At first glance it might seem a bit of cultural dissonance to refer to one of the most famous American authors by a term that only came into popularity some years after he died. Yet, in many ways, Hemingway's life and career was the template for so many to be called rock stars in the decades immediately following his death in 1961.
Hemingway well earned his prominent place on our list of top 20 most famous American authors . His literary achievements alone would earn him his ranking. Yet, there is no disputing that Hemingway as icon far transcended his literary legacy in casting the mold of 20st century artistic celebrity.
Still in his 20s he rocketed to critical acclaim with his anguished and restless novella The Sun Also Rises. Just a couple years later, still basking in his critical cache, he also became a bestselling author, with the publication of A Farewell to Arms. The latter was sandwiched between a pair of story collections that were so remarkable that it is fair to say that Hemingway singlehandedly reinvented the short story. Stories like A Day's Wait, A Clean and Well-Lighted Place and Hills Like White Elephants were heartbreaking snapshots of life's tiny emotional wounds and scars.
It is hard to think of any other artist, in any medium, who managed to combine both critical and commercial acclaim at such a young age. There were a number of factors coming together to make this remarkable success possible for the young Hemingway.
For one thing, like so many of the most successful rock artists to follow in the decades soon after his death - think of David Bowie, David Byrne and Madonna - he showed an astute ability to absorb valuable lessons from avant garde and experimental artists, outside the mainstream, and yet recognized how to leverage those insights while still appealing to a mass audience. In Hemingway's case, he drew from the work of Ezra Pound, James Joyce and Gertrude Stein, among others, while still crafting stories that captured the spirit of his time.
And capture it, he did. In a way quite similar to how rock and roll captured the rebelliousness and idealism of the highly educated and materially privileged 1960s baby boom generation, Hemingway's stories captured the sullen ennui and restlessness of the post-WWI cohort that came to be known as the lost generation.
Such youthful meteoric success though, much as it's pined for by artistically inclined youth, generation after generation in the 20th century, has a heavy price to pay. For, where does one go from there; what is the encore? After the publication of For Whom the Bell Tolls, in 1940, a work already short of his youthful achievements, Hemingway's publications throughout the rest of the decade sank into an ever more uneasy reception from the public and critics alike.
For all that, though, Hemingway never ceased to be a household name and a source of constant popular fascination. Further, not only was he aware of this aspect of his fame, but he seems to have taken no small effort in cultivating it. He nurtured relationships with influential gossip columnists and photographs of him hunting or fishing big game always had a way of finding their way into the glossy magazines of the period.
Rather far ahead of his time, he was the pitchman for a number of consumer goods, including a pen, airline and a beer. Additionally there was a regular supply of letters from Hemingway to literary and other publications in which he contributed to the continual building and shaping of his persona and mystique as man's man and anti-intellectual intellectual.
By this time, at least in literary circles, Hemingway had plenty of detractors - those who depicted him as being reduced to a kind of self parody. To get a sense of how some were now regarding Hemingway, we might consider the 60s and 70s rock and pop bands, grey and flabby, that today cash in on their former glory on the casinos and community hall circuit.
In Hemingway's case, however, one last triumph was still awaiting. Imagine those hanging-on senior citizen rock bands that, instead, of just endlessly playing the feel good greatest hits, actually had the brashness to insist on playing new material. And, to everyone's amazement, produced yet one more gold record.
Just when almost all critical and even commercial opinion seemed to be on the side that as a writer, Hemingway was over, he struck one more time, with an act of literary accomplishment that some still consider the greatest of his long career. Suddenly, in 1952, with the publication of The Old Man and the Sea, taking the world of letters and literature by storm, Earnest Hemingway was artistically relevant once more. This resurgence in the autumn of his life was soon after rewarded with the Nobel Prize in literature, which finally cemented his legend.
And yet, there was something too true in the story, as there always was in Hemingway's greatest work. This story of an elderly man, near the end of life, who experiences his last grasp at greatness slip fleetingly through his fingers, perhaps told us more about the tragic heart of the legend than many wanted to hear.
And of course he molded that template for 20th century artistic celebrity right to the end. Anticipating all the tragic rock star youths which would follow the path he'd beaten, in 1961, in an isolated home, Hemingway succumbed to his own misdoing, in a suicidal fog of depression and substance abuse. The world lost one of the most important artists of the 20th century. In the process, the template of artistic celebrity which Hemingway made, received its finishing touch. And it would be a mold, simultaneously triumphant and tragic that informed the aspirations of dreamy youth throughout the rest of the century.
And it still does.
Hemingway well earned his prominent place on our list of top 20 most famous American authors . His literary achievements alone would earn him his ranking. Yet, there is no disputing that Hemingway as icon far transcended his literary legacy in casting the mold of 20st century artistic celebrity.
Still in his 20s he rocketed to critical acclaim with his anguished and restless novella The Sun Also Rises. Just a couple years later, still basking in his critical cache, he also became a bestselling author, with the publication of A Farewell to Arms. The latter was sandwiched between a pair of story collections that were so remarkable that it is fair to say that Hemingway singlehandedly reinvented the short story. Stories like A Day's Wait, A Clean and Well-Lighted Place and Hills Like White Elephants were heartbreaking snapshots of life's tiny emotional wounds and scars.
It is hard to think of any other artist, in any medium, who managed to combine both critical and commercial acclaim at such a young age. There were a number of factors coming together to make this remarkable success possible for the young Hemingway.
For one thing, like so many of the most successful rock artists to follow in the decades soon after his death - think of David Bowie, David Byrne and Madonna - he showed an astute ability to absorb valuable lessons from avant garde and experimental artists, outside the mainstream, and yet recognized how to leverage those insights while still appealing to a mass audience. In Hemingway's case, he drew from the work of Ezra Pound, James Joyce and Gertrude Stein, among others, while still crafting stories that captured the spirit of his time.
And capture it, he did. In a way quite similar to how rock and roll captured the rebelliousness and idealism of the highly educated and materially privileged 1960s baby boom generation, Hemingway's stories captured the sullen ennui and restlessness of the post-WWI cohort that came to be known as the lost generation.
Such youthful meteoric success though, much as it's pined for by artistically inclined youth, generation after generation in the 20th century, has a heavy price to pay. For, where does one go from there; what is the encore? After the publication of For Whom the Bell Tolls, in 1940, a work already short of his youthful achievements, Hemingway's publications throughout the rest of the decade sank into an ever more uneasy reception from the public and critics alike.
For all that, though, Hemingway never ceased to be a household name and a source of constant popular fascination. Further, not only was he aware of this aspect of his fame, but he seems to have taken no small effort in cultivating it. He nurtured relationships with influential gossip columnists and photographs of him hunting or fishing big game always had a way of finding their way into the glossy magazines of the period.
Rather far ahead of his time, he was the pitchman for a number of consumer goods, including a pen, airline and a beer. Additionally there was a regular supply of letters from Hemingway to literary and other publications in which he contributed to the continual building and shaping of his persona and mystique as man's man and anti-intellectual intellectual.
By this time, at least in literary circles, Hemingway had plenty of detractors - those who depicted him as being reduced to a kind of self parody. To get a sense of how some were now regarding Hemingway, we might consider the 60s and 70s rock and pop bands, grey and flabby, that today cash in on their former glory on the casinos and community hall circuit.
In Hemingway's case, however, one last triumph was still awaiting. Imagine those hanging-on senior citizen rock bands that, instead, of just endlessly playing the feel good greatest hits, actually had the brashness to insist on playing new material. And, to everyone's amazement, produced yet one more gold record.
Just when almost all critical and even commercial opinion seemed to be on the side that as a writer, Hemingway was over, he struck one more time, with an act of literary accomplishment that some still consider the greatest of his long career. Suddenly, in 1952, with the publication of The Old Man and the Sea, taking the world of letters and literature by storm, Earnest Hemingway was artistically relevant once more. This resurgence in the autumn of his life was soon after rewarded with the Nobel Prize in literature, which finally cemented his legend.
And yet, there was something too true in the story, as there always was in Hemingway's greatest work. This story of an elderly man, near the end of life, who experiences his last grasp at greatness slip fleetingly through his fingers, perhaps told us more about the tragic heart of the legend than many wanted to hear.
And of course he molded that template for 20th century artistic celebrity right to the end. Anticipating all the tragic rock star youths which would follow the path he'd beaten, in 1961, in an isolated home, Hemingway succumbed to his own misdoing, in a suicidal fog of depression and substance abuse. The world lost one of the most important artists of the 20th century. In the process, the template of artistic celebrity which Hemingway made, received its finishing touch. And it would be a mold, simultaneously triumphant and tragic that informed the aspirations of dreamy youth throughout the rest of the century.
And it still does.
About the Author:
To keep up on the scoop about American writers, living and breathing or not, check out Mickey Jhonny's work at the site Famous American Authors . He also follows the trends in sophisticated television: catch his insightful articles at the Don Draper Haircut site.
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