Title
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)
Document Type
Essay
Annotation
Characterizes Hemingway as an elegiac poet influenced by Walt Whitman’s style and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s vision of self-reliance. Applauds Hemingway’s contributions to the short story genre, identifying “Hills Like White Elephants,” “God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen,” and “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” as true literary masterpieces. Disparages For Whom the Bell Tolls, To Have and Have Not and other novels, contending that Hemingway’s stylistic genius, stretched beyond its limits in the longer narrative structure, devolves into incoherent understatement. Previously published in How to Read and Why. New York: Scribner’s, 2000. 46-51.
Published in
The American Canon: Literary Genius from Emerson to Pynchon
Date
2019
Pages
266-274
COinS
Citation
Bloom, Harold. “Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961).” In The American Canon: Literary Genius from Emerson to Pynchon, edited by David Mikics, 266-74. New York: Library of America, 2019.