SOURCE: West, Ray B., Jr. “The Sham Battle over Ernest Hemingway.” Western Review 17, no. 3 (spring 1953): 234-40.

In the following review, West compares Baker's treatment of Hemingway and his work in Hemingway: The Writer as Artist to Philip Young's Ernest Hemingway.

Present-day criticism of Ernest Hemingway appears to be in a confused and unhappy state. The blame, I think, lies with the over-zealous friends of Mr. Hemingway, and with Mr. Hemingway himself. There is a kind of person who can abide no criticism of Ernest Hemingway, and Ernest Hemingway himself seems to be one of these people. In those pleasant days—say between the publication of For Whom the Bell Tolls and Across the River and Into the Trees—a good many wise and interesting things were said about Ernest Hemingway's work, as well as many things that were interesting but not wise, and a few that were just...