Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Jan 17, 8pm ~~ Review asap.

Jan 20, noon thirty ~~ First of all, the information geek in me insists on copying the GR blurb of my edition of this book.
This edition of "in our time" (lower case) is for copies of the 1924 original edition of 170 copies or the 1977 facsimile edition of 1,700 copies or other facsimiles containing only the original 18 vignettes on 32 pages. This edition should not be combined with the later 1925 or 1930 editions where the 18 vignettes became the 16 inter-chapters to the longer short stories of "In Our Time" (upper case) and vignette Chapter 10 became "A Very Short Story" and vignette Chapter 11 became "The Revolutionist".

I read the 1924 edition, the one with only 18 'vignettes', at Project Gutenberg. But nearly every review I saw at this edition's book page talked about the later expanded editions, and claimed that one or the other of them was Hemingway's first book. HIs first book was 1923's Three Stories and Ten Poems. His second book was this 1924 edition of in our time and his third book was an expanded In Our Time from 1925,

I am no Hemingway scholar, but when I see conflicting information and reviews of different editions of books all showing up under one title, I get confused. To sort myself out I like to track down the actual facts to the best of my ability. My information in this case comes from WIki.

So, now that my griping about the data is out of my system, I will get to my griping about EH and this book. I never cared for Hemingway, probably because I was forced to read him in school. But I am doing a Buddy Read of Death in the Afternoon with GR friend Mr. James, and when real life put our book on pause for a bit, I happened to notice this title at Gutenberg. I thought it would be a chance to see early writing and maybe even answer some of my questions about the man.

I read this little book three times before I was all done. Once for a first gut reaction, once again to compare the timeline of the author's experiences in WWI, and once again to try harder to discover what about the writing supposedly made EH so special.

Gut reactions ~~ Intense scenes, could be made into incredible stories but feel more like random thoughts to build on, like in a writer's notebook. Is this really all he wanted to say on these topics? Or did he simply not know how to expand his ideas? Are these his experiences? If so, then that is why he obsesses so much about cowardice in DITA! And this is why he hates women. Overall, not impressed.

Timeline comparison ~~ EH was a volunteer ambulance driver with the Red Cross Motor Corps. Left USA in May 1918, was in Paris, and by June was in Italy. Severely injured on July 8, spent six months in hospital where he fell in love with Agnes. Returned to America January 1919. Safe to assume that all the war 'vignettes' came from his own experiences.

Special? ~~ Why? His style was not new, according to the wiki article about Jim Tully. I quote passages here since GR has no biographical info about him at all.

Born near St. Marys, Ohio, to James Dennis and Bridget Marie Lawler Tully, an Irish immigrant ditch-digger and his wife, Tully enjoyed a relatively happy but impoverished childhood until the death of his mother in 1892. Unable to care for him, his father sent him to an orphanage in Cincinnati. He remained there for six years. What further education he acquired came in the hobo camps, boxcars, railroad yards, and public libraries scattered across the country. Finally, weary of the road, he arrived in Kent, Ohio, where he worked as a chain maker, professional boxer, and tree surgeon. He also began to write, mostly poetry published in the local newspapers.

He moved to Hollywood in 1912, when he began writing in earnest. His literary career took two distinct paths. He became one of the first reporters to cover Hollywood. As a free-lancer he was not constrained by the studios and wrote about Hollywood celebrities (including Charlie Chaplin, for whom he had worked) in ways that they did not always find agreeable. For these pieces, rather tame by current standards, he became known as the most-hated man in Hollywood—a title he relished. Less lucrative but closer to his heart were the books he wrote about his life on the road and the American underclass. He also wrote an affectionate memoir of his childhood with his extended Irish family, as well as novels on prostitution, boxing, Hollywood, and a travel book. While some of the more graphic books ran afoul of the censors, they also garnered both commercial success and critical acclaim from, among others, H. L. Mencken, George Jean Nathan, and Rupert Hughes, who wrote that Tully "has fathered the school of hard-boiled writing so zealously cultivated by Ernest Hemingway and lesser luminaries."

When I finish with EH, I have two Tully titles to read. One is a reread which I remember being as quite coarse but honest and impressive. That is not something I have felt yet about EH, but I still have half of DITA to go and then a reread of his non-fiction work The Dangerous Summer, so there is a possibility he will still surprise me. But I doubt I will return to EH after this project is completed. So far there has been nothing that compels me to explore beyond these plans.

If anyone is still reading at this point, thanks for your time!