At first glance it might seem a bit of cultural dissonance to refer to one of the most famous American authors by a term that only came into popularity some years after he died. Yet, in many ways, Hemingway's life and career was the template for so many to be called rock stars in the decades immediately following his death in 1961.
Hemingway well earned his prominent place on our list of top 20 most famous American authors . His literary achievements alone would earn him his ranking. Yet, there is no disputing that Hemingway as icon far transcended his literary legacy in casting the mold of 20st century artistic celebrity.
Still in his 20s he rocketed to critical acclaim with his anguished and restless novella The Sun Also Rises. Just a couple years later, still basking in his critical cache, he also became a bestselling author, with the publication of A Farewell to Arms. The latter was sandwiched between a pair of story collections that were so remarkable that it is fair to say that Hemingway singlehandedly reinvented the short story. Stories like A Day's Wait, A Clean and Well-Lighted Place and Hills Like White Elephants were heartbreaking snapshots of life's tiny emotional wounds and scars.
An infinitesimally small number of artists ever achieve such heights and even fewer in the first decade of adulthood. Many things contributed to this sensation that was the young Hemingway.
For one thing, like so many of the most successful rock artists to follow in the decades soon after his death - think of David Bowie, David Byrne and Madonna - he showed an astute ability to absorb valuable lessons from avant garde and experimental artists, outside the mainstream, and yet recognized how to leverage those insights while still appealing to a mass audience. In Hemingway's case, he drew from the work of Ezra Pound, James Joyce and Gertrude Stein, among others, while still crafting stories that captured the spirit of his time.
And capture it, he did. Indeed, it is not too much of an exaggeration to compare the way that rock and roll tapped into the rebellious idealism of the highly educated and materially privileged 1960s baby boom generation, with the way that Hemingway's stories touched a chord in the sullen ennui and restlessness of the post-WWI zeitgeist. Those who came to be called the lost generation found in Hemingway someone who sang their song.
Like, though, any artist who has such early meteoric success, replicating it can be a difficult thing to do. Though he had some modest "hits" along the way, it is not unfair to say he never quite reached the same heights literarily again after the early 30s. Probably only For Whom the Bell Tolls approached his early breakthrough works.
For all that, though, Hemingway never ceased to be a household name and a source of constant popular fascination. Further, not only was he aware of this aspect of his fame, but he seems to have taken no small effort in cultivating it. He nurtured relationships with influential gossip columnists and photographs of him hunting or fishing big game always had a way of finding their way into the glossy magazines of the period.
Rather far ahead of his time, he was the pitchman for a number of consumer goods, including a pen, airline and a beer. Additionally there was a regular supply of letters from Hemingway to literary and other publications in which he contributed to the continual building and shaping of his persona and mystique as man's man and anti-intellectual intellectual.
Many accused Hemingway by the middle of the century of having become a kind of parody of himself. Indeed, one can't help thinking of all the 60s and 70s rock and pop bands, grey and flabby, who continue to rake in the dough on the nostalgia circuit of casinos and community halls.
In Hemingway's case, however, one last triumph was still awaiting. Imagine those hanging-on senior citizen rock bands that, instead, of just endlessly playing the feel good greatest hits, actually had the brashness to insist on playing new material. And, to everyone's amazement, produced yet one more gold record.
Just when it seemed that the world had seen all the original and powerful work an elderly Hemingway had to offer, suddenly, in 1952, he did it again. The Old Man and the Sea took the literary world by storm and once again made Hemingway artistically relevant.
That it was a story of an elderly man, with one last chance at greatness, who sees it slip away between his fingers, never quite really within his grasp, may remind us that his most successful works were those with a vaguely autobiographical flavor - and a sense of inexorable tragedy.
And of course he molded that template for 20th century artistic celebrity right to the end. Anticipating all the tragic rock star youths which would follow the path he'd beaten, in 1961, in an isolated home, Hemingway succumbed to his own misdoing, in a suicidal fog of depression and substance abuse. The world lost one of the most important artists of the 20th century. In the process, the template of artistic celebrity which Hemingway made, received its finishing touch. And it would be a mold, simultaneously triumphant and tragic that informed the aspirations of dreamy youth throughout the rest of the century.
And in all likelihood does so still.
Hemingway well earned his prominent place on our list of top 20 most famous American authors . His literary achievements alone would earn him his ranking. Yet, there is no disputing that Hemingway as icon far transcended his literary legacy in casting the mold of 20st century artistic celebrity.
Still in his 20s he rocketed to critical acclaim with his anguished and restless novella The Sun Also Rises. Just a couple years later, still basking in his critical cache, he also became a bestselling author, with the publication of A Farewell to Arms. The latter was sandwiched between a pair of story collections that were so remarkable that it is fair to say that Hemingway singlehandedly reinvented the short story. Stories like A Day's Wait, A Clean and Well-Lighted Place and Hills Like White Elephants were heartbreaking snapshots of life's tiny emotional wounds and scars.
An infinitesimally small number of artists ever achieve such heights and even fewer in the first decade of adulthood. Many things contributed to this sensation that was the young Hemingway.
For one thing, like so many of the most successful rock artists to follow in the decades soon after his death - think of David Bowie, David Byrne and Madonna - he showed an astute ability to absorb valuable lessons from avant garde and experimental artists, outside the mainstream, and yet recognized how to leverage those insights while still appealing to a mass audience. In Hemingway's case, he drew from the work of Ezra Pound, James Joyce and Gertrude Stein, among others, while still crafting stories that captured the spirit of his time.
And capture it, he did. Indeed, it is not too much of an exaggeration to compare the way that rock and roll tapped into the rebellious idealism of the highly educated and materially privileged 1960s baby boom generation, with the way that Hemingway's stories touched a chord in the sullen ennui and restlessness of the post-WWI zeitgeist. Those who came to be called the lost generation found in Hemingway someone who sang their song.
Like, though, any artist who has such early meteoric success, replicating it can be a difficult thing to do. Though he had some modest "hits" along the way, it is not unfair to say he never quite reached the same heights literarily again after the early 30s. Probably only For Whom the Bell Tolls approached his early breakthrough works.
For all that, though, Hemingway never ceased to be a household name and a source of constant popular fascination. Further, not only was he aware of this aspect of his fame, but he seems to have taken no small effort in cultivating it. He nurtured relationships with influential gossip columnists and photographs of him hunting or fishing big game always had a way of finding their way into the glossy magazines of the period.
Rather far ahead of his time, he was the pitchman for a number of consumer goods, including a pen, airline and a beer. Additionally there was a regular supply of letters from Hemingway to literary and other publications in which he contributed to the continual building and shaping of his persona and mystique as man's man and anti-intellectual intellectual.
Many accused Hemingway by the middle of the century of having become a kind of parody of himself. Indeed, one can't help thinking of all the 60s and 70s rock and pop bands, grey and flabby, who continue to rake in the dough on the nostalgia circuit of casinos and community halls.
In Hemingway's case, however, one last triumph was still awaiting. Imagine those hanging-on senior citizen rock bands that, instead, of just endlessly playing the feel good greatest hits, actually had the brashness to insist on playing new material. And, to everyone's amazement, produced yet one more gold record.
Just when it seemed that the world had seen all the original and powerful work an elderly Hemingway had to offer, suddenly, in 1952, he did it again. The Old Man and the Sea took the literary world by storm and once again made Hemingway artistically relevant.
That it was a story of an elderly man, with one last chance at greatness, who sees it slip away between his fingers, never quite really within his grasp, may remind us that his most successful works were those with a vaguely autobiographical flavor - and a sense of inexorable tragedy.
And of course he molded that template for 20th century artistic celebrity right to the end. Anticipating all the tragic rock star youths which would follow the path he'd beaten, in 1961, in an isolated home, Hemingway succumbed to his own misdoing, in a suicidal fog of depression and substance abuse. The world lost one of the most important artists of the 20th century. In the process, the template of artistic celebrity which Hemingway made, received its finishing touch. And it would be a mold, simultaneously triumphant and tragic that informed the aspirations of dreamy youth throughout the rest of the century.
And in all likelihood does so still.
About the Author:
To keep up on the scoop about American writers, dead or alive, check out Mickey Jhonny's work at the blog Famous American Authors . He also keeps tabs on the hottest shows in sophisticated television: catch his great work at the Don Draper Haircut site.
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