A Moveable Feast

Hemingway introduces Ezra Pound and his writing, describing how “His own writing, when he would hit it right, was so perfect, and he was so sincere in his mistakes and so enamored of his errors, and so kind to people that I always thought of him as sort of a saint” (50). Pound enjoyed Japanese art, but Hemingway preferred the paintings of his wife Dorothy. Hemingway observes that Pound often likes the art of his close friends, something which Hemingway remained quiet about. He figured that liking the art of close friends was similar to how families like one another.

Hemingway reflects on Pound’s inability to grasp the basics of boxing. One day Pound insists they do a lesson while his friend Wyndham Lewis is present. Lewis, Hemingway writes, “reminded me of a frog, not a bullfrog but just any frog, and Paris was too big a puddle for him” (51). Lewis insists the two men continue boxing, despite Pound’s obvious lack of talent. After the match, Hemingway takes a good look at Lewis who, “did not show evil; he just looked nasty” (51). That night Hemingway tells his wife that he met the nastiest man he’s ever seen today. While meeting with Stein, Hemingway asks if she has ever met Lewis. Stein confirms, saying that she calls him the Measuring Worm because he measures the dimensions of everything he wants to paint, only to completely forget them in the actual painting.

Pound founded Bel Esprit with a woman named Miss Natalie Barney, a rich American who is a patron of the arts, with the idea being “that we would all contribute a part of whatever we earned to provide a fund to get Mr. Eliot out of the bank so he would have money to write poetry” (52). Pound was worried about T.S. Eliot who was forced to work in a bank in London and thus had no time to be a poet. After Bel Esprit was successful with Mr. Eliot, Pound decided to extend it to other struggling artists. Eventually, Bel Esprit ended when Mr. Eliot’s The Waste Land won the Dial award, and it became clear that he no longer needed the money. Hemingway concedes that the whole endeavor ended poorly for him personally, since he took his cut of the profits and bet on horses.

Hemingway’s friendship with Gertrude Stein ultimately ends, partly because, according to him “There is not much future in men being friends with great women although it can be pleasant enough before it gets better or worse, and there is usually even less future with truly ambitious women writers” (53). On one occasion, Miss Stein is leaving for a prolonged trip and asks Hemingway and Hadley to say goodbye. Hemingway, aware that he and his wife have other plans that evening, contemplates the “system of not visiting people,” or, agreeing to meet, but then not being able to attend when the event comes (54). Hemingway decides to make time for Stein anyway. He intends for a brief visit, and when he enters the maidservant makes him a drink. Then, suddenly, he hears a horrible fight from upstairs. Fearful of imposing himself onto a very private, and violent, fight, Hemingway quickly leaves. He recalls, “That was the way it finished for me, stupidly enough, although I still did the small jobs, made the necessary appearances…” (54). He notices a change in Stein after that visit. She quarrels with everyone and seems generally unhappy. Everyone grows tired of her bitterness, and Hemingway’s relationship with her is never the same.

Hemingway describes a man named Ernest Walsh, a poet who is “dark, intense, faultlessly Irish…” (55). Walsh had crossed on a boat with two blonde girls who accompanied him to Pound’s apartment. Hemingway recalls that Walsh is, “clearly marked for death as a character is marked for death in a motion picture” (55). While the group converses, the girls produce a copy of Magazine of Verse so Hemingway can read some of Walsh’s poems. The girls tell Hemingway that Walsh receives $1,200 a poem. Hemingway muses that he earns $12 a page. He promises to show the girls around the different cafes in Paris. The next time Hemingway hears from Pound regarding Walsh is that he has been bailed out of Claridge’s by lady admirers of poetry. Later on, Hemingway hears that Walsh has received more financial backing from another source and will be working as a co-editor of the magazine, Dial, which gives an annual award of $1,000 for “excellence in the practice of letters by a contributor” (56).

Hemingway meets Walsh for lunch at the marennes, a very expensive and lavish café. The two begin talking about Pound and Joyce, agreeing that Pound is noble and Joyce is a great poet. Walsh says it is a tragedy that Joyce does not have better eyes, and Hemingway responds that everybody has something wrong with them. Walsh agrees but adds that Hemingway doesn’t have anything wrong with him, saying, “You’re marked for Life” (58). As the two continue eating, Walsh abruptly tells Hemingway that he is receiving the award. Hemingway thinks to himself, “You con man, making a living out of your death, Now you will con me. Con not, that thou be not conned. Death was not conning with him. It was coming all right” (58). Hemingway says that he does not feel as though he deserves the reward, “in Ernest,” playing both on his and Walsh’s shared first name and his belief that Walsh has not been living in “earnest.” Walsh is eventually forced to leave Paris after suffering two hemorrhages, and Hemingway helps see the magazine through to publication.

On another day, much later, Hemingway meets Joyce on the Boulevard St-Germain and the two share a drink at the Deux-Magots. Joyce reveals that Walsh had promised the award to him as well, and the two speculate on whether he’d also promised it to Ezra Pound.

Hemingway reflects on the different writing styles of authors found in Sylvia’s library such as Turgenev, Mansfield, and Tolstoi. Of Dostoevsky he writes, “there were things unbelievable and not to be believed, but some so true they changed as you read them; facility and madness, wickedness and saintliness” (59). Of Tolstoi he writes, “Tolstoi made the writing of Stephen Crane on the Civil War seem like the brilliant imagining of a sick boy who had never seen war but had only read the battles and chronicles and seen the Brady photographs that I had read and seen at my grandparents’ house” (60). He describes having great access to literature as having a great treasure given to you (60).

After playing tennis one afternoon, Hemingway asks Pound what he really thought of Dostoevsky. Pound reveals that he has never read the Russians. Hemingway is disappointed that the man who he respects the most as a writer and a critic could not comment on Dostoevsky in good faith. While walking home from Pound’s, Hemingway stops by the sawmill where Evan Shipman lives. The wife of the sawmill owner tells Hemingway that Shipman is out with friends. Hemingway leaves a note, stating that he will be at the Lilas and asks Shipman to meet him there.

Once at the Lilas, Hemingway sees Shipman waiting for him. He describes Shipman as a “fine poet who cared about horses, writing and painting” (61). Shipman comments on Hemingway’s attire, saying that he isn’t dressed properly for fall weather. Hemingway asks how Dostoevsky could write so poorly yet making one feel so deeply. The two discuss issues of translation and how one can only read a Dostoevsky book once. Shipman reveals that the café is undergoing a change in management. He says that the waiters must be ready to be more American, which requires them to wear white jackets and shave their moustaches. Hemingway remarks, “Jean has had a moustache all his life. That’s a dragoon’s moustache. He served in a cavalry regiment” (63). Jean asks the men if they’d like more whisky and Hemingway urges him not to shave his moustache. The following Monday Hemingway returns to the Lilas to find Andre, another waiter, in a white jacket with a bare upper lip.