points out the whitewashed final chapter and let's it go at that.

10-11: thanks, I did not know they even had produced this older set! That said, I have to admit I'm partial to the newer set. I really like the embossed covers, and the fact that they are all of similar color gives it a consistency which looks great. To each their own of course :)

Since I don't own it any more, I probably don't have a Hemingway preference. My only reget is that his greatest novel, The Sun Also Rises, is not available as an LEC. Just listened to it on You Tube the other day which makes my sixth reading of the book. That doesn't mean I don't like For Whom the Bell Tolls, but I prefer the earlier Sun.

I'm glad both Gatsby and Tender were both published as an LEC, although the cover design of Gatsby is lacking. Would have liked to have seen a book of Fitzgerald's short stories as well as selected Hemingway stories, but at least I was able to read all of both before selling them. Read all of them twice as a matter of fact.

eclecticindulgence:
I probably owe an apology. You probably read some bad reviews, but most were unwarranted. I have read up through Chapter 19 of the revised Movable Feast, and have not noticed a significant difference between the 1964 edition and the newer revised edition. The differences seem to reside mostly, and probably only, in the last chapter which Hemingway did not write in either volume. The scathing review in Huffington, to my mind, was totally uncalled for.

Also, Sean Hemingway wasted his time and the readers by attempting to protect his grandmother's reputation. As I said before, all Hemingway's afficianadios were already aware of Hemingway's hree-way affair with wife's #1 and #2. If you want to know more about it, read The Garden of Eden; while fiction, the essence of the story is there. I imagine that Sean's trying to protect his grandmother extended to her death after she had had an upsetting phone call from Hemingway. But he had not called her about their past indiscretions, but about the third son who was taking drugs and was an alcoholic. He was also a transexual who underwent some changes in sex later on.