Hemingway. The Words He Left Behind
The life of Ernest Hemingway. How to write the truth.
Ernest Hemingway is one of the most prolific American writers of the twentieth century. He stands shoulder to shoulder with the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, and Ezra Pound. And in nineteen sixty-one in his Ketchum Idaho home, this master craftsman of words, put a shotgun to his mouth and pulled the trigger.
During the months before he committed suicide he was in and out of hospitals, it was later told that Hemingway had suffered from paranoia ever since he returned from Cuba where he was forced to abandon his much loved home . Though it was never Hemingway’s intention to write about writing, he did. Through years of interviews, articles, and in his books, he created a well-spring of knowledge. he once said,” Just write one true sentence.” This is a writers creed. A powerful creed if used correctly. Allow me to go into what I think this means.
Hemingway’s home in Ketchum Idaho where he spent his last days
In writing there is always a point, always something that really matters and in good writing shines above all. To find the truth of what your writing look for what is really important. Allow me to paraphrase Hemingway.” If a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows, the reader will have a feel for those things.” Hemingway called this his Iceberg
theory, in that only a small portion of the Iceberg is seen but the size of the Iceberg is still known,it is felt. In writing the presence of this knowledge will show up when someone is able to talk about a subject with ease and reference what he is discussing and connect it to the world. With Hemingway’s approach to writing, looking for what is true is pinpointing the important thing without mentioning everything. This is also seen In Hemingway’s style which is dominated by short declarative sentences, active verbs, and a simple vocabulary. His fiction is heavy on dialogue and light on descriptive adjectives and adverbs. This form of writing enabled Hemingway to more easily get to the truth of what he was writing, it was simple and direct the important things were presented up front. This is what Hemingway leaves behind on writing, his craft, something he loved to a superstitious level. Above all write the truth, write what is important, throw out the wordy fluff. Gertrude Stein, once called Hemingway and his peers the lost generation, the writers of before and after the civil war.
These antebellum wordsmiths’ found themselves lost in a increasingly modern world. Hemingway’s genius, in the end, killed him. And so it goes, greatness is like a great light, bright for a time, it quickly corrodes its shell and is distinguished. But it is remembered. Hemingway’s take on writing was also his take on life. A book, like life, is small and contained compared to the overall span of the human race. We live and we die. all summed up in one word. The quicker we get to the truth the more we can say.The quicker we get to the truth the more we can live.
Books By And About Ernest Hemingway
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