My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The Library of America is the premier non-profit organization dedicated to preserving America’s literary heritage for all time. Classic American authors from Mark Twain and John Steinbeck to James Baldwin and Zora Neale Hurston will have their works printed in perpetuity in fine cloth-bound hardcover editions. Having been in business since the 1980s, Library of America has an impressive collection of authors and works, some of which have been out of print for a long time. However, one landmark of the American literary landscape has been conspicuously missing: Ernest Hemingway. This is due to copyright laws that have been guarded zealously by Hemingway’s publisher, but with the recent lapsing of those copyright protections, Library of America has published its first volume of Hemingway’s collected works in this volume. Was it worth the wait?
Hemingway was a powerful writer, but he didn’t become one overnight. Like many writers, Hemingway had to work to perfect that writing. This volume collects 8 years of his earliest works including a collection of his newspaper articles for the Toronto Star Weekly and other newspapers. It also includes the original and an early version of his first short story collection, In Our Time, his “satire” The Torrents of Spring, his first novel The Sun Also Rises, and a selection of his personal letters from this period. It gives an incredible picture of Hemingway’s raw talent and his progress into the great American author he would become.
Both the journalism and In Our Time short stories are a bit up and down, like any selection of short stories. A few news articles really stick out such as Hemingway visiting a barbers’ school to get a free shave and a haircut from the students and his first reports on bullfighting in Spain, foreshadowing his lifelong love of the sport. For his short stories, “Up in Michigan” and “Indian Camp” stand out as well. But, like any other short story or essay collection I have read, there are just as many misses as there are hits. Overall, though, they were fascinating.
As for The Torrents of Spring, this is one of the funniest parts of this edition because of its fascinating backstory. After publishing In Our Time, Hemingway wanted to get out of the contract with his first publisher and switch to a new one, but they needed to reject a novel of his before they could do that. So, he wrote this “satire” in the hopes that his publisher would do that just that. And boy is this a doozy of a bad novel as it is incredibly circular with no real narrative and some very odd fourth-wall breaks. Knowing this background, The Torrents of Spring is good because of just how bad it is.
Then there is The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway’s first success as a novelist. What more can be said about this book that has not already been said. Just like its contemporary The Great Gatsby by Hemingway’s friend, F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Sun Also Rises is very much a Lost Generation novel with its tale of the idle rich, conspicuous consumption, a self-absorbed heroine desired by the main character, and its questioning of masculinity in a post-World War I modern age. This is one novel that I feel will have greater resonance with me after one or two rereadings, but my reading of this novel is someone slanted due to my slow slog through this book. So, I shall reserve my judgement of this novel until I have had another chance to read it.
That leaves the final section of this edition, which is a collection of Heminway’s personal letters from this period. This is perhaps the weakest part of this edition. While The Torrents of Spring is bad in a good way, Hemingway’s letters are just bad. Hemingway’s style of writing letters, particularly his earliest letters, is practically incoherent. Misspellings and grammatical errors abound making these letters almost impossible to understand. Even when the misspellings become fewer and further between, very few of them ever raise an eyebrow of interest. Those surrounding the publication of In Our Time, The Torrents of Spring, and The Sun Also Rises are interesting, but the rest are boring or unintelligible. Library of America typically includes these letters to give a fuller picture of what is going on in the life of the author at that time, but these letters were so uninteresting and with few tidbits about Hemingway’s life that it becomes more a chore than a pleasure to read. Perhaps hardcore Hemingway fans who know more of about his life will get a kick out of these letters, but I couldn’t do much more than skim them.
Overall, Library of America has started its Hemingway collection very well. Not everything is a hit here, but then again, few authors ever start their career having perfected their craft. While the letters section should be skipped by the layman, hardcore Hemingway fans may find them insightful. I would recommend this book to those hardcore Hemingway fans as well as those who are just looking to take a deeper dive into Hemingway’s early life and works.
