Men’s Misadventures

Those of you who have been reading The Rap Sheet long enough to remember Men’s Adventure, my sadly aborted attempt in this blog to write a serial novel based on my early years at Argosy magazine, might be interested to read the real story in All Man!: Hemingway, 1950s Men’s Magazines, and the Masculine Persona (Kent State University Press), written by David M. Earle.

Argosy gets several mentions in All Man!, mostly in regard to my boss and gin rummy partner, managing editor Milt Machlin, and his phone interviews with Ernest Hemingway, which he turned into a paperback book called The Private Hell of Hemingway after Papa ate his shotgun in July 1961.

I remember one of those New York-to-Havana conversations, which Machlin invited me to listen in on while he taped it. Unfortunately, the recorder picked up only my boss’ questions and not Hem’s responses. I was quickly drafted to help reconstruct the Hemingway half.

In any event, here’s the publisher’s description of All Man!:

During the 1950s, Hemingway was in two plane crashes, won a Nobel Prize, published a best-selling novel, and had five movies released based on his work. He had always been a public figure, but during these years his fame rose to that of celebrity. Splashed on the pages of men’s magazines were articles titled “Hemingway, Rogue Male,” “Hemingway: America’s No 1 He-Man,” “Hemingway: War, Women, Wine, and Words,” and “Hemingway: King of the Vulgar Words and Seduction.” These articles appeared not in the mainstream men’s magazines like Esquire, Field & Stream, and Playboy, but in the pulp men’s adventure magazines of Vagabond, Rogue, Modern Man, Male, Bachelor, Sir Knight!, and Gent. Kitschy, extreme, and often misogynistic, these magazines capture the hyper-masculinity of the postwar decade. And Hemingway was portrayed as a role model in all of them. Using these overlooked and sensational magazines, David M. Earle explores the popular image of Ernest Hemingway in order to consider the dynamics of both literary celebrity and mid-century masculinity. Profusely illustrated with magazine covers, article blurbs, and advertisements in full color, All Man! considers the role that visuality played in the construction of Hemingway’s reputation, as well as conveys a lurid and largely overlooked genre of popular publishing. More than just a contribution to Hemingway studies, All Man! is an important addition to scholarship in the modernist era in American literature, gender studies, popular culture, and the history of publishing.

This book was released at the end of October, and would make a swell holiday present for Hemingway fans or lovers of classic 20th-century periodicals.

READ MORE: “‘Hemingway R.I.P. Day’ on the Men’s Adventure Magazines Blog,” by SubtropicBob (Men’s Adventure Magazines).