Ernest Hemingway on Writing

Excellent insight into the master from the master himself. This carefully curated look at writing through Hemingway’s letters is a peek into his passion for the craft and all else can go to h*ll. Worth reading for the humor displayed and an inside look at a writer’s life.

I love reading letters which these great people wrote. You get to feel their psyche. It is raw and full of emotion. I just got done reading 38 letters by John D Rockefeller - Those were also very good.

Advice on writing as only Hemingway could give. Fascinating insights into the man and his drive to write better than the great dead writers. Helpful tips buried in the bravado, humility, and pain of being an artist. Gold nuggets litter his brash opinions. His passion to write and to perfect his craft schools us would-be writers in what is takes to be a champion writer.

I wouldn't call myself a rabid Hemingway fan but like most writers, I have a deep respect for him. As Larry Phillips, the author says so well, "Throughout Earnest Hemingway's career as a writer, he maintained 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.’" (p. xi)I think this quote sums it up. Hemingway for all his foibles was and is a writer who understood writing at a level most of us only aspire to. In "Ernest Hemingway on Writing" Brooks does an excellent job assembling small snippets of Hemingway's thoughts on writing to help writers today understand the breadth of what it means to write beyond ourselves. I particularly liked the section on "Other Writers" where Hemingway says “you should always write your best against dead writers” and then he offers numerous names of famous dead writers who fall we should write against.An inspiring read! Much of what Brooks has captured about Hemingway’s views on writing is indirect but never the less exceptional advice on the craft of writing from one of the best writers who ever lived.

I found very little actionable advise in this book.The interest, if there is any, is more in uncovering Hemingway's viewpoint.What I learned was that Hemingway was a blowhard, often overly opinionated about other equally good (if not better) writers, and overly self-promoting on how "hard" it is to write one "good sentence". He tends to imply that writers have the most difficult job in the world, which they certainly do not.While Hemingway, at his best - i.e. most of his short stories, The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, and The Old Man and the Sea (as long as it is read as an allegory) - is right up there with me; he also wrote a lot of blather (To Have and Have Not is a 'train wreck') in which he overly croons over uneducated "men of action" and lambasted "writers" who are not "sincere" like him. This opinionated self-importance readily comes through in his letters and such, which constitute what the present book alleges is "advice" on writing.I did find it interesting that Hemingway refutes that the "sharks" in The Old Man in the Sea are symbolic. He did not believe in symbolism. At least, that is what he implies and this would be consistent with how I view his worldview from reading his works. However, much of his writing is superficial (or simplistic) if not read symbolically. In fact, The Old Man and the Sea is tripe if not read symbolically since it defies reason to believe a fisherman who is starving to death from lack of catching fish is as happy-go-lucky and indifferent as the "old man" is portrayed in that story. It only works as an allegory, despite Hemingway's implication that nothing in that tale is meant to be symbolic.If you have interest in figuring out who Hemingway was as a man, then this book has some value. As "advice" on writing it has little, other than to tell you to write everyday and treat your writing as the most important thing, not only in your life, but in the world.Hemingway always writes marvelous sentences, even in letters to his publishers, so it is also worth reading just to hear his arrangement of words.

This is like my "appointment book," I read it when I'm waiting for one thing or the other. It's a great collection of text and worth digesting in small but focussed portions.

Freshman comp introduced me to the idea that artists may not be the best source of critical evaluation. Hemingway has some great insights into his craft. He also seems to take shots at a broad array of foes. I still think I will revisit this again. Also Chris for insight into what works in War and Peace.

I bought this used, its a fascinating read; without giving away any details its mostly just letters from his newspaper corespondency, and private letters to other notable writers and members of his family. My only gripe about this book is that the other reviewers say that the advice is useless and nonsensical,I say wrong, wrong wrong! Its a must read for young writers and the advice is only impractical if you're prone to writers block and you don't have a social life or an imagination. if you can't write without your hand being held you're not a writer (and also he writes about writers block in the book ,) I have no idea what expectations the negative reviewers had