The Letters of Ernest Hemingway documents the life and creative development of a gifted artist and outsized personality whose work would both reflect and transform his times. Volume 2 (1923–1925) illuminates Hemingway's literary apprenticeship in the legendary milieu of expatriate Paris in the 1920s. We witness the development of his friendships with the likes of Sylvia Beach, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and John Dos Passos. Striving to 'make it new', he emerges from the tutelage of Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein to forge a new style, gaining recognition as one of the most formidable talents of his generation. In this period, Hemingway publishes his first three books, including In Our Time (1925), and discovers a lifelong passion for Spain and the bullfight, quickly transforming his experiences into fiction as The Sun Also Rises (1926). The volume features many previously unpublished letters and a humorous sketch that was rejected by Vanity Fair.

Short-listed, Modernist Studies Association Edition, Anthology, and Collections Prize 2015

'Hemingway did not want his letters published, but this carefully researched scholarly edition does them justice … devotees will find this and future volumes indispensable.'

William Gargan Source: Library Journal

'With more than 6,000 letters accounted for so far, the project to publish Ernest Hemingway’s correspondence may yet reveal the fullest picture of the twentieth-century icon that we’ve ever had. The second volume includes merely 242 letters, a majority published for the first time … readers can watch Hemingway invent the foundation of his legacy in bullrings, bars, and his writing solitude.'

Steve Paul Source: Booklist

'The letters to Pound - Hemingway's most important mentor in this period - are highlights of this volume. Bawdy, humorous, linguistically playful.'

Source: Literary Review

'Roughly written as they are these letters show occasional flashes of true Hemingway … It is fascinating to watch the private rehearsal of what would become public performances.'

Source: The Daily Telegraph

'Warmly unpretentious and frequently playful.'

Source: The Spectator

'Most enjoyable …'

Source: The Tablet

'This second volume of The Letters of Ernest Hemingway documents the years in which he became himself … His style is at once close to and yet unutterably distant from that of his fiction.'

Source: The New York Times

'The volume's 242 letters, about two-thirds previously unpublished, provide as complete an account of Hemingway's life during the Paris years as one could ask for.'

Source: Star Tribune

'For those with a passion for American literary history and an interest in the machinery of fame, these letters, ably and helpfully annotated by a team of scholars led by Sandra Spanier of Penn State University, provide an abundance of raw material and a few hours' worth of scintillating reading.'

Source: The Kansas City Star

'Amusing, moving and perceptive … this essential volume, beautifully presented and annotated with tremendous care and extraordinary attention to detail, offers readers a Hemingway who is both familiar and new.'

Source: Times Literary Supplement

'The volume itself is beautifully designed and skillfully edited … As a book, it is perfect.'

Source: Los Angeles Review of Books

'Two thirds of these have never seen the light of day before. A great continuing literary project.'

Source: Buffalo News

'The register in which Hemingway writes varies greatly, ranging from telegraphic … excited communications with intimates to formal, correct letters to those with whom he has mainly business - literary or financial - relations. All the magnificent apparatus of the first volume …Summing up: essential.'

Source: Choice

'… this volume will most likely never be superseded. It is crucial contribution to literary history.'

Mark Ott Source: American Literary History