Is it my age, nostalgia, or a genuine change in the world of letters? There seems to be considerably less "myth-making" about our artists in the last half century compared to the first half of the 20th century. All those American giant writers who matured in the 1920s-WWII. Before the explosion of MFA programs. There's probably a greater amount of literary talent on the planet today than ever before but the Myth is so much smaller. Writers seems so much smaller. Was Mailer the last of the breed?
Hemingway's Three Stories and Ten Poems
On this day in 1923 Ernest Hemingway published his first book, Three Stories and Ten Poems. This was an edition of 300 copies, put out by friend and fellow expatriate, the writer -- publisher Robert McAlmon. Both had arrived in Paris in 1921, Hemingway an unpublished twenty-two-year-old journalist with a recent bride, a handful of letters of introduction provided by Sherwood Anderson, and a clear imperative: "All you have to do is write one true sentence." This effort would take place in his garret hotel room and in the café -- bars where, if you were lucky, the oysters were fresh, the wine was dry, the girls were pretty and life was A Moveable Feast:
It was a pleasant café, warm clean and friendly, and I hung up my old waterproof on the coat rack to dry and put my worn and weathered felt hat on the rack above the bench and ordered a café au lait. The waiter brought it and I took out a notebook from the pocket of the coat and a pencil
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