Even if his productivity had waned, and even if the searing brilliance that defined seemingly every story and novel of his early years had, by 1952, been reduced to an occasional flare of the old genius, “Papa” was still a cultural force to be reckoned with. Incredibly, one of Hemingway’s most highly regarded novels, the short masterpiece, The Old Man and the Sea, was first published, in its entirety, in a single issue of LIFE magazine in September 1952.Īt the time, Hemingway was-if we might employ an apt metaphor for a man who fairly worshiped machismo-the heavyweight champ of American letters. He was, however-and more than five decades after his death, he remains-the single most influential, most parodied, most prominent, most immense American author of the past 100 years.

despite what countless acolytes might claim, Hemingway was not the greatest American writer of the 20th century. The preposterous literary myth that Hemingway himself created and nurtured, meanwhile-that of the brawling, hard-drinking, thrill-seeking sportsman who is also an uncompromising, soulful artist-ensured that generations of writers would not merely revere him, but (often to their abiding detriment) would also try to emulate him.Īnd yet most readers, when pressed, might name a slew of other authors, living and dead (Faulkner, Bellow, Cormac McCarthy) who, across the years, crafted more varied and more consistently excellent work than Hemingway’s. After all, if he had written nothing besides, say, The Sun Also Rises, the early collection, In Our Time, and the superlative “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” he would still be an indispensable American writer. That Ernest Hemingway was, for years, the most celebrated writer in America is hardly surprising.

The old man and the sea 1st edition