Hemingway The American Writer

It dawned on me recently that, although Hemingway is one of the most well-known American writers, most of his stories do not take place in America. A majority of his books take place outside of America (Spain, France, Africa, Cuba).

For me, this is one reason (though not the only reason) why I prefer Steinbeck and Sinclair Lewis. Most of their novels were about Americans and set in America. There is something about that that speaks to something deep in me that foreign books don't quite do.

It is interesting that one of the United States' most preeminent writers (Hemingway) wrote a lot of books set in foreign countries. You must admit that one distinctive thing about Dostoevsky is you're going to get stories about Petersburg and Moscow, with Steinbeck you will get stories about California. With Hemingway you're more likely to get a story about Madrid

Twain wrote several novels about foreign lands (Innocents Abroad, Circling the Equator, Connecticut Yankee, A Tramp Abroad), but he always balanced it with a distinctly American viewpoint of how an American would react to some of these places

Writers usually write according to their own experiences. If a writer spends time in a foreign country, it will leave impressions that will often be used in their writing. James, Maugham, Orwell and many others wrote stories about the countries they lived in. I have written a novel that is set largely in Germany because I spent a good deal of time there in the past and the memory of those times is important too me. I do agree though that one is more likely to identify with work written by one's own countrymen and women than those written by foreign writers; especially if the reader has not travelled to the countries concerned.

Sorry Keilj, but I beg to take issue with you. I personally appreciate Hemingway because he did write outside of America, as an American with an international perspective.

There is the old joke about there are Americans, and then there are Texans!

I've seen in my somewhat extensive travels, (Sorry if that sounds a bit smug Brit style) two type of Americans. Those that never travel outside of the US, let alone the State border, and the Americans that represented the pushing back of frontiers in the history of your country. I've seen Americans in Montego Bay, Jamaica wearing pith helmets associating that island with Africa. I've also met Americans in: Nigeria, Thailand, Cambodia, Philippines and God knows where, who have settled and put down roots as if like their ancestors, they were opening up the Wild West.

Hemmingway was in the latter category and believe you me, they invariably exibited greater depth, bottom and personality.

I admit Hemingway must have drawn tremendous inspiration from being: an ambulance driver on the Italian front, covering the Greco-Turkish war in 1922, Spain during the Civil War, the invasion of Normandy, big game hunting in Africa & boozing/fishing in Cuba.

The result: "Fiesta / A Farewell to Arms / For Whom The Bell Tolls / The Snows of Kilamanjaro & The Old Man and the Sea. Could he have produced this from Oak Park, Chicago?

Why denigrate him in comparison with stay at home writers? He was American but was prepared to open his horizons.

Hemingway described his experiences and put forward his views of the world through the writing of his novels

Like other prominent writers and literary figures of the time (Orwell, Ilya Ehrenberg, Arthur Koestler, Neruda) he experienced the Spanish Civil War (For Whom The Bell Tolls) first hand, he was an ambulance driver in Italy during the Great War (A Farewell To Arms) He spent many years in Paris (The Sun Also Rises) He went on safari in Africa, he spent time in Key West and Cuba (Old Man and The Sea)

He was well travelled, and had plenty to say on the events he lived through, this all helped craft the brilliant writer revered today. I love Hemingway, and his ability to end novels with a poignancy is exquisite.

Not denigrating him at all. I just found it ironic that he and Twain might be the 2 most prominent American writers - yet when you read Hemingway, you are more likely to be reading about a foreign country

I like Hemingway a lot. I love For Whom the Bell Tolls, Islands in the Stream, and To Have and Have Not tremendously.

As far as traveling - believe me I am disheartened when I meet people who have never traveled out of their own state. But I don't necessarily agree that travel is the paramount means to achieving more depth as a writer

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Originally Posted by keilj

But I don't necessarily agree that travel is the paramount means to achieving more depth as a writer

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I think it's absolutely essential.
You don't need to travel abroad necessarily but you certainly need to be well travelled in your own nation and see things from both sides of the track.

Although not directly basing himself in America geographically, I still find Hemingway deals with American themes throughout his work. He is inevitably coloured by his travelling, but I don't think he ever loses his ability to tackle the major themes running through American literature of the time.

Actually the two most prominent american novelists are Fitzgerald and Melville, and if we include poets as well, Whitman is considered the father of American literature.

Keilj
EndSarcasm has to my mind, made the most valid point so far (and thank you for the perception ES).

Leaving that to one side however, I fail to understand your point on "irony." Dickens for example seems to have written nothing except what he based on his experiences in London & perhaps extending to Bill Sykes in the 6 Bells Pub in Hatfield. And he certainly never, as far as I can ascertain, addressed sex, but is that really ironic at that period of history.

Hemingway was in that era when American writers had a spiritual home, (unlike now) in Paris, somewhat like Shelley and his ilk in Rome. Travel had opened up new vistas' of broad sunlit uplands & the path was duly trod.

Perhaps I can try to put it a different way. If you pick up a Hemingway novel, chances are you will not even be reading about America. You will be reading about a country in Europe as told by an American - but not even juxtaposed with American ideals, as Twain would do

If you disapprove of my use of "ironic", perhaps I can say that I find this fact "notable"

I didn't really want to - but I could go further and say that Hemingway did not really know America - he knew and wrote about Spain, Paris, Cuba, quite beautifully - but even in his Nick Adams short stories - I don't see much reflection about America or Americans

Interesting point.

But for the sake of argument & turning it on its head, take a totally different writer: Raymond Chandler, an American educated at one of the best schools in London and wrote extensively, and as far as I know, in an American setting.

Is it ironic or notable?

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Originally Posted by keilj

Perhaps I can try to put it a different way. If you pick up a Hemingway novel, chances are you will not even be reading about America. You will be reading about a country in Europe as told by an American - but not even juxtaposed with American ideals, as Twain would do

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Although that is true, I still feel my point applies. Superficially you may be reading about another country, but you are still largely reading about America. Not directly, but through a more detached scenario (I wasn't sure how to word this so don't hold it against me).

It's not difficult to see where Keilj is coming from but the fact that Hemingway didn't write Main Street or Babbit doesn't alter the fact that Hemingway's novels are, by virtue of their protagonists, American and even if The Old Man and the Sea is an exception, the idiom is American. Take for example Hemingway's treatment of the Spanish Civil War as compared to Orwell's, allowing for the fact that one is a novel and the other a politically coloured factual account. The first is obviously American and the second English even though they are both about Spain. Writers seldom lose their nationality, even Henry James remains an American to this day.

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Originally Posted by Alexander III

Actually the two most prominent american novelists are Fitzgerald and Melville, and if we include poets as well, Whitman is considered the father of American literature.

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Irrelevant post alert

American Literature does not have to be set in America. It's more about the themes than the setting.

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Originally Posted by keilj

Perhaps I can try to put it a different way. If you pick up a Hemingway novel, chances are you will not even be reading about America. You will be reading about a country in Europe as told by an American - but not even juxtaposed with American ideals, as Twain would do

If you disapprove of my use of "ironic", perhaps I can say that I find this fact "notable"

I didn't really want to - but I could go further and say that Hemingway did not really know America - he knew and wrote about Spain, Paris, Cuba, quite beautifully - but even in his Nick Adams short stories - I don't see much reflection about America or Americans

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I disagree about the juxtaposition. Hemingway (as well as James and Fitzgerald) used the transatlantic theme exactly juxtapose American morals and ideals with European.That's why none of those works could have been written by a European (or so I would say). American fiction taking place in Europe is, in my view, just as American as those that take place in the US.

Shakespeare didn't write many plays set in England...only the History plays and maybe King Lear and whether he travelled much,as with most information about him, is a matter of conjecture.

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Originally Posted by Ane

I disagree about the juxtaposition. Hemingway (as well as James and Fitzgerald) used the transatlantic theme exactly juxtapose American morals and ideals with European.That's why none of those works could have been written by a European (or so I would say). American fiction taking place in Europe is, in my view, just as American as those that take place in the US.

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Exactly. I'd argue that American fiction taking place in Europe gives more of an insight into the 'American mind', if there is such a thing, because it's a culture clash and comparing cultures helps bring out the different aspects in each.