"The Prize": A Tribute to Ernest Hemingway

Article Title: "The Prize" A Tribute to Ernest Hemingway

Submitted by: Craig Lock
Key Words: Ernest Hemingway, writing, Hemingway on writing, writing styles, Hemingway’s themes, writing themes

Web sites:

thegrandprize.wordpress.com
http://craigsbooks.wordpress.com/ and http://newbooksbycraiglock.wordpress.com/

The submitter's blog (with extracts from his various writings: articles, books and new manuscripts) is at http://en.search.wordpress.com/?q=craig+lock

Other Articles are available at:
http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/user/15565 and http://www.ideamarketers.com/library/profile.cfm?writerid=981rn(Personal growth, self help, writing, internet marketing, spiritual, 'spiritual writings' (how 'airey-fairey'), words of inspiration and money management, how boring now, craig

Publishing Guidelines:
This article (as with all my articles) may be freely published, electronically or in print.

“We share what we know, so that we all may grow”
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"THE PRIZE": A TRIBUTE TO ERNEST HEMINGWAY (1899 - 1961)

These are my notes (in point form) I took from an excellent documentary on the life of the great American writer; so am sharing. Enjoy...
Firstly, some thoughts on his unique style, which revolutionized literature.

Thoughts on Hemingway’s Style

"He wrote with an artist's devotion and the reporter's craft."

He had a succinct, spare style with short sentences and rhythms. Put across the story very simply, focussed, make the story come alive.

He said: "Write the truest sentence you know."

Hemingway was fiercely competitive in his writing, comsumed by his work - in a word, driven.

"When he wrote, it was a religious experience. He wrote with passion and commitment. I don't really know that he enjoyed writing. He had very high standards. He writes like an ascetic monk at fasting... totally committed and concentrated".

Hemingway's favourite credo: "To endure one must last." *

Hemingway's Themes

* Courage (fearless)

Living with grace under pressure

He wrote stories of dramatic change: from fear to courage

Characters being transformed by challenge (of David and Goliath).

Hemingway's novels were unparalleled. He never shied away from the BIG themes. "Whilst his style was minimal, his canvas was a LARGE one."

Hemingway wrote with insight and discipline. He fought and worked hard. The long solitary years at the type-writer perfected his craft.

The “champ” getting up off the canvas was a reflection of his own life.

"The character seems to represent the virtues, and the resilience of the little people, the spirit of battling on, no matter what your circumstances are and ultimately finding your way."

His classic, 'The Old Man and the Sea' was the pinnacle, the zenith of his writing (“man is more intelligent, though the fish was more noble").

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Ernest had a burning ambition. “He had writing, like other people had religion.” His words on receiving the Nobel Literary prize in the early fifties: "Writing is a lonely life...but when a writer writes, he sheds his loneliness, he does his work himself... and must face his ete
ity... alone."

Also he once said:

"There is no lonelier man when writing than a suicide."

and

"Those who will not break, the world kills."

On the death of his publisher friend (Scribener??) :

"I want to say, a dear and my closest friend. He had to die, but at least he got it over with. I'm too sad to write a good obituary.

"I make art through words - they are my tools, my materials...and I am the sculptor."

• "a young Hemingway" (thanks hazle)

Hemingway made art through the expression of his powerful words… and he continually tested his writing limits, those of his imagination… then exceeded his previous boundaries.

Finally, Hemingway was a true master... and masters never "peter out". He believed in endurance, one that will last, like the paintings of Rembrandt, for ete
ity, as all true great masterpieces do.

Hemingway's favourite credo: "To endure one must last"... and the legacy of Hemingway endures.

Shared by craig (“information and inspiration Distributer”)... as he “slides down the razor-blade of life’*

* that’s a metaphor, by the way

#

APPENDIX

HEMINGWAY’S WORKS

* IN OUR TIME (A book of short stories)

* THE SUN ALSO RISES ("a gripping story, lean")

* TORRENTS OF SPRING

* LOST GENERATION (about life in Paris in the early twenties)

("put very simply, focussed, make the story come alive")

* GARDENS IN THE STREAM

* ISLANDS IN THE SUN

* FAREWELL TO ARMS

* DEATH (PASSAGE?) IN THE AFTE
OON

(about Spanish bull-fighting - matadors are heroes- grace in the face of death)

* SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO (Hemingway's most famous short stories)

* GREEN HILLS OF AFRICA

* FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS (about the Spanish Civil War)

* ACROSS THE RIVER

* IN THE RIVER??

* THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA

("the epilogue of all my writing and what I have tried to live")

‘Old Man’ was the pinnacle, the zenith of his life’s work.

How’s this for a great simile on Venice?: "The Adriatic sea standing grey and yellow, like a fairy-city"

* A MOVABLE FEAST (his last work)

("damaged wings and love of light")

"Writing is a lonely life...but when a writer writes, he sheds his loneliness, he does his work himself... and must face his ete
ity... alone."

Ernest Hemingway

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“One writes to teach, to move or to delight.”

- Rodolphus Agricola
"Together, one mind, one soul at a time, let's see how many people we can impact, empower, encourage and perhaps even inspire to reach their fullest potentials.”

THIS ARTICLE MAY BE FREELY PUBLISHED

“I want to write the way Gilles Villeneuve drove and power-slid his blood-red Formula One Ferrari… with wild enthusiasm and a sense of abandonment, combined with the artists craft of a Stirling Moss, a Jim Clark, and especially that of the great Ayrton Senna, living on the razor-blade edge of life.”
for dearest mom and dad, your spirits lives on (forever)

thanks for all the support, encouragement and especially love

craig