Hemingway meets Fitzgerald

Although F. Scott Fitzgerald was one of Ernest Hemingway's earliest supporters, the feeling was not necessarily mutual. Hemingway had mixed feelings about the friend and his writing, and overall had very little (if any) respect for him. Their relationship began in 1925, when Fitzgerald brought Hemingway and his later editor, Maxwell Perkins, together.

A rift began to form between the two when Fitzgerald wrote a confession entitled "The Crack-Up," in which Hemingway felt that Fitzgerald was demeaning himself. Hemingway also spoke unkindly of him in a short story titled "The Snows Of Kilimanjaro". However, Fitzgerald was patient with the insult, and did not speak ill of the other. Just before Fitzgerald's death in 1940, he wrote a letter to Hemingway in a publication, saying that he envied him without irony. After his death Hemingway described Fitzgerald was "almost like a guided missile with no one guiding him."

Much of Hemingway's criticism of Fitzgerald sprang from his belief that Fitzgerald would have accomplished more if not for his wife, Zelda Fitzgerald. He referred to Fitzgerald's talent as "wasted", and cites his wife as the cause of this, saying that every time he was ready to take his work seriously, she would become jealous of his talent and knock him back down.

One irony about Hemingway's disrespect for Fitzgerald was that Hemingway faulted alcohol in part for Fitzgerald's wasted talent. Hemingway himself definitely had some problems with alcoholism, so it’s a bit ironic that he would accuse Fitzgerald of such, and criticize his writing for it. He admitted to being fond of alcohol himself, but said that for Fitzgerald alcohol was "a straight poison instead of a food."

Overall, their relationship was definitely unbalanced. While Fitzgerald had respect and admiration for Hemingway and his work, the latter claimed many times that he never had any respect for Fitzgerald, and continued to have strong opinions of the man after his death.

-- Elayna and Tiara

(Source: nytimes.com, New York Times "Hemingway's Letters Tell Of Fitzgerald".)