Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire HEMINGWAY'S CODE

I had always felt that I had cheated myself by never seeking out Hemingway's books and reading them.

After reading through this thread, I am convinced the man was an absolute, self centered, narcissistic ass.

I feel much less cheated now. After hearing how he treated those he felt were "beneath" him, it would be impossible to enjoy a single word of his prose.

I think I will go read Jim Carmichael's "Book of the Rifle" one more time.

hate to bust your bubble, but the guys I know that know Carmichael, seemed to think he was pretty full of himself.


I know, I know, ignorance is bliss.

whydya think I'm so happy alla the time?

I wouldn't judge him on how he ended either. I lost a friend a few years ago. He at one time was a nationally ranked competitor at camp perry, a fine rifle shot. We had a common interest in firearms, reloading, casting, and so on. He had lost most of his lungs to smoking, had no rubber left in his spine, hurt to just move or breathe. I was in the process of helping him dispose of his collection and equipment, and one day he told me to leave a mark I 1903 springfield there in the house rather than returning it to the hideyhole. I never thought anything about it, it was his rifle. Few weeks later he went into the bathroom stuck the barrel in his mouth and pulled the trigger. I heard the story of what he did about six months later. And understood. He was about at the stage to be put in a home, with no future, but it would have taken what little he had. And he was worried about the future for his wife. I figured in my thinking being as he was an ex panama canal marine and through WWII as a marine, he had the courage to determine how he went out, still thinking of his wife. I don't fault him for that. He was a good man. It's not for us to pass judgement.

I never met Jim. But have read many stories by folks who have shared a campfire or hunting lodge with the man. Without an exception, they named him a real gentleman.

Make no mistake: you have cheated yourself.

Ernest Hemingway was the best writer of American fiction in the 20th century, at least up until the 1980's, when Mark Helprin burst onto the scene.

If you care about American literature, you need to read Hemingway. I studied Hemingway in college, and came to love his prose. No one has ever done what he did with so few words. I also studied, Faulkner & Fitzgerald, who made up what might be considered the trimvirate of 20th century American fiction.

In my opinion, no one came close to any of these three until the late 1980's when Mark Helprin burst onto the scene.

Hemingway was the master in his time, and if God grants that our civilization should carry on a few centuries longer, he will be elevated even higher than he was in his own lifetime.

Reminds me - time to re-read Memoirs from an Ant-Proof case. I saw it on the bookshelf the other day and it's been 15 years since I've picked it up.

Read the Hemingway book published after his death, "True at First Light." It is a fictionalized novel about a 1953 Safari. Compare the writing in the forward by his son, and then the old man's writing. You will understand how well he wrote with the comparison. I still love the "Old Man and the Sea" and "The Green Hills of Africa." His writing is spare yet elegant in its execution, though not all of the stories are something that will hold everyone's interest. His ego got in the way of his life. When he couldn't live that life and perform any longer, he took "his way out."