Hemingway's Style
Ernest Hemingway's style of writing continues to be emulated today. The old joke about 20th century writers is that they can be divided into two distinct groups: those trying to write like Ernest Hemingway and those trying not to.
Ernest Hemingway is a master of dialogue. It's not so much that he is recreating precisely how individuals speak, but through his brilliant use of repetition, he is able to make the reader remember what has been said. Hemingway's style of writing was probably most influenced by his early work as a cub reporter for The Kansas City Star. There he was forced to adhere to a stylebook for young reporters, which included the following advice: "Use short sentences. Use short first paragraphs. Use vigorous English, not forgetting to strive for smoothness. Be positive, not negative."
Hemingway's words are essentially just words like any other words, but the way he stirs them together is his own unique formula, a stylistic recipe that no other writer has been able to recreate. There are sentences that only Hemingway could get away with because we know that Hemingway wrote them. Take this short sentence from For Whom the Bell Tolls: "He was dead and that was all." This is and always will be a Hemingway sentence. For a reader to immediately recognize that "Hemingway wrote this" by reading the words alone is a remarkable legacy for a writer to leave. Hemingway is truly alive in his words because his words are truly his. His style is uniquely his. This is what makes him a writer in the truest sense.
