The Paris Wife

Hadley Richardson describes a Paris altered by World War I. She reflects on her husband, Ernest Hemingway, who was wounded by a trench mortar in Italy and carries the mental injury still. In 1923, they move to Toronto for a year to have their son, John “Bumby” Hadley Nicanor Hemingway, before returning to Paris.

The poet and their friend Ezra Pound helps them find an apartment near the Luxembourg Gardens. Hadley outlines their routine: Ernest writes each morning, she walks with Bumby throughout the day, and at night, they often meet friends in Montparnasse cafés. They take day trips and visit family in Illinois. A friend once calls their marriage “holy.” Hadley closes by acknowledging the fragility of marriage and foreshadowing trouble coming in the form of a woman in a “chipmunk coat.”

In October 1920, at a party in Chicago hosted by her friend Kate Smith, Hadley plays the piano. She is visiting from St. Louis and is excited by the youthful, energetic atmosphere. A young man, Ernest Hemingway, praises her playing and playfully suggests nicknames.

Ernest asks Hadley to dance.