Hemingway's Hidden Craft

About this book

The story of Hemingways composition of his classic war novel this book gives revealing insights into the artistic method of a master writer. Bernard Oldseya published novelist as well as teacher and critichas uncovered new evidence of Ernest Hemingways exact and sensitive craftsmanship. This evidence includes transcripts of two handwritten chapters constituting the earliest beginning of the novel known to exist as well as forty-one variant endingsmaterial published here in full for the first time by permission of Mary Hemingway. Following an introduction on the novels publishing history in the context of the novelists career Professor Oldseys chapters examine Hemingways selection of a title; his development of settings characters and plot elements inspired by his own war experiences; his struggle to find an opening with the best possible "poetic method dramatic structure and narrative overview"; and his search for the right ending to complete the novels circle "by a geometry of his own." The thirty-three titles considered by Hemingway are discussed in Chapter 1 which shows the counterpoint between his quest for a title and his composition of the novel. Chapter 2 shows the differences between A Farewell to Arms and the novelists actual experiences in the Italian campaign in the context of a general consideration of the relation of autobiography to fiction. Chapter 3 shows for the first time the drastic adjustment Hemingway made in the novels opening choosing a lyrical description rather than beginning in the midst of the action as he first intended. Chapter 4 shows Hemingways forty rejected attempts before he "obtained the flat nihilistic numbing conclusion that the novel now has"and needs in order to avoid false sentimentality. Appendixes present transcripts of the original beginning and variant endings from manuscripts contained in the Hemingway Collection of the John F. Kennedy Library.