Midnight in Paris is a fantastic movie starring Owen Wilson. Walking the streets of Paris, he is transported back in time to the Lost Generation of the 1920s. Here we get a glimpse of Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
In real life, these two literary greats were once closest friends and furious competitors. Both were born in the late 1890s. Hemingway drove an ambulance in WWI and was a reporter in the Spanish Civil War, while Fitzgerald dropped out of Princeton.
Notable books, at least for me, are Hemingway’s The Old Man and The Sea and Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
In the movie, Owen Wilson’s character asked Hemingway to read his book. Hemingway’s response, without reading it, was “My opinion is I hate it. If it’s bad, I’ll hate it because I hate bad writing, and if it’s good, I’ll be envious and hate all the more. You don’t want the opinion of another writer.”
That last part was not really true for Hemingway as he often sent Fitzgerald his manuscripts to look at. In one instance for A Farewell to Arms, Fitzgerald sent back a ton of commentary and edits. On the end of his critique, in typical Hemingway style, Fitzgerald wrote, “A beautiful book it is.” And in his typical style, Hemingway added “Kiss my ass, EH.” But he did heed some of Fitzgerald’s advice.
I have not read A Farwell to Arms and it is on my list. According to the New York Times, there were 47 different endings. I would not be surprised if some version of the book included them all. In their competitive nature, it is said that Fitzgerald had 47 alternate endings for The Great Gatsby. And when the New York Times report came out about Hemingway’s, the scholars and family members discovered the 48th ending, called the Hemingway ending.
I’ve read The Great Gatsby and it probably deserves more than one reading. In typical Hemingway style and in jest here is the alternate ending. “And so we beat on, boats against the current, and the water moved swiftly and the air blew hard against us and the past washed back upon us and the water kept coming and the wind kept breaking and then it rained. Match that, buster.”
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