A Way to Live Now

Book excerpt: A Way to Live Now juxtaposes the dual roles of fiction writer and journalist throughout the career of Ernest Hemingway. Focusing on the author’s appearances in Esquire over forty years, John Fenstermaker traces the evolving nature of Hemingway’s presence in its pages: first as the author of twenty-five essays (1933–1936) and six short stories (1936–1939), then as a popular subject for interactions among editors, subscribers, and critics (1933–1961), a process that continued posthumously with reprintings, miscellanea, and reader commentaries (1961–1973). Developing a friendship and correspondence with founding editor Arnold Gingrich, Hemingway contributed to twenty-eight of the magazine’s first thirty-three issues, including classic pieces such as “On the Blue Water” and “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.” Through Esquire, Fenstermaker finds a portal for tracing a documentary record of Hemingway as both writer and public figure. Filled with incisive commentaries on his roles as reporter, essayist, and fiction writer, A Way to Live Now: How Journalism Shaped Ernest Hemingway offers new perspectives on the eventful life and work of one of the twentieth century’s most influential authors and complicated personalities.