Green Hills of Africa

Green Hills of Africa
source
Name	Green Hills of Africa
Author	Ernest Hemingway
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Non-fiction novel
Publisher	Charles Scribner's Sons
Pub date	1935
Media type	Print
Pages	295

Green Hills of Africa is a 1935 work of literary nonfiction by the American author Ernest Hemingway. Presented as a first-person narrative, it chronicles a month-long big-game hunting safari Hemingway undertook in East Africa during 1933-1934. The book blends detailed accounts of pursuing kudu, lion, and rhinoceros with extended meditations on the nature of writing, literature, and the American expatriate experience. Unlike his fiction, it is a direct account of Hemingway's personal adventures, set against the landscapes of Tanganyika Territory.

Background and publication

Following the critical and commercial success of his novel A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway embarked on a lengthy safari in late 1933, financed by a generous advance from Scribner's Magazine. Accompanied by his second wife Pauline Pfeiffer, professional hunter Philip Percival, and a team of local guides, he traveled through the regions around Lake Manyara and the Serengeti. The trip was extensively documented in articles for Esquire (magazine) and formed the basis for the longer work. Published in October 1935 by Charles Scribner's Sons, the book was part of a prolific period for Hemingway that also included the story collection Winner Take Nothing. The first edition featured illustrations from photographs by Hemingway's friend M. Robert R. Braasch.

Plot summary

The narrative is structured in four parts, titled "Pursuit and Conversation," "Pursuit Remembered," "Pursuit and Failure," and "Pursuit as Happiness." Hemingway, referring to himself as "the writer" or by the nickname "Pop," details the daily rhythms of the safari, the tracking of specific animals, and interactions with his companions, including the guide Mwindi and his wife, referred to as P.O.M. (short for "Poor Old Mama"). A central dramatic thread involves his obsessive quest for a large, trophy-quality greater kudu bull, a pursuit marked by frustration and eventual success. Interwoven with the hunting sequences are campfire discussions about other writers like Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Thomas Mann, as well as debates on the state of American literature with a fictionalized Austrian companion.

Themes and analysis

The work explores the Hemingway code of grace under pressure, or stoicism, within the context of hunting, which he portrays as a serious, ritualistic endeavor rather than mere sport. It delves deeply into concepts of masculinity, competition, and the search for authentic experience away from modern civilization. A significant portion of the text is a treatise on writing, where Hemingway articulates his famous "iceberg theory" of omission and argues for a new, disciplined American literary tradition, criticizing the Lost Generation and praising contemporaries like Gertrude Stein and James Joyce. The African landscape itself becomes a character, representing both a pristine challenge and a reflective space for artistic contemplation, themes he would later expand upon in his fictional The Snows of Kilimanjaro.

Critical reception

Initial reviews were sharply divided. Many critics in publications like The New York Times and The New Yorker found the book self-indulgent and criticized its pontificating tone, with some dismissing it as a vanity project. Notable detractors included Max Eastman, who famously accused Hemingway of false "hair on the chest" posturing, and Edmund Wilson, who offered a more measured but ultimately negative assessment. However, other reviewers praised its vivid, journalistic prose and its philosophical depth. The book sold reasonably well but did not achieve the universal acclaim of his major novels. Over time, it has been reassessed as a crucial text for understanding Hemingway's personal aesthetics and his complex relationship with colonialism and the natural world.

Legacy and influence

*Green Hills of Africa* stands as a foundational text in the genre of modern adventure writing and literary travelogue, influencing later works like Peter Matthiessen's *The Snow Leopard*. It cemented Hemingway's public persona as a rugged, worldly adventurer, an image heavily promoted by Life (magazine) and other media. The book's depiction of Africa contributed to Western romanticizations of the continent as a site for personal testing and renewal. Its stylistic experiments in blending autobiography with novelistic techniques informed his later nonfiction, such as Death in the Afternoon and A Moveable Feast. The safari narrative also provided direct source material for some of his most celebrated short fiction, including The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber and The Snows of Kilimanjaro, both published in Cosmopolitan (magazine).

Category:1935 American books Category:Books by Ernest Hemingway Category:Non-fiction novels