An illuminating reconsideration of a key period in the life of Ernest Hemingway that will change the way he is perceived and understood. Focusing on the years 1934 to 1961--from his pinnacle until his suicide--Paul Hendrickson traces the writer's exultations and despair around the one constant in his life during this time: his beloved boat, Pilar. We follow him from Key West to Paris, to New York, Africa, Cuba, and finally Idaho, as he wrestles with his angels and demons. Whenever he could, he returned to his beloved fishing cruiser, to exult in the sea, to fish, to drink, to entertain friends and seduce women, to be with his children. But as he began to succumb to fame, we see that Pilar was also where he cursed his critics, saw marriages and friendships dissolve, and tried, in vain, to escape his increasingly diminished capacities. Generally thought of as a great writer and an unappealing human being, Hemingway emerges here in a far more benevolent light. Drawing on previously unpublished material, including interviews with Hemingway's sons, Hendrickson shows that for all the writer's boorishness, depression, and alcoholism, and despite his anger, he was capable of remarkable generosity.--From publisher description.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Amid so much ruin, still the beauty Getting her. American light ; That boat ; Gone to firewood ; States of rapture When she was new, 1934-1935. Home ; Shadow story ; High summer ; Catching fish ; On being shot again ; Outside worlds ; Exuberating, and then the jackals of his mind Before. Edens lost and darkness visible

Old men at the edge of the sea : Ernest/Gigi/Walter Houk, 1949-1952 and after. Moments supreme ; Facet of his character ; The gallantry of an aging machine ; Braver than we knew ; In spite of everything ; "Necrotic" ; What he had ; Reenactment Hunger of memory On the curious afterlife of Pilar.