Hemingway and Faulkner In Their Time

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

"It is almost as though they were fighting for billing on a tombstone" - John Steinbeck Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner are generally recognized as the most influential American novelists of the 20th century. Their careers paralleled one another in significant ways - two of their fledgling poems coincidentally appeared in the same avant-garde little magazine, and their first important books, The Sun Also Rises and Soldier's Pay, were published in 1926; they died a year apart, almost to the day; each won the Nobel Prize. But the trajectories of these two lives and careers were also much different. Somewhat incredibly, given many of their mutual friends (and enemies), they never met. They kept their distance but also a wary eye on one another. This book is not only a valuable addition to literary scholarship, it is also a unique re-creation of an era in American culture and letters, especially of "the charmed circle" of Parisian expatriates. By reprinting the actual words of contemporary writers in excerpts of criticism - the praise, insults, and gossip drawn from journals, diaries, and interviews - this book marks the invention of a new form of literary appreciation and commentary. It is as much biography as critique, a short, happy reference work that sometimes tells more about the commentators than their subjects. Among the writers on the writers, there is Sherwood Anderson, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Conrad Aiken, W. H. Auden, John Dos Passos, Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, Wyndham Lewis, Katherine Anne Porter, Allen Tate, Erskine Caldwell, H. L. Mencken, Henry Miller, Thomas Wolfe, Mary McCarthy, Edmund Wilson, Lillian Ross, and many others. Hemingway and Faulkner In Their Time has a chronological drift, and is capped by Faulkner's acid observations on Hemingway and vice versa. The narratives of Rovit and Waldhorn provide the cement that holds this mosaic portrait of the artists - observed and as observers - together.

Reviews

"...veteran Hemingway scholars Rovit and Waldhorn offer a specialized reception study- a record of how two of our greatest fiction writers were perceived by contemporary writers and critics as well as each other....excerpts from letters, journals, diaries, interviews, and other forms of writing re-create and celebrate the life and work of both authors from their beginnings in the 1920s through their deaths in the early 1960s. Historical background and notes provided by the compilers help to tie together the excerpts, leaving the reader with a vivid impression of the writers in their time." -Library Journal, 3/15/05
"For those jazz fans who love swing, Southern jazz, and the era where writers often-time lived what they write, then this remarkable book is for you!... Photographs, index, and biographical materials add to the enjoyment of this fine, well-written book.... A fine book, a fine look at the times Hemingway and Faulkner were living and writing in, as reflected in the comments of their contemporaries, and a sense of honest humor make this an important reading experience. Highly recommended." -JazzReview.com, 5/05
"This book is an excellent compendium of familiar voices (Anderson, Stein, and Fitzgerald) and voices not at first associated with Hemingway and Faulkner (Frost, Nabokov, and Bogan) whose assessments are nicely interwoven with the editors' commentary. The result is an admirably researched companion to Hemingway and Faulkner's oeuvres...Rovit and Waldhorn have given us a strong work of Hemingway-Faulkner scholarship showing how America's pre-eminent Modernists were locked [...] into what appears to be a remarkable shared identity' during their heated and complex rivalry. Hemingway and Faulkner in Their Time does admirably well in delineating the dynamics among Hemingway, Faulkner, and their contemporariesdynamics rife with criticism, sniping, and (begrudging) professional admiration" - The Hemingway Review, Fall 2005 -- Hemingway Review
"Rovit and Waldhorn have collected segments of journals and letters from well-known peers of Faulkner and Hemingway to provide a revealing look at how the two writers were perceived by their contemporaries. Most of the responses address Faulkner's and Hemingway's literary works, but sometimes the editors include spiteful gossip and fulsome flattery' from writers such as Sherwood Anderson, Gertrude Stein, W.H. Auden, John Dos Passos, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, and Thomas Wolfe. The volume includes a final chapter on Hemingway's and Faulkner's reactions to each other."- American Literature, December 2005 * American Literature *
"I enjoyed the lovely literary gossip, public and private, that present a kaleidoscopic picture of Hemingway and Faulkner through theirs and others' eyes." --Peter L. Hays * Blurb from reviewer *
"Hemingway and Faulkner In Their Time offers an entertaining and illuminating experience for both the general reader and the serious student of American literature. Reading it is like roaming around at a literary cocktail party, hearing snatches of conversation. The invited guests include just about every author of any consequence in the first half of the 20th century. The editors introduce each guest with an informative 'interlude.' The subjects of conversation are Hemingway and Faulkner, the two most famous writers of that period. Their publications invariably evoke widespread critical commentary from their contemporaries, and their personalities generate much trenchant gossip." --Edmond L. Volpe * Blurb from reviewer *
"Both a romp and a reference, this look at Hemingway and Faulkner through the eyes of their peers will delight readers seeking delectable gossip about the greats as well as scholars tracing the critical reputation of these two giants. The book reads like an evening at Gertrude Stein's salon, as a veritable Who's Who of the 20th century American literature share their literary insights, scandal, and jealousies about Hemingway and Faulkner with the fortunate reader. Anyone who cares about these writers will find Rovit and Waldhorn's compendium an irresistible companion, whether for recreation or research." --Susan Beegel, Editor, The Hemingway Review * Blurb from reviewer *
"By significant implication, the twentieth-century American writers in this striking 'group portrait' may be said to represent the final phase in Western cultural history of the transformation of the eccesiastical Republic of Christ intot he modern secular Republic of Letters. In this transforming process, which began long ago with the rise of the vernacular languages and the loss of Latin as the universal means of literate communication, modern writers, even yet invested with the aura of writing as a sacred office, became highly self-conscious literary artists like Hemingway and Faulkner. In a skillful mingling of quotations drawn from the journals, letters, and diaries of a diversity of novelists, poets, and critics the editors of Hemingway and Faulkner In Their Time have succeeded in creating a singularly poignant depection of the final phase of the American secularization of the Western polity of letters as this is represented in American cultural history just before it yielded to the electronic revolution."--Lewis P. Simpson, Boyd Professor, Emeritus, Louisiana State University * Blurb from reviewer *

Author Bio

EARL ROVIT is Professor Emeritus of English, The City College of New York, and is the author of Ernest Hemingway as well as several novels. Earl Rovit and Arthur Waldhorn are Professors Emeriti of The City College and veteran Hemingway scholars. They live in New York City. ARTHUR WALDHORN is also Professor Emeritus of English, CCNY, and the author of A Readers Guide to Ernest Hemingway among other books.