cover image Fitzgerald and Hemingway: A Dangerous Friendship

Fitzgerald and Hemingway: A Dangerous Friendship

Matthew J. Bruccoli. Carroll & Graf Publishers, $21.95 (236pp) ISBN 978-0-7867-0077-6

Removal of publication restrictions on Hemingway's correspondence inspired Bruccoli to provide this update on the friendship between the two literary figures depicted in his 1978 book Scott and Ernest. Hemingway and Fitzgerald first met in Paris in 1925, and Fitzgerald, who had already published The Great Gatsby, recommended Hemingway to his editor, Maxwell Perkins. Despite Fitzgerald's literary success, their relationship was based on his admiration for Hemingway, who was appalled by Fitzgerald's rocky marriage to Zelda and his lack of writing discipline. Bruccoli offers excerpts from Hemingway's letters to Fitzgerald and Perkins as evidence that Hemingway's unflattering portrait of Fitzgerald in A Moveable Feast was distorted. Although Fitzgerald's alcoholism strained their friendship, Bruccoli argues that Hemingway's intense dislike of Zelda, whom he blamed for her husband's heavy drinking, and his harsh criticism of Fitzgerald's writing also weakened the tie between them. Of interest primarily to dedicated devotees. Illustrations. (Sept.)