The subtitle of author David M. Earle’s work does much to identify the crux of this highly engaging and well-researched read. Part coffee table book, part academic, All Man! provides a vivid cultural portrait of a generation, with Earle casting the Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway, as the leading character. The oversized hardback is brimming with images from the pulp and adventure magazines that shaped many an impressionable – and arguably feeble – male mind. Earle has amassed rights to a time-capsule treasure trove of old prints that colorfully illustrate the extent of alpha male bravado so pervasive post-WWII and seemingly perpetuated by the persona, whether it was real or manufactured, of Hemingway.
Earle shares personal notes on his childhood, which set the stage for his fascination with the rabblerousing writer who becomes the focus of his college dissertation and this book. His family was friendly with the author, and Hemingway’s best friend George Saviers delivered Earle. He takes us from his father’s romantic tales of Gary Cooper and Marilyn Monroe playing in Sun Valley to his own shattering disillusionment upon his return many years later. This is the critical point of All Man! – understanding where and when fact and fiction take precedent in the real world.
An introduction into the world of men’s periodicals produced throughout the 50s and into the early 60s examines the misogynistic absurdities recorded in these titles, with actual text and images, including a reprinted call to arms from the August 1958 issue of Jem: The Magazine for Masterful Men: “After a half century of serfdom, we are getting a new grip on our destiny. From Now on, we men are going to sit high in the saddle, apply the spurs deep and, when necessary, use the whip! All right, now–back to your housework!” The entire “manifesto” is much longer, and there is plenty more where that came from. It is fascinating stuff, and ample fuel to ignite strong feminist response.
Earle explains how WWII prompted these male dominance fantasies, encouraging outrageous tales of killer animals, war heroism and female subservience, and the manner in which Hemingway came to embody this ideal. The book avoids the trappings of an academic bio, with a loose chronological sensibility uniting the six tightly woven, thoroughly mined chapters that link Hemingway’s celebrity and mid-century masculinity. Myriad full-color illustrations, namely magazine covers, article blurbs and advertisements, alongside full excerpts from period “journalism” make this work ideal for casual reading.
The book follows Hemingway’s early life as a reporter and struggling writer amassing rejection letters for his pulp war-story submissions to his meteoric rise as the notorious author of The Sun Also Rises, described by Earle as linked to “sensational risqué pulp magazines.”
The text explores the idea that Hemingway solidified his image, literally, appearing in the premier issue of Esquire in 1933. As the first person focus of an epic fishing battle entitled “Marlin off the Marro,” a “Cuban letter”, Hemingway was photographed looking particularly triumphant in his fishing element. However, this fostered an unattainable persona, as Hemingway became the unwilling “model of postwar masculinity,” notes Earle. Countless magazines used him as the center of exaggerated tales of wartime exploits: “Hemingway’s Private War with Adolf Hitler” in Man’s Magazine, for example.
The popularity of Hemingway’s brand of “blood and guts” read in staunch resistance of feminine sensibilities, and the mid-century men’s magazines represent a culmination of sentiments that took shape with his earliest writings. “The tone of elitism and worldly sophistication that mags like Playboy relied on was pioneered by modernism and helps explain the popularity of Hemingway’s image at the time,” writes Earle. From there, the book explores Hemingway’s public fall from grace and the rise of celebrity culture with the birth of tabloids, followed by the posthumous writings that have forever distorted the reality of a man whose fame was founded on fiction.
All Man! is then the perfect read for those interested in American literature, pop culture, gender roles and the world of publishing. And few, if any, books handle all those studies with such entertaining acumen.
You can purchase All Man! here.
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