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Ernest Hemingway

In the February 1935 issue of ESQUIRE, Hemingway listed books he ”would rather read again for the first time [...] than have an assured income of a million dollars a year.” I found this gem at Lists of Note…my new favorite site!

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Far Away and Long Ago by W.H. Hudson

Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

A Sportsman’s Sketches by Ivan Turgenev

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Hail and Farewell by George Moore

Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson

La Reine Margot by Alexandre Dumas

La Maison Tellier by Guy de Maupassant

Le Rouge et le Noir by Stendhal

La Chartreuse de Parme by Stendhal

Dubliners by James Joyce

Autobiographies by W.B. Yeats

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“Every book has an intrinsic impossibility.” ~ Annie Dillard.

I don’t mean to ruin your day.  Quite the opposite. 

As a reader, I’m drawn to the impossible dilemma.  As a writer, I’m pumped by the prospect of accomplishing the impossible.  In her little book, “The Writing Life”, Ms. Dillard suggests that every novelist asks two questions: Can it be done? and Can I do it?

The appropriate answer is ‘no’.

At the level of “story”, it’s the hero who confronts the impossible.  The powers of antagonism compel us if they appear insurmountable.  Writers generally understand this.  But Dillard is more concerned with a worse impossibility facing the writer. 

The problem of story structure:

“…it is insoluble,” says Dillard, “it is why no one can ever write this book.”

Ernest Hemingway acknowledged that “writing well is impossibly difficult.”  His advice for the would-be writer was to “go out and hang himself”.  Then…

“…he should be cut down without mercy and forced by his own self to write as well as he can for the rest of his life.  At least he will have the story of the hanging to commence with.”

Launching a tale is rarely the writer’s problem.  But soon the plot sags for want of a protagonist with momentum—to say nothing of her reaching a meaningful conclusion.  The writer swears that the original idea literally oozed meaning.

So, what went wrong? 

In her beloved little book, Dillard suggests that the writer typically discovers the “structural defect” and then “wishes he had never noticed”. 

“He finds ways to minimize the difficulty; he strengthens other virtues; he cantilevers the whole narrative out into thin air, and it holds.  And if it can be done, he can do it, and only he.” 

Dillard loves the notion of the writer doggedly intuiting his way toward

For your weekend reading pleasure, here are our top stories of the week, including John Grisham‘s $6 million mistake, freelance writer tips from a New York Times magazine editor and a 50-year-old Ernest Hemingway book trailer (embedded above).

Click here to sign up for GalleyCat’s daily email newsletter, getting all our publishing stories, book deal news, videos, podcasts, interviews, and writing advice in one place.

1. The Lost History of Fifty Shades of Grey
2. Amanda Hocking: ‘A lot of authors tend to over market’
3. Controversial Vogue Essay Sparks Book Deal
4. John Grisham & His $6 Million Mistake
5. Ernest Hemingway Book Trailer
6. When Should Writers Work for Free?
7. Musicians Inspired by Harry Crews
8. NYT Magazine Editor Shares Tips for Freelance Writers
9. Rachel Maddow, Carl Hiaasen & Jacqueline Winspear Debut on the Indie Bestseller List
10. CONTEST: Write the Worst Sentence in 25 Words

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

For your weekend reading pleasure, here are our top stories of the week, including John Grisham‘s $6 million mistake, freelance writer tips from a New York Times magazine editor and a 50-year-old Ernest Hemingway book trailer (embedded above).

Click here to sign up for GalleyCat’s daily email newsletter, getting all our publishing stories, book deal news, videos, podcasts, interviews, and writing advice in one place.

1. The Lost History of Fifty Shades of Grey
2. Amanda Hocking: ‘A lot of authors tend to over market’
3. Controversial Vogue Essay Sparks Book Deal
4. John Grisham & His $6 Million Mistake
5. Ernest Hemingway Book Trailer
6. When Should Writers Work for Free?
7. Musicians Inspired by Harry Crews
8. NYT Magazine Editor Shares Tips for Freelance Writers
9. Rachel Maddow, Carl Hiaasen & Jacqueline Winspear Debut on the Indie Bestseller List
10. CONTEST: Write the Worst Sentence in 25 Words

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Fifty years before the book trailer even existed, the great Ernest Hemingway experimented by tape recording a rambling and possibly intoxicated introduction to Across the River and into the Trees.

Miracle Jones posted the video at the new literary videos section at Reddit, suggesting that “all writers should do this with their books.” What do you think? Open Culture has more about the recording:

The reading is called “In Harry’s Bar in Venice,” and it was recorded with a pocket recorder sometime in the late 1950s. You can access the recording (thanks to HarperAudio) in multiple formats here: .au format, .gsm format, .ra format. Or you can buy it as part of a larger collection called Ernest Hemingway Reads Ernest Hemingway.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Veteran soldier Kevin Powers has inked a deal with Little, Brown and Company for his Iraq war novel The Yellow Birds.

Powers, who has served in the Iraq war, is currently working towards an MFA as a Michener Fellow in Poetry at the University of Texas at Austin. Powers’ manuscript was acquired by publisher Michael Pietsch.

Pietsch had this statement in the release: “Ever since reading Ernest Hemingway’s In Our Time I have been gripped by novelists’ accounts of the experience of war.  And as soon as I began reading The Yellow Birds I knew I was in the presence of a masterful rendering of the particular horrors of this particular war. From the first word of this novel to the last, Kevin Powers’s portrayal of young soldiers trying to stay alive—and of the effect of the war on their families at home—is profound, unsettling, and sadly beautiful.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Ernest Hemingway wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald “a cutting letter about [Tender is the Night], accusing him of cheating” by fictionalizing Gerald and Sara Murphy. I’m rereading the fascinating 1962 profile of the couple who inspired Fitzgerald’s flawed masterpiece. (Via.)

The Heming Way: How to Unleash the Booze-Inhaling, Animal-Slaughtering, War-Glorifying, Hairy-Chested, Retro-Sexual Legend Within… Just Like Papa! by Marty Beckerman

Review by Chris Singer

About the author:

Marty Beckerman, America’s Luscious Beacon of Truth, has written for Esquire (where he served as an editor), Playboy, Salon, Discover, Gawker, Huffington Post, the Daily Beast, and every other worthwhile publication of our time. He has been quoted by the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, Fox, ABC News and MSNBC, all of which mistook him for a serious pundit.

Aside from The Heming Way, Beckerman’s literary masterpieces include Generation S.L.U.T. (MTV Books / Simon & Schuster) and Dumbocracy: Adventures with the Loony Left, the Rabid Right, and Other American Idiots (The Disinformation Company).

You can follow him on Facebook and Twitter. And you can find shirtless pictures of him at www.martybeckerman.com.

About the book:

Fifty years have passed since the death of Ernest Hemingway, history’s ultimate man, and young males today—obsessed with Facebook, Twitter, and Nintendo—know nothing about his legendary brand of rugged, alcoholic masculinity. They cannot skin a fish, dominate a battlefield, or transform majestic creatures of the Southern Hemisphere into piano keyboards. With chapters such as “For Whom the Beer Flows,” “Death in the Afternoon… Lunch is Served,” and “The Old Man and the See You in Hell,” Marty Beckerman demonstrates how modern eunuchs—brainwashed by PETA and Alcoholics Anonymous—can learn from Papa’s unparalleled example: drunken, unshaven, meat-devouring, wife-divorcing, and gloriously self-destructive. The Heming Way is a difficult path, and not for the weak, but truth is manlier than fiction.

My take on the book:

Many of you may not realize this, but I happen to have a bachelor’s degree in Literature (from SUNY Purchase). This alone tells you a couple of things about me. One, I had a penchant for making really bad decisions as a young adult when it came to choosing a career. Second, the fathers of girls I dated around that time weren’t exactly keen on me dating their daughter. Finally, I got to read lots and lots of books in school. Many of which were written by Ernest Hemingway.

I always enjoyed reading Hemingway, and was happy to receive an e-mail from Marty Beckerman asking me to read this parody. I’ve been eager to check it out on my Nook, and finally got the chance this week to read it.

I wasn’t disappointed at all. I laughed out loud throughout much of my reading and was spouting out passages to my wife almost the entire time. Mind you, she didn’t find it quite as entertaining as me. Here’s a few samples of passages I shared with her:

* The Heming Way: Hunting — “As a toddler you cried whe

Another great thing about being a bullfight aficionado in the Twenty-First Century is that you can enjoy the Fiesta de San Fermin, with its famous Running of the Bulls, even if you have go to your day job. With my iTouch I watch encierros in the break room. Isn't progress wonderful?

By the time this goes up on July 7, the Fiesta will be off and running. I'm writing this on the Fourth of July. Funny how I've come to see Independence Day with its fireworks as a warm-up for San Fermin.

This weekend, I was disappointed by PETA protests. They have become unofficial opening ceremonies, but the promising tradition of the Running of the Nudes just keep fizzling. Originally, it was spectacle of naked bodies and fake blood, first running through the streets, then lying down like the climax to a surrealistic spaghetti Western. But then PETA's puritanical instincts kicked in: black cloth covered up breasts and genitals, and last year the fake blood was replaced by paint as they lay their collective bodies in the shape of a giant bull.

This year, they pulled a rerun of the giant bull thing. There wasn't much media coverage. And you have to wonder about how effective their protests are if guys like me are among the few paying attention. Do they really think that lame performance art will discourage people who have come to see bloody, excrement-smeared beasts killed?

What did get coverage was the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Ernest Hemingway, and the revelation that, yes, the FBI was hounding him. Like people are always saying, you're not paranoid if they're really out to get you.

Last year, I reread The Sun Also Rises, and was

This was on of my great experiences of Florida – visting Ernest Hemingway’s gracious Key West house, still filled with old world furnishings, chandeliers,  Hemingway’s private writing studio where he wrote his masterpieces including ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’, and cats – well, descendents of them. There are around 60 moggies all with 6 toes - wandering between the palms and verandahs.

Ernest Hemingway wrote about the people in his life and caused a few upsets.

I understand that!!!!!

Ernest Hemingway married 4 times – all to writers!

No, I never married a writer!!!!

Ernest Hemingway LOVED cats.

I love our Tinkerbell – a Russian Blue!!!!

Ernest Hemingway suffered emotional illness and committed suicide at 61 years of age.

So sad, but many creative people experience depression.

An  LA Times portrait of comedic actor Zach Galifianakis bears a striking resemblance to a famous Yousuf Karsh photograph of Ernest Hemingway.

Follow this link to see the photo. When asked about the resemblance, Galifianakis replied: “To Mariel Hemingway, maybe. Not the other one.” In the tweet posted above, writer Edward Champion already predicts Galifianakis could play Hemingway in a movie.

He has plenty of competition. Last summer, Charles Bicht was crowned as the “29th Papa” in the Hemingway Look-Alike Contest. This annual event pits bearded men in a competition celebrating the Nobel Prize winner.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Writers have always had interesting stories beyond the ones they put down to paper. Here’s the naked truth: Neatorama has outed seven well-known authors as nudist writers.

The authors are Victor Hugo, Ernest Hemingway, D.H. Lawrence, James Whitcomb Riley, Edmond Rostand, Benjamin Franklin, and Agatha Christie.

Hemingway’s cousin, Edward actually opened Britain’s oldest nudist colony during the 1930s and called it Metherell Towers. So far, there are no accountings of Ernest having visited the colony. Most of the authors don’t give an explanation for the unclothed state, but French novelist Hugo had a legitimate methodical purpose behind his nudeness.

Neatorama reports: “When Victor Hugo, the famous author of great tomes such as Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, ran into a writer’s block, he concocted a unique scheme to force himself to write: he had his servant take all of his clothes away for the day and leave his own nude self with only pen and paper, so he’d have nothing to do but sit down and write.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Lately, I've been re-reading Alex Powers' art book, "Painting People in Watercolor--a design approach," a favorite of mine, and thought about how similar in approach the design of a good story might be to the design of a good painting. Both furnish aesthetic experiences for a reader/viewer, and it might not be too surprising if they both shared some conceptual elements.

After covering a lot of design ground, Powers sums up four essential elements in his most successful paintings: 1) less subject; 2) bigger shapes; 3) darker values; and 4) faster painting (for livelier paint quality). If I can translate this to writing, some fiction presents numerous characters, place settings, and motifs or plots, an overall busyness, which can make reading more of a mental challenge than an aesthetic experience. The 'bigger shapes' criteria is related to fiction, because our right-brain attention may be challenged to discover focal points that can illuminate a story, when all the settings seem to demand equal attention. The darker values proposition is related to many artists' tendencies to paint their shapes in a narrow, unexciting range of light to middle value hues (colors), whereas the more adventureous, and aesthetically pleasing paintings will include a vivid use of glowing darks. Finally, the faster painting admonition can remind writers that perhaps the originality and energy of a story may be drained by a constant 'noodling,' and 'toning-down,' of any risky material.

I decided to select some classic short fiction piece and work backwards to visualize how a writer's vision might show some affinity with Powers' design principles. Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants," a strong, aesthetic reading experience, seemed to surface as a candidate immediately. So here goes. The opening paragraph of the story seemed to contain all the design shapes needed for the story:

The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white. On this side there was no shade and no trees and the station
was between two lines of rails in the sun. Close against the side of the station there was the warm shadow of the building
and a curtain, made of strings of bamboo beads, hung across the open door into the bar, to keep out flies. The American
and the girl with him sat at a table in the shade, outside the building. It was very hot and the express from Barcelona would
come in forty minutes. It stopped at this junction for two minutes and went to Madrid.



Hemingway offers all of the important shapes for a painting in his opening paragraph. The initial sketch includes the two main characters, the long, white hills with no shade or trees, and an abstraction of the railroad track leading away, toward Madrid. The river is suggested by another shape. The sketch might also have shown the couple sitting in shade outside the bar, waiting for their train, but it might introduce too much subject matter--too busy. Small shapes, like table and chairs, might weaken the composition, as in 2).













Some of the initial value range is established here, using warm hues to suggest the heat. The reflected white glare of the hilltops in sunlight suggest the white elephants fancied by the girl, Jig.

Aesthetically, the painting seems to be holding together well thus far. This is a digital painting, using Corel X watercolor tools, and is a lot more forgiving of mistakes than traditional watercolor painting. The eye moves through the painting from the lower right, over the 'paper-doll' silhouettes of the figures--our focal point--and leaves over the hills at the top.














Some of the values are further darkened, and the small format for the blogging images suggested that might be enough. A little decoration in the form of painting splatter is added, whimsically representing the scatter of dialog between Jig and her partner as they contemplate whether Jig will go through with an abortion.

The man is confident an abortion will be safe, reasonable, and allow them to continue a happy relationship. Jig wants to believe him, but seems ruefully uncertain, right up until the train arrives.

I think most of the major aesthetic shapes of the story are captured in the painting, but the complete aesthetic experience afforded by the intellectual impacts of the couple's dialog can only be experienced by reading and pondering Hemingway's story.

Nonetheless, I think a writer could benefit by visualizing his story as a composition of major shapes, shaded in a range of values that achieve some harmonious balance of importance, and containing language poised to achieve the promise of his vision's selected focal point.

McCourt: A Storyteller Even as a Teacher
A tribute to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Frank McCourt, who died on July 19, highlighting his decades of work as a New York City public school teacher.

Alice In Wonderland Movie Trailer
Take a first look at the Alice in Wonderland movie trailer, directed by Tim Burton, scheduled for release in March 2010.

Happy birthday, Ernest Hemingway
This week marked the 110th anniversary of Ernest Hemingway’s birth. Check out Jacket Copy’s post and links to the annual Papa Look-Alike Contest, held last weekend at Sloppy Joe’s Bar in Key West, Fla.

The Fortieth Anniversary of the First Moon Landing: review
The Telegraph’s Helen Brown examines four accounts of the moon landings by astronauts and historians, including Magnificent Desolation by Buzz Aldrin.