The most influential American writer of the twentieth century, Ernest Hemingway was rewarded throughout his life for his achievements. Upon the appearance of his first published stories, he received the kudos of his literary peers, giants like James Joyce and Ezra Pound. With the publication of A Farewell to Arms, he achieved bestsellerdom. By the time For Whom the Bell Tolls appeared, “Papa” Hemingway was recognized worldwide by millions who had never read a word of his prose; he had achieved a degree of celebrity that had never been approached by a literary writer and has not been matched since.
Near the end of his life, the adulation was made explicit, as The Old Man and the Sea was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1953. The following year, Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for Literature “for his powerful, style-forming mastery of the art of narration.” Though his popularity has diminished somewhat in the past quarter-century due to charges of sexism and brutality in his life and work, Ernest Hemingway’s influence lives on. Whether consciously or not, any writing teacher who advises students to “show, don’t tell” is paying Hemingway tribute.
