Hemmingway fits all the presumptions I've made about his personality like a glove. All the stereotypes of the "Writer type" are on display here, for all their splendor and warts.

I love seeing Hemingway as the unabashed, ultra-competitive type. Like all writers, and I'm sure he'd admit himself, he seems up his own ass quite a bit, but that's part of his allure.

There's a bit of filler and enough quotes to make me roll my eyes, maybe one for every seven pages or so, but there's a lot of worthwhile advice and a few great quotes, ones I'm shocked I hadn't heard before as someone who used to hunt for quotes about writing to inspire me (I still do this, actually).

It is at least a little funny that there are multiple quotes from private letters about how he wished that a book like this (published excerpts of private correspondence) would never exist. And yet, here it is, sliding onto my bookshelf, covered in highlighter markings in the year 2021.

Because a lot of these snippets were private, I'm inclined to believe he means a lot of the things he says, but there is always the threat, as any writer who has spoken to another can tell you, that there's some grandstanding here to try and protect their own idea of themselves as well as their public perception. Maybe you come away from this book feeling like he spits at those types of people. I'll never be sure (Note, this has nothing to do with my ranking. Three stars is good! Goodreads tells me so!)