Author: Jeffrey Meyers Year: 2009 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories:
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Hemingway's work has inspired an abundance of excellent contemporary criticism, much of it written by fellow novelists. I have based this representative selection on the inherent interest of the work and on the authority of the critic; and have deliberately included a number of English, French, Italian, Spanish, German and Russian as well as American critics. I have dispensed with trivial and uninteresting reviews; the opinions of the critics included in this volume are significant. Scriber's refused permission to use Robert Penn Warren's essay; Christopher Isherwood and John Wain did not wish to reprint their critiques of 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' and 'Islands in the Stream.' I was forced to omit reviews by James Farrell and John O'Hara, by Malcolm Cowley, Horace Gregory and Carl Van Doren, and by Cyril Connolly when the 'New York Times,' the 'New York Herald Tribune' Corporation and the 'Sunday Times' of London demanded unrealistic fees. These notices are discussed in the Introduction; John Wain, Malcolm Cowley and Cyril Connolly are represented by other work. Apart from these few disappointments, I was able to reprint all the reviews that I wished to include - despite the limitations of my budget. I am grateful to authors, editors, publishers and agents for their generous cooperation. The reviews and essays printed in this volume follow the original texts. Quotations from Hemingway's works have been retained, and typographical errors corrected.
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