[Grantham Forester]

Hemingway described with unusual knowledge and authority physical pleasure, the natural world, violent experiences, and sudden death. He portrayed the heroic possibilities and tragic consequences of wars, the psychic dislocation in battle, and the stoicism of survival. He created unsurpassed images of Italy, France, Spain, and Africa. As a man, he had intense idealism, curiosity, energy, strength, and courage. He attractively combined hedonism and hard work, was a great teacher of ritual and technique, carried an aura of glamor and power. As an artist, he wrote as naturally as a hawk flies and as clearly as a lake reflects."

Ernest Hemingway died 51 years ago this month. IMO, he, and one other American writer, who also had a newspaper reporter's training, have been enduring influences on the entire field of literature, and will be so for as long as man takes pen to paper. The other writer is Samuel Langhorn Clemens.