Hemingway's guns

[Kensal Rise]

Steve:
Whoever Hemingway "was," he was certainly a man of importance, as this thread testifies. And a damn good writer. Ruark, on the other hand, fancied himself a bush league Hemingway -- but never quite lived up to Papa's towering image.
Nonetheless, warm gin is better than no gin. Cup composition aside.

Best, Kensal

[Stepmac]

Originally Posted by Kensal Rise

Steve:
Whoever Hemingway "was," he was certainly a man of importance, as this thread testifies. And a damn good writer. Ruark, on the other hand, fancied himself a bush league Hemingway -- but never quite lived up to Papa's towering image.
Nonetheless, warm gin is better than no gin. Cup composition aside.

Best, Kensal

Yes indeed Hem lived a larger than life, life. So, but to a lessor extent, did Ruark. I agree that Ruark felt as if he lived and worked in Hem's shadow and one seldom considers him without comparing him to EH. Last year and for the third time I re-read most of what both men wrote. I found Hem somewhat dated and Ruark not so much. Some, IMHO of Hem's work is unreadable, Death In the Afternoon being one that I have never been able to dig through. Nor have I been able to stick with Ruark's The Honey Badger.

Ruark's best is Something of Value and I love the work. Hem's early books I read for their style, the stories IMHO hackneyed. My fave Hem book is one of his least important, A Moveable Feast which has been published in several versions....the latest is the best.

I think that both men were great writers and maybe great men. Hem is unique and people will be reading about him for a lot time to come. Stephen Crane was a better writer than either tho. So was Fitzgerald when in his prime.

[Grantham Forester]

Originally Posted by Kensal Rise

Steve:
Whoever Hemingway "was," he was certainly a man of importance, as this thread testifies. And a damn good writer. Ruark, on the other hand, fancied himself a bush league Hemingway -- but never quite lived up to Papa's towering image.
Nonetheless, warm gin is better than no gin. Cup composition aside.

Best, Kensal

Well said indeed. Two somewhat "obscure" books written about Ernest Hemingway that are quite telling, IMO anyway: "Hemingway in Cuba" by Hilary Hemingway and Carlene Brennen and "The True Gen" by Denis Brian. Strange that in mentioning Robert Ruark, who died in Spain in 1965, no body has mentioned his "The Old Man and The Boy" series for Field and Stream. Top shelf work there. And his "The Honey Badger" has Alex Barr as Ruark with his hand-to-mouth existence as a newspaperman, as much as Hemingway's "Islands In The Stream" has Thomas Hudson (painter) as Hemingway's alter ego.