Vie hors serie, fin dramatique: The Paris Press Coverage of the Death of Ernest Hemingway

Abstract

The fact that Ernest Hemingway died on the 4th of July weekend (generally a quiet time for news) contributed to the amount and prominence of press coverage his death received in the United States. In France, there was no similar "news hole" for that period: in July 1961, the press was much concerned with the crisis in Algeria confronting President Charles de Gaulle. Nevertheless, for an entire week the French press gave prominent attention to events in Ketchum, Idaho, and reflected on the importance of Hemingway to contemporary literature. Leading literary figures evaluated Hemingway's writing, and the great majority of them were passionately affirmative. A survey of twelve Parisian newspapers (daily and weekly) reflects the range and the intensity of French feeling about the writer.

André Marty and Ernest Hemingway

“…The one dissenting voice was that of Jean Cau who, in an article for L'Express headlined 'L'Amérique de Papa est morte', saw Hemingway's departure as symbolising lost innocence, faded optimism and the death of myths: the world no longer belonged to the USA. 40 French communist affection for Hemingway, warmed by tropical Marxism, did not…”