Ernest Hemingway on Writing

The book came in with big disgusting stains on the pages.

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

What if someone painstakingly went through the whole of Hemingway’s oeuvre (novels, interviews, articles, letters) to find everything he ever said on the subject of writing, then sorted the extracts into 13 categories and bound them together in a little 140-page volume...?Wow, thanks Larry W. Phillips – this is pure gold. Larry says: “As I brought them together... something unusual happened. Comments apparently made at random, at different times, often decades apart, and in different cities or countries, magically began to fit together like pieces of a puzzle.” Yes, absolutely, and Hemingway’s writing creed is a very marvellous thing. It has me looking back at my note on ‘For whom the bell tolls’ in 2011, unsurprised to find I said: “Wow. A huge book. Up there with War & Peace and Hamlet and a tense, gripping thriller into the bargain. Consummate craft, unwavering sincerity, profound, moving themes.”Here’s part of the last extract in ‘On Writing’, in the category ‘The writer’s life’: “You must be prepared to work always without applause. When you are excited about something is when the first draft is done. But no one can see it until you have gone over it again and again until you have communicated the emotion, the sights and the sounds to the reader, and by the time you have completed this the words, sometimes, will not make sense to you as you read them, so many times have you re-read them. By the time the book comes out... it is all behind you... but... you read it and you see all the places that now you can do nothing about... Finally, in some other place, some other time, when you can’t work and feel like hell you will pick up the book and look in it and start to read and go on and in a little while say... why this stuff is bloody marvellous.”

Hemingway is a true guide. The simplicity and brevity of writing is explicit enough to penetrate into the heart of readers, I felt after reading it.

it was very insightful

We have all read his words, but what of his art, his profession, from his perspective. Reading 'Ernest Hemingway On Writing' was, in part, like a one on one conversation with the man himself. His most private thoughts, his explanations, considerations, loves and hates, his favourite writers, his darkness and his brilliance. It showed him as just another man, with a great passion and hard-fought gift. I very much enjoyed Ernest Hemingway On Writing.