Nepedia
Back to Discover
Advanced Reader
🎨

A Moveable Feast

arts Maturity 11-13 Next article →

A Moveable Feast is a famous memoir written by Ernest Hemingway.

It explores his experiences as a struggling expatriate journalist and writer in Paris during the 1920s. An expatriate is someone who lives in a country other than their own. The book captures his early life and his first marriage to Hadley Richardson. It also describes his relationships with other famous cultural figures. These people were part of what is called the "Lost Generation" in interwar France.

This group of artists and writers lived through a significant era of history.

The book's existence began with a surprising discovery in 1956. Hemingway and his friend, the biographer A. E. Hotchner, were having lunch at the Hôtel Ritz Paris. The hotel chairman, Charles Ritz, informed Hemingway that a trunk was in the basement storage room. Hemingway had left it there in 1930.

The trunk was a special one made by Louis Vuitton. When Hemingway opened it, he found a collection of clothes, menus, and fishing equipment. Most importantly, he found two stacks of lined notebooks. He had written in these notebooks while sitting in cafés during the 1920s. These notebooks contained the descriptions of the people and events that would form the memoir.

Hemingway spent several years turning these notes into a book.

He began the writing process in Cuba during the autumn of 1957. He moved his work to Ketchum, Idaho, during the winter of 1958-59. In April 1959, he traveled to Spain with his manuscripts. He eventually brought the work back to Cuba and Idaho. He finished the book in the spring of 1960 while in Cuba. Hemingway passed away in July 1961, which delayed the book's release.

His fourth wife and widow, Mary Hemingway, eventually published it posthumously on May 5, 1964.

The 1964 edition was organized into 20 independent chapters or sections.

Some chapters include "Shakespeare and Company" and "Scott Fitzgerald." These sections can often be read as stand-alone pieces. The title of the book is a play on words. A "moveable feast" is a term for a holy day that does not have a fixed date. Hemingway's friend A. E. Hotchner suggested this title. Hotchner also remembered Hemingway using the phrase years earlier. This phrase became the epigraph on the title page of the first edition.

There has been much discussion regarding how the book was edited. Mary Hemingway made final copy-edits to the manuscripts before publication.

Literary scholar Gerry Brenner questioned the validity of her editing process. Brenner suggested that Mary changed the order of chapters to preserve chronology. He also noted that she reinserted a chapter called "Birth of a New School" that Hemingway had originally dropped. Most seriously, Brenner claimed she deleted a long apology to Hemingway's first wife, Hadley. Some believe these changes were made to protect Mary's role as wife. However, biographer A. E. Hotchner argued that Mary simply carried out Ernest's original intentions.

In 2009, a "Restored Edition" was published by Hemingway's grandson, Seán Hemingway.

Seán Hemingway is a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This new edition made several significant changes to the text. It removed the introductory letter that Mary Hemingway had pieced together. It also added the unpublished work "The Pilot Fish and the Rich." The new version restored Hemingway's use of the second person in many places. Seán believed this change brings the reader more directly into the story. This edition provides a different way to experience the author's original voice.

Today, A Moveable Feast remains a major part of global culture. It has been referenced in many films, such as Woody Allen's *Midnight in Paris*.

The book even appears on a bookshelf in the movie *Captain America: The Winter Soldier*. In France, the book saw a revival in popularity following the terrorist attacks in Paris on November 13, 2015. The French title, *Paris est une fête*, became a symbol of defiance and celebration. This shows how the book connects to the enduring spirit of the city of Paris.

676 words

Where will your curiosity go next?

Keep exploring at your chosen reading level.

More to explore

What is Nepedia?

A free, ad-free encyclopedia for children. Every article is written at five reading levels, so the same page works for a five-year-old and a fifteen-year-old — use the level switcher above to see this one change. No account needed to read.