Book Review : The Paris Husband : How It Really Was Between Ernest and Hadley Hemingway
spite of his title , Ernest Hemingway : A New Life ( 2016 ), James Hutchisson engages in the same kind of factitious language that corrupts Donaldson ’ s narrative : “ When Hadley told him what had happened , Hemingway must have been undone not only by the loss of his work but by the terrible awareness that Hadley had treated it with such disregard .” This “ must have ” is puzzling since Hemingway said he was upset , or is undone meant to suggest Hemingway was even more devastated than he let on ? Unlike Donaldson , Hutchisson reports Hemingway “ returned immediately to Paris and searched the apartment for anything of value that might remain ...”
Mary Dearborn , Ernest Hemingway : A Biography ( 2017 ), is more careful than Hutchisson or Donaldson , saying the loss included “ all of Ernest ’ s writing to date .” The precise Dearborn also notes two different versions of how the valise was lost , and the two versions make a significant difference in how we view Hadley : One version is as Donaldson reports . But the other has Hadley consigning her luggage to a porter , “ but when her baggage caught up with her in her compartment , she found the valise was missing .” The alternate possibility makes Hadley far less culpable , since she was not negligent�unless you want to argue that she should never have allowed the valise out of her sight . Would Hadley have left a train compartment with that valuable valise ? It is possible , of course , and it has led to much bootless speculation concerning her unconscious feelings about her husband . It seems more likely , if not dispositive , that she placed her trust in a porter�a mistake , it can be argued , but hardly a first-degree offense .
Like Donaldson , Dearborn does not believe what Hemingway said after the fact of the lost valise . But she does have him immediately returning to Paris , which seems right emotionally . Would he really wait a month , as Donaldson asserts , to
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