Ernest Hemingway is pretty Badass

Many moons ago I fell in love….with a writer, Ernest Hemingway.  Ernest is possibly my favorite writer of all time.  Knowing that this is a heavy statement, I will go into depth.

Ernest Hemingway is part of the ‘Lost Generation’; a group of writers, usually expatriate (which, being a huge patriot, I hate) who fled the US during/after WWI and began writing in foreign countries.  Ernest loved to write about Spain, France and other European countries, and wrote abiding by the ‘glacier theory.’  The glacier theory is a style of writing in which the author gives you 10% of the story, and your imagination can fill in the rest.  For example in The Sun Also Rises, the main character, Jake, is injured in the war; Ernest tells the readers this and hints as to the type of injury but never really goes into detail.  This is the kind of writing style I love, it only gives you enough information to get your imagination going.

Although the Lost Generation brought into light many great writers; F. Scott Fitzgerald, T.S. Elliot, Ezra Pound, it is Hemingway that has my heart.

A huge reason why Ernest is my favorite writer has to do with his alcohol addiction and, in spite of the aforementioned addiction, his sheer brilliance.  One of my favorite works of fiction by him is the following short story and the [alleged] story behind its conception.

For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn

Believe it or not, this is a complete story.  It happens to be one that I have remembered years after hearing it, and one that has moved me more than any other 6 words have.  It fits in to his glacier style of writing, because we are never really told why the baby shoes were never worn and we get to draw our own opinions.

However, it is not the fact that this may be the shortest story ever told that makes it so appealing to me, it is how the story was created.  Legend has it that Hemingway was at a bar with a writer friend who bet him a beer that Ernest could not write a story, there in that bar, under 10 words . . . obviously, Mr. Hemingway got himself a beer. 

While I do not condone addictions of any kind, everyone can appreciate that kind of genius writing.  I do not care if he won a beer or 10 dollars; Ernest Heming was one bad ay mamba jamba.  For the reason of liking to bet, and appreciating a great story (both this story and the story of it’s origin), Baby Shoes will always be my favorite ‘flash fiction’ story.