The Man Who Was Marked for Death Summary and Analysis

At Ezra Pound's studio, Hemingway meets the poet Ernest Walsh. Walsh is Irish, and is accompanied by two young women who seem very impressed by him. He has met them on the boat and convinced then that he is highly paid for his poems. As Walsh speaks with Pound, Hemingway talks with the pretty young woman, promising to take them out to a cafe. Walsh is "marked for death," as Hemingway describes him, although he does not fully explain what he means by this phrase. Walsh is indeed dying slowly of tuberculosis, and Hemingway possibly means that Walsh uses this fact as leverage in his career. If so, this seems to disgust Hemingway.

Later, Hemingway learns that Walsh and another person have started a quarterly literary publication. This publication...