In The Importance of Not Being Ernest, acclaimed journalist and New York Times bestselling author Mark Kurlansky focuses on the sprawling life and work of Ernest Hemingway while drawing parallels to his own. This memoir and biography contains an in-depth analysis of the places and people in Hemingway’s life.

An Ernest Hemingway Biography Like No Other

“...illuminates his life and works in ways not seen before.” —Sigrid Nunez, National Book Award winner and author of The Friend and What Are You Going Through

#1 New Release in Historical Latin America Biographies

Discover Hemingway’s biography through the eyes of a fellow author and journalist. New York Times bestselling author of Salt, Mark Kurlansky turns his historical eye to the life of Ernest Hemingway. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, The Importance of Not Being Ernest shows the huge shadow Hemingway casts. 

The perfect gift for writers. By a series of coincidences, Mark Kurlansky’s life has always been intertwined with Ernest Hemingway's legend, starting with being in Idaho the day of Hemingway’s death. The Importance of Not Being Ernest explores the intersections between Hemingway’s and Kurlansky’s lives, resulting in creative accounts of two inspiring writing careers. Travel the world with Mark Kurlansky and Ernest Hemingway in this personal memoir, where Kurlansky details his ten years in Paris and his time as a journalist in Spain—both cities important to Hemingway’s adventurous life and prolific writing. 

Paris, Basque Country, Havana and Idaho. Get to know the extraordinary people he met there—those who had also fallen under the Hemingway spell, including a Vietnam veteran suffering from the same syndrome the author did, two winners of the Key West Hemingway look-alike contest, and the man in Idaho who took Hemingway hunting and fishing.

In this unique gift for writers, find:

• A memoir full of entertaining and illuminative stories
• Little-known historical facts about Hemingway’s life
• Anecdotes about those who suffer from what the Kurlansky calls “hemitis”

Readers of Haruki Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley in Search of America, or The Boys will love The Importance of Not Being Ernest.