| About the Book
As the news bulletins repeated themselves that
peaceful Sunday evening in July, the one thing that haunted my
consciousness was the recollection of the utter unselfishness of the
man Hemingway and of his habitual concern for others. The impact of
his unique individualism was such that it did not really occur to me
then that the world had lost a writer of first magnitude, perhaps
the most articulate practitioner of fiction of our century. To those
who knew him well, Ernest was first and foremost, a staunch and
loyal friend.
And so, William Seward unleashes the flood of
memories and regales us with the wisdom and devotion of this rare
individual---his friend Ernest Hemingway.
The man Seward knew was an adventurer and a compulsive reader, a
sportsman and a husband and father, an athlete and a businessman. But
most of all he was an artist with well-nigh unlimited interests and
talents. The marvelous side of Ernest's intellection is what came
through most. When he was not writing, he felt he was wasting his
life.
Ernest Hemingway was a man who lived the great abstractions he
dramatized in fiction-love, truth, honor, loyalty, courage, humility,
and pride. In celebrating the Religion of Man, he formulated as rigid
a set of rules for living and attaining manhood as can be found in any
religion.
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