With a cast of famous characters, this book tells the backstage story of how Hemingway seized upon an emerging mass culture to become the premier author of the twentieth century. Leff's Hemingway goes beyond other biographical studies to expose how the public figure of Hemingway was created by mass media with the help of and eventually beyond the control of Ernest Hemingway. This book portrays the personal and commercial creation of a tragic public figure in a world of promotion, advertising, and publicity. - Back cover.