On the Birthday of Hemingway

"If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast."

Today is the birthday of one of my absolute favorites in literature--Ernest Hemingway.  Having passed away in 1961, he's been gone for quite some time.  But it was decades later when I was first introduced to his work, and so much of his work lives on today as some of the most popular.

One of my favorite things about Hemingway, in fact, grows out of his presence across generations.  I recall when I first spoke of him and his work, my mom's ears immediately perked up.  This provided one of those fun bridges just as Steinbeck does.  Other things that bring Hemingway a little closer to home for me include his passion for fishing, which is of huge importance in my family, the simplicity of his prose and yet the complex relationships that grow out of that and, last but not least, the legend surrounding his cats with six toes in Key West.

As a whole, I'm fascinated by Hemingway's generation--the 1920s expatriate authors.  My fondness for that group of authors, in particular, is rooted in the distinct culture they created and maintained.  In fact, I found myself having a lot in common with Owen Wilson's character, Gil, from Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, which spotlights Hemingway and his contemporaries.  This being the case, one of my favorite works is Hemingway's memoir, A Moveable Feast, from which the above quote comes.  This work breathed life into the amazing artists of this time, lending them each personalities and quirks as the real people they were.  This made it a pretty magical read for me, and I recommend it to others.


In thinking more about the quote above, I believe Hemingway's thought here is universal.  We can expand it to encapsulate so much of life.  In other words, most if not all of life's experiences are moveable feasts.  Just as he carried the moveable feasts of war, complicated relationships and Paris with him, we all carry our various experiences with us.  The gift he had was taking all of these moveable feasts and making them lasting works of literature.   


And so today, as you carry on about your Saturday business, take a quick few minutes to think about Hemingway--perhaps even pick up one of his short story works like, "Hills Like White Elephants," or "Big Two-Hearted River" or "The Snows of Kilimanjaro."  I am so glad to know his work and his life, and his many illustrations that behind simple is always complex.  Isn't this true in all of life?