The Ways of Hemingway’s Heart

A new account of Hemingway’s love life—which famously spanned four marriages and could be said to include complex relationships with a number of male confidants—is forthcoming from A.E. Hochner, one of Hemingway’s dear friends in the last years of his life. The book is based in part on recorded conversations with the author, and serves as a counterpart to Hochner’s first memoir Papa Hemingway, which helped craft the popular image of the terse, ultra-masculine American novelist. Hemingway scholars are reserving judgment, however, noting that Hemingway became increasingly paranoid and depressed in his final years, meaning that reflections from the end may not accurately portray his experiences—especially about his first wife Hadley, about whom he romanticized more and more with age.