Ernest Hemingway on WritingLarry W. Phillips A collection of reflections on writing and the nature of the writer from one the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Throughout Hemingway’s career as a writer, he maintained that it was bad luck to talk about writing—that it takes off “whatever butterflies have on their wings and the arrangement of hawk’s feathers if you show it or talk about it.” Despite this belief, by the end of his life he had done just what he intended not to do. In his novels and stories, in letters to editors, friends, fellow artists, and critics, in interviews and in commissioned articles on the subject, Hemingway wrote often about writing. And he wrote as well and as incisively about the subject as any writer who ever lived… This book contains Hemingway’s reflections on the nature of the writer and on elements of the writer’s life, including specific and helpful advice to writers on the craft of writing, work habits, and discipline. The Hemingway personality comes through in general wisdom, wit, humor, and insight, and in his insistence on the integrity of the writer and of the profession itself. —From the Preface by Larry W. Phillips |
Contents
What Writing Is and Does | 3 |
The Qualities of a Writer | 7 |
The Pain and Pleasure of Writing | 13 |
Copyright | |
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1952 Selected Letters Afternoon alive Arnold Gingrich Arthur Mizener artist bastards beat believe Bernard Berenson By-Line C. E. Hemingway Charles Scribner Chekov critics damned Death emotion Ernest Hemingway everything excercise Ezra Farewell to Arms feel fight GEORGE PLIMPTON Grace Hall Hemingway Green Hills guys happened hard Harvey Breit hell Hemingway's Hills of Africa hope Interview with Ernest invent Ivan Kashkin keep knew listening liveing writers luck Malcolm Cowley Mary Welsh Hemingway Maxwell Perkins Mice Moveable Feast never Nick Adams Stories novel Oak Park Paris Review 18 Passos Paul Pfeiffer political prose published re-writing reader remember Scott Fitzgerald seen shit someone Spring stop stories about actual straight stuff Sun Also Rises swell talk tell thing Thomas Bledsoe thought Tolstoi Turgenieff weather wonderful words worry write truly written wrote