February 7, 2005

Dead man writing . . .

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A new novel by Ernest Hemingway — or at least, an unabridged version of a book that was previously published in 1998 as a “fiction memoir” — will be published by Kent State University Press in September. According to an Associated Press wire story, the book, to be called Under Kilimanjaro (the previous version was called True at First Light), was written while the author was “on safari in Kenya from late 1953 to early 1954.” The book’s co-editor, Robert Lewis, says Hemingway is “lighter and more comedic” than in his other work. Says Lewis, “Without this book, I think people would tend to stereotype Hemingway as they have in the past, as the macho man, the man of blood sports. … That man is completely absent from this book.”

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.

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