A MUST FOR ANYONE WHO WRITES WITH SERIOUS INTENT
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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? In a wall safe perhaps? In a fire safe loft locker? Alternatively, you might hit upon the idea of craftily disguising the stuff as worthless, utilising one of those fake soup cans that seem such a good idea at the time of purchase. Or you might go one step further, taking your lead from Scribner's treatment of Larry W Phillips's ERNEST HEMINGWAY ON WRITING. In this instance, what you would opt to do instead, as Scribner has done, is wrap the goods in what would appear to be 144 sheets of utility mark toilet paper, ensuring that every last bit of the great man's testament is securely enclosed within; whereupon (for no good reason other than unrelenting parsimony to the nth degree) you would then bung this multi-layered parcel in an even larger (and largely-faded) sepia photograph bearing a right profile image of the author who has been so abysmally treated.
Voila, as I say, ERNEST HEMINGWAY ON WRITING, courtesy of The House of Scribner of the Avenue of the Americas. For 'tis a brave new world, indeed, where an Amazon seller who ventures to describe the condition of a book as Acceptable is party to a prouder boast than his poor competitor who must perforce admit his copy of the same book is New.
But for all that, don't miss out on this book if a writer you would be. Put Scribner's petty parsimony right out of your mind and forget it, and seek ye the gold dust within. Oh, there is fool's gold aplenty, too - with Hemingway running off at the mouth on occasion with imaginings of the "rabbit's foot for good luck variety". But we can allow him this much in recognition of his undoubted reputation, and of every observation he makes that is most definitely good, none of which I consider it proper to repeat here.
So buy the book and see: it is an absolute must for anyone who writes with serious intent. True, it's not a beginner's book. Not that a beginner might not read it. But simply through the sheer lack of words expended on his own account, a beginner might miss out on much of the wisdom inherent in Hemingway's words. Not to put too fine a point on it, a beginner might well mistake fool's gold for gold, and vice versa.
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Of doubtful value to aspiring writers
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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.
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Like the bible, only with fewer floods
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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 Ihurt myself. Readers, I'll put you out of your misery - you turn to Papa.
That's about the crux of it, friends.
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A great resource for aspiring and even veteran writers
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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.
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Good book...very bad paper
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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.
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