Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy, by Nicholas Reynolds, is a highly readable account of Ernest Hemingway's last 25 years.
WRITER, SAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY
Nicholas Reynolds
HarperCollins
By OLIVER RIDDELL
There have been very few top journalists who were also top writers of fiction, but
one such was the American writer Ernest Hemingway, whose adventurous and successful life has spawned a number of books, including this very readable account of his last 25 years.
Hemingway, who first sprang to international fame as a war correspondent during World War 1, was known for writing about the Spanish Civil War, the United States in World War 2, the Castro revolution in Cuba, the Bay of Pigs fiasco and big game fishing
All this was pretty well known about him. But the collapse of the Soviet Union opened the files on his attachment to Russia and his work for the Russians, although it would not be true to call him a "traitor'', the dictionary definition of which is one who fights for his country's enemies or supplies those enemies with classified information.
On neither ground did Hemingway qualify. A more accurate description would be "fellow traveller'', a description which the author vehemently denies.
It is a term of deep opprobrium in the United States, especially for left-wing fellow travellers.
Hemingway saw himself as a patriot, but he came to loathe the United States Government after 1935 when a hurricane in Florida killed hundreds of relief workers following the indifference or incompetence of the federal Government to their fate as the hurricane approached.
His favour to Russia shines through his work on Spain and Cuba.
Fear of his country's discovery of this aspect of his life was the driver of his suicide in 1961.
A cynic might wonder if a distinction existed between a journalist and a novelist.
So far has the reputation of journalists sunk in the 21st century that any distinction might be questioned. I am afraid that is a recent phenomenon.
Hemingway himself was quite clear about what he was. He emerges in this biography as a man of integrity, if perhaps a bit naive and an innocent.
He saw himself as a patriot but also how his motives might be questioned.
Oliver Riddell is a retired journalist in Wellington.
