True At First Light, Ernest Hemingway
True At First Light, Ernest Hemingway
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True At First Light
A Fictional Memoir Of His Last African Safari

Author: Ernest Hemingway

Narrator: Brian Dennehy

Unabridged: 10 hr 35 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/01/1999


Synopsis

Both a revealing self-portrait and dramatic fictional chronicle of his final African safari, Ernest Hemingway's last unpublished work was written when he returned from Kenya in 1953. Edited by his son Patrick, who accompanied his father on the safari, True at First Light offers rare insights into the legendary American writer.

A blend of autobiography and fiction, the book opens on the day his close friend Pop, a celebrated hunter, leaves Ernest in charge of the safari camp and news arrives of a potential attack from a hostile tribe. Drama continues to build as his wife, Mary, pursues the great black-maned lion that has become her obsession, and Ernest becomes involved with a young African girl whom he supposedly plans to take as a second bride. Increasingly enchanted by the local African community, he struggles between the attraction of these two women and the wildly different cultures they represent.

Spicing his depictions of human longings with sharp humor, Hemingway captures the excitement of big-game hunting and the unparalleled beauty of the landscape. Rich in laughter, beauty, and profound insight. True at First Light is an extraordinary publishing event—a breathtaking final work from one of our most beloved and important writers.

About Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway did more to change the style of English prose than any other writer of his time. Publication of The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms immediately established Hemingway as one of the greatest literary lights of the twentieth century. His classic novel The Old Man and the Sea won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953. Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. His life and accomplishments are explored in-depth in the PBS documentary film from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, Hemingway. Known for his larger-than-life personality and his passions for bullfighting, fishing, and big-game hunting, he died in Ketchum, Idaho on July 2, 1961. 

About Brian Dennehy

Brian Dennehy won Tony Awards for his performances in Long Day's Journey Into Night, and Death of a Salesman on Broadway. Other theater credits include The Iceman Cometh, Hughie, The Exonerated and The Cherry Orchard. His films include Romeo + Juliet, Tommy Boy, Presumed Innocent, F/X, Silverado, Cocoon, and Gorky Park.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Shaun on August 12, 2023

"Africa took them and changed them all in some ways. If they could not change, they hated it." That was the most important line in the book. Those who could not see the narrator become "village" have missed that line and applied their ugly American prudence to Africa, like the countless before who co......more

Goodreads review by Daniel on March 12, 2011

This book is even better, probably like most good books, the second time through. With the story and themes put aside, the second glance provides the reader with the opportunity to dig through all the bologna that forms the Hemingway persona. I get the sense that Hemingway is saying, "Here I am and i......more

Goodreads review by Ron on December 28, 2013

Several years ago Patrick Hemingway went over to New York with a memoir that his father had written, and it was accepted by a fairly good publisher. His deal made an awful row I heard, and I think that was where we lost the truth, because when his father's book came out it was quite changed. It was m......more

Goodreads review by Mihail on June 30, 2021

I'm curious what this book would have looked like if Hemingway had edited it instead of his son Patrick who, by the way, did a great job. He reduced to half a 200,000 words manuscript. This made me think of a letter to Scribner in which Hemingway said he edited a 200,000-word manuscript to 47,000 an......more

Goodreads review by John on March 16, 2015

If you are a Hemingway fan, you should find this unusual book. Edited and published in 1999 by his son Patrick long after his death, this largely autobiographical work provides an account of an African safari Hemingway went on with his fourth wife Mary in 1953-54 a year after he had received the Nob......more