Lillian Ross’s May 1950 profile of Ernest Hemingway in the New Yorker, “How Do You Like It Now, Gentleman? The Moods of Ernest Hemingway” was an early piece of New Journalism, blending fact with arresting narrative.1 Ross presented a raggedy-bearded man speaking pidgin English, unbound and comfortable in his skin. The magazine’s coat-hat-gloves-heels set of readers may have been expecting something more sophisticated about the acclaimed writer.
Not Hemingway’s World War II friend General Buck Lanham. He found a “perfectly incredible” profile, “written in straight acid.”2 In a letter to his psychiatrist friend Dr. William Menninger, Lanham said Ross produced “one of the most magnificent pieces of dead-pan reporting I have ever read. She has Hemingway absolutely nailed to the mast. Every word is his; every expression is his; every gesture is his. Never have I read a more accurate profile anywhere on anyone.” Coincidentally, Ross reported that Hemingway traveled with his manuscript of Across the River and Into the Trees, his novel about an infantry colonel who mirrored Lanham.
Beyond disheveled appearances, Ross writes of Hemingway’s axioms and creative process: he safeguards time for friends; he thinks Tolstoy is the greatest of all writers; he believes novelists need to go the full nine innings; he has no use for phonies; he tries to make each of his books different, playfully asking Ross if she thinks he is writing “The Farewell to Arms Boys in Addis Ababa”; the test of a good book is how much one can jettison; and the best training of the eye for writers is observing Cezanne’s layered painting style.3
Ross joined the New Yorker in 1945 and contributed until her death in 1971. While some thought Ross delivered a hatchet job, Ross said she aimed to show Hemingway’s immense vitality, exceptional spirit of truthfulness, and unique, fun conversation.4
Ross acknowledged her piece was controversial, with some readers objecting to Hemingway’s take-it-or-leave-it personality and others “admiring the piece for the wrong reasons,” presumably meaning it confirmed their worst suspicions. Ross considered Hemingway a true friend, recalling in May 1999 her conversations on paper with him about writing, fishing, traveling, their lives and loves. Ross said Hemingway was unperturbed by the profile, noting equably it made him as many enemies “as we have in North Korea,” and that a man should be known by the enemies he keeps.5 Hemingway shared with Lanham that Ross is fond of him, but as a journalist cannot show it, and said he is strong enough to take criticism.6
In the 1950 piece, Ross related an unseen side of Hemingway’s friend Marlene Dietrich. The writer and the entertainer met in 1934, and over the years had kept up a close and loving friendship while each was romantically involved with another. On arrival in New York, Hemingway said his first order of business was to call Dietrich, and he instructed the hotel staff to refuse all calls and visits except for hers. Chatting in the Hemingways’ hotel suite, Dietrich said she was now a grandmother. The celebrated actress-singer Dietrich lived at the Plaza Hotel, and her daughter lived on Third Avenue, where Dietrich would babysit and clean house. When the parents arrived home, Dietrich would depart by cab. With her sacks full of infant laundry, Dietrich assumed the driver would think she was “an old washerwoman from Third Avenue,” so she would alight a block away from the Plaza, from where she would walk home and wash the baby’s clothes before going to sleep.7 Hemingway told Lanham that although Dietrich was offended by the article, she said she loved him unconditionally.8
1 Ross, Lillian. “How Do You Like It Now, Gentlemen? The Moods of Ernest Hemingway.” New Yorker 13 May 1950. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1950/05/13/how-do-you-like-it-now-gentlemen
2 Lanham, Charles T., to Dr. William C. Menninger, 14 June 1950, Kansas Historical Society.
3 Ross, “How.”
4 Ross, “Hemingway Told Me Things: Notes on a Decade’s Correspondence.” New Yorker 24 May 1999. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1999/05/24/hemingway-told-me-things
5 Ross, “Hemingway.”
6 Hemingway, Ernest, to Lanham, Charles T. 20 June 1950, Princeton University Library.
7 Ross, “How.”
8 Hemingway to Lanham, 20 June 1950.
Greer Rising and Eileen Martin are working on a book based on letters from Buck and Pete Lanham to Greer’s family that will explore the friendship between Lanham and Hemingway. They have previously blogged on Hemingway's "Devil Box" and "Hemingway's Imaginary Dinner Guest."