Overview

"In Hemingway's Art of Revision, John Beall analyzes more than a dozen pieces of the author's celebrated short fiction, with a focus on manuscripts and typescripts, as part of a broader examination of how Ernest Hemingway crafted his distinctive prose through a rigorous process of revision. Ranging from two vignettes in the first version of In Our Time through early touchstones such as ""Indian Camp"" and ""The Killers"" to later masterpieces including ""Fathers and Sons,"" Beall's study considers the modernist influences, aesthetic choices, and experimental effects that characterized Hemingway's approach to the short story. Revisions to ""Big Two-Hearted River,"" for example, were not simply cuts and omissions, but involved adding paragraphs to slow down the narrative and represent Nick Adams's careful observations of fish as he watched their shadows on the river. For ""A Way You'll Never Be,"" Hemingway's revisions developed Nick's interior monologues, manic lecture about grasshoppers, and wacky sense of humor to show the character restoring a sense of emotional balance despite his traumatic memories of being wounded. By drawing attention to the meticulous omissions, additions, and replacements that shaped these texts, Beall reveals how extensively and richly Hemingway revised his drafts. Hemingway's Art of Revision gives a detailed view of a great prose stylist at work."

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9780807181157

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Reviews

"""Beall's thoughtful, probing inquiries into Hemingway's short fiction examine these narratives not as fixed artifacts but rather as fluid texts that variously evolved through multiple drafts. This archival approach explodes the popular illusions of spontaneous artistry and confident style to reveal the nagging uncertainties that compelled the author to revise obsessively.""--J. Gerald Kennedy, editor of the Norton Critical Edition of In Our Time ""John Beall's dazzling contribution to Hemingway scholarship is the first full-length study based on all extant archival material. It provides crucial insights into Hemingway's process of creation from initial fragments and ideas, through the development and continual revisions, to the final versions of the stories. Thoroughly original and persuasive, this is a must-read for anyone interested in Hemingway or the writing of fiction.""--Robert Paul Lamb, author of Art Matters: Hemingway, Craft, and the Creation of the Modern Short Story"

Author Information

John Beall taught at Collegiate School in New York City for thirty years. An independent scholar, he has published essays in the James Joyce Quarterly, Hemingway Review, MidAmerica, and Paideuma.

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