"The first volume encompasses his youth, his experience in World War I, and his arrival in Paris. The letters reveal a more complex person than Hemingway's tough-guy public persona would suggest: devoted son, affectionate brother, infatuated lover, adoring husband, spirited friend, and disciplined writer. Unguarded and never intended for publication, the letters record experiences that inspired his art, afford insight into his creative process, and express his candid assessments of his own work and that of his contemporaries. The letters present immediate accounts of events and relationships that profoundly shaped his life and work. A detailed introduction, notes, chronology, illustrations, and index are included."--Jacket.

"Volume 2 (1923-1925) illuminates Hemingway's literary apprenticeship in the legendary milieu of expatriate Paris in the 1920s that he would epitomize for posterity. We witness the development of his friendships and associations with Sylvia Beach, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ford Madox Ford, 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 The volume features many previously unpublished letters and a humorous sketch that was rejected by Vanity Fair"--Publisher description.