Men's Misadventure

Those of you who are old enough to remember MEN'S ADVENTURE, my sad attempt to write a serial novel based on my own early years at Argosy Magazine for Jeff Pierce at The Rap Sheet, might be interested in the real story, just published by Kent State Press, All Man!, written by David M. Earle and beautifully produced in color in China.

Argosy gets several mentions, mostly about my boss and gin rummy partner managing editor Milt Machlin's phone interviews with Hemingway, which he turned into a paperback book called The Private Hell of Hemingway after Papa ate his shotgun in 1961.

I remember one of those New York/Havana conversations, which Milt invited me to listen in on while he taped it. Unfortunately, the recorder got only Machlin's questions and not Hem's responses. I was quickly drafted to help reconstruct the Hemingway half.

Any road, here's the publisher's description of All Man!

During the 1950s, Hemingway was in two plane crashes, won a Nobel Prize, published a best-selling novel, and had five movies released based on his work. He had always been a public figure, but during these years his fame rose to that of celebrity. Splashed on the pages of men's magazines were articles titled "Hemingway, Rogue Male," "Hemingway: America's No 1 He-Man," "Hemingway: War, Women, Wine, and Words," and "Hemingway: King of the Vulgar Words and Seduction." These articles appeared not in the mainstream men's magazines like Esquire, Field & Stream, and Playboy, but in the pulp men's adventure magazines of Vagabond, Rogue, Modern Man, Male, Bachelor, Sir Knight!, and Gent. Kitschy, extreme, and often misogynistic, these magazines capture the hyper-masculinity of the postwar decade. And Hemingway was portrayed as a role model in all of them. Using these overlooked and sensational magazines, David M. Earle explores the popular image of Ernest Hemingway in order to consider the dynamics of both literary celebrity and midcentury masculinity. Profusely illustrated with magazine covers, article blurbs, and advertisements in full color, All Man! considers the role that visuality played in the construction of Hemingway's reputation, as well as conveys a lurid and largely overlooked genre of popular publishing. More than just a contribution to Hemingway studies, All Man! is an important addition to scholarship in the modernist era in American literature, gender studies, popular culture, and the history of publishing.