Shelby Foote once told me that the two greatest influences on the written English language were Shakespeare and Hemingway. I understood what he meant. Sunbury Press has released the first volume of a two-volume biography of Ernest Hemingway from birth through the publication of his first novel by Charles Scribner’s Sons. I suppose my biography of Hemingway is personal, how can any biography not be, but mostly I focus upon his development as a writer interleaved with the development of the “modern movement” in literature, which had a profound effect upon him, and I end it soon after the publication of The Sun Also Rises, which I believe brought “modern literature” into the cultural mainstream. He had a very strong personality, was complex, and also shrewd and driven, but he was a great artist and as Diego Rivera once said, “The great artist loves people and Mankind.” There were so many other interesting people encountered in his life that I couldn’t resist delving into them also. My hope is that it gives light and understanding to an extraordinary man and his remarkable achievement, and, also, that readers find it enjoyable. 

Unbridled Dreamer