Ernest Hemingway on Writing
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""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
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First Sentence
I AM trying to make, before I get through, a picture of the whole worldor as much of it as I have seen. Boiling it down always, rather than spreading it out thin. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
I AM trying to make, before I get through, a picture of the whole worldor as much of it as I have seen. Boiling it down always, rather than spreading it out thin. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
31 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Larry Phillips' compilation of the comments Hemingway made on the process of writing contains a wealth of material for writers at every level. I had the good fortune to read the book in its original hard-cover version when it was published in the mid-1980s. At that point, I had been a newspaper and magazine writer and editor for about a decade, and I found several key ideas I was able to incorporate into my own work. I'd long ago loaned out my copy of the hard-cover book when the paperback version came out this summer, so I happily purchased a copy and reread the book. It seems as fresh today as it did nearly 15 years ago. There are still lots of specific tips and techniques writers can acquire. One of my favorites is Hemingway's recommendation that a writer not continue writing until he or she runs dry, but rather stop at a point when the next sentence or paragraph or chapter is known. That way, the writer can pick up later where he or she left off, without the trauma of facing a blank page or a blank screen, wondering what's next. I've tried it over the years, and it works. Beyond those specifics, however, I find it interesting to read how Hemingway viewed his life as a writer. Regardless of how you feel about Hemingway as a person or even as a writer, you might recognize that the man spent a lot of time thinking about what it meant to be a writer and how a writer should develop his or her craft. That alone is worth the price of admission.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Hemingway was enthusiastic about his craft. The editor of this selection chose hundreds of quotes from Hemingway's works that deal with writing. They are excellent choices. This could be a worthwhile textbook for a writer developing his own craft, or for an interested reader studying Hemingway. It is regrettable that the paper is little better, if at all, than newsprint. It is virtually impossible to annotate in pencil. I suspect this book will self-destruct in a year like an old newspaper.
14 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book probably won't speed you on your way to your own 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' but it does provide some insight to Hemingway's attitudes to things in general and literature in particular. This is a collection of extracts, some quite short, from letters and biographies and gathered into chapters like 'Working Habits'. However, the quotes are often isolated from their contexts and are quite useless as advice on writing per se. An example from the chapter 'Other Writers',page 91, I quote:
"I think you should learn about writing from everybody who has ever written that has anything to teach you" to F Scott Fitzgerald 1925.Unquote.
No, I didn't understand it either and there's more of that ilk. Actually Stephen King's book 'On Writing' is a much better book as it is deliberately written for the aspiring writer.
"I think you should learn about writing from everybody who has ever written that has anything to teach you" to F Scott Fitzgerald 1925.Unquote.
No, I didn't understand it either and there's more of that ilk. Actually Stephen King's book 'On Writing' is a much better book as it is deliberately written for the aspiring writer.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Disappointing
Perhaps the problem is that a title like "Ernest Hemingway on Writing" promises to deliver a lot more than this book does. Read more
Published on 11 Feb 2010 by spikethecat limited
A MUST FOR ANYONE WHO WRITES WITH SERIOUS INTENT
Had you to vacate your home, bags packed, return scheduled in no fewer than seven days or so, where would you stash your valuables secure against your return? Read more
Published on 14 Jun 2008 by Bill Keeth
Like the bible, only with fewer floods
So you're after some advice on writing - who do you turn to? JK Rowling?Shove it. Stephen King? Not for me, friend. John Grisham? Stop, before I hurt myself. Read more
Published on 27 April 2004 by A. Sharratt
Good book...very bad paper
Hemingway was enthusiastic about his craft. The editor of this selection chose hundreds of quotes from Hemingway's works that deal with writing. They are excellent choices. Read more
Published on 18 Aug 1999
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