Ernest Hemingway

            
             In the sixty two years of Ernest Hemingway's life he produced a literary reputation that went unmatched in the twentieth century. He was looked at from many different respects from writers and critics alike: "an old wise man, a brilliant stylist, a "culture hero," a fraud and a phony, an anti-intellectual, a courageous man who took chances with the violent world around him, a drinker with a metal stomach, a fun loving sportsman, and a strange primitive man." Not only his writing but his life were continuously being watched and described. This resulted in Hemingway being perhaps the most debated and discussed author of the twentieth century. He is said to have created one of the most distinctive prose style in the English language. It was through his prose that much discussion was drawn. Hemingway's description, or lack their of in his prose caused much debate over the twentieth century. .
             "The dialogue is brilliant. If there is better dialogue being written today I do not know where to find it. More then any other talk I can call to mind, it is alive with the rhythms and idioms, the pauses and suspensions and innuendoes and short hands of living speech." This description of Hemingway's prose from Conrad Aiken, a noted critic, was not uncommon amongst other analysts. Hemingway had a way of writing prose that depicted what he saw in life with the fewest number of words possible. Many critics have found that what is most impressive about Hemingway's pieces is the way he can guide the reader's mind throughout. His stories are not to be easily read and understood. They require the reader to incorporate their mind and thoughts in order to see what others have found. In a quote from Conrad Aiken he says "Mr. Hemingway knows how not only to make words be specific but how to arrange a collection of words which shall betray a great deal more then is to be found in the individual parts. It is magnificent writing, filled with that organic action that gives a compelling picture of character.