Mark Cirino - One True Sentence: Writers & Readers on Hemingways Art

Published in 2022 by GODINE

Boston, Massachusetts

Copyright 2022 by Mark Cirino and Michael Von Cannon

Introduction 2022 by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick

all rights reserved.

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

For more information, please visit www.godine.com

Frontispiece: Handwritten holographic manuscript page from A Moveable Feast. Image courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library: Ernest Hemingway Personal Papers, Manuscripts: A Moveable Feast, Box MS24, 131. Chapter 2. Miss Stein Instructs. Version One. Manuscript. Used with permission of the Ernest Hemingway Estate.

library of congress cataloging-in-publication data

Names: Cirino, Mark, 1971- editor. | Von Cannon, Michael, editor. | Burns, Ken, 1953- writer of introduction. | Novick, Lynn, writer of introduction.

Title: One true sentence : writers & readers on Hemingways art / Mark Cirino and Michael Von Cannon with an introduction by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick.

Description: Boston : Godine, 2022. | Identifiers: LCCN 2021055645 (print) | LCCN 2021055646 (ebook) | ISBN 9781567927139 (hardback) | ISBN 9781567927146 (ebook) | Subjects: LCSH: Hemingway, Ernest, 1899-1961--Criticism and interpretation. | Hemingway, Ernest, 1899-1961--Literary style. | American literature--20th century--History and criticism. | English language--Sentences. | Authors--Interviews. | Classification: LCC PS3515.E37 Z74855 2022 (print) | LCC PS3515.E37 (ebook) | DDC 813/.52--dc23/eng/20220118

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021055645

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021055646

This book is dedicated to the memory of

Scott Donaldson (1928-2020)

Valerie Hemingway
from A Farewell to Arms

Brian Turner
from The Old Man and the Sea

Alex Vernon
from For Whom the Bell Tolls

Mark Salter
from For Whom the Bell Tolls

Elizabeth Strout
from A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

Lesley M. M. Blume
from The Sun Also Rises

Paula McLain
from A Moveable Feast

Kirk Curnutt
from In Another Country

Craig Johnson
from The Snows of Kilimanjaro

Marc K. Dudley
from A Farewell to Arms and Green Hills of Africa

Carl P. Eby
from the Paris 1922 sketches

Erik Nakjavani
from Green Hills of Africa

Stacy Keach
from The Sun Also Rises

Verna Kale
from Soldiers Home

Craig McDonald
from Old Newsman Writes: A Letter from Cuba

Andrew Farah
from Ten Indians

Joshua Ferris
from The Sun Also Rises

Ross K. Tangedal
from Indian Camp

Suzanne del Gizzo
from Big Two-Hearted River

Kawai Strong Washburn
from A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

Scott Donaldson
from A Farewell to Arms

Russell Banks
from A Moveable Feast

Gail Sinclair
from A Farewell to Arms

James Plath
from Big Two-Hearted River

Andre Dubus III
from Hills Like White Elephants

Jennifer Haigh
from Mr. and Mrs. Elliot

Adrian Sparks
from Treasury for the Free World

Paul Hendrickson
from A Moveable Feast

A. Scott Berg
from The Sun Also Rises

Mark Thompson
from Men at War

Sherman Alexie
from The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber

Boris Vejdovsky
from Cat in the Rain

Mark P. Ott
from Big Two-Hearted River

Michael Mewshaw
from A Farewell to Arms

Sen Hemingway
from The Old Man and the Sea

Hideo Yanagisawa
from Hemingways letter to Charles Scribner

Pam Houston
from Hemingways letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald

Michael Katakis
from Indian Camp

One true sentence was inspired by One True Podcast, our show about Ernest Hemingways life, work, and world. In his memoir A Moveable Feast, Hemingway recalls how, while living in Paris in the early 1920s and struggling to write fiction, he would remind himself:

All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know. So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there. It was easy then because there was always one true sentence that I knew or had seen or had heard someone say.

That idea became the credo of our podcast and for the interviews selected here.

In that same spirit of honesty, creativity, and curiosity, we embraced Hemingways philosophy and asked contributors to One True Sentence their choice for Hemingways truest sentence and why, and thenas Hemingway wrotewe went on from there.

Mark, we each have different origin stories for this one true sentence project. Whats yours?

I remember I was in a caf on the NYU campus, drinking infinite cups of coffee with my great friend, David Fox. Out of nowhere he asked me, Whats the most Hemingwayesque sentence that Hemingway ever wrote? Im sure he was teasing me, because its kind of a ridiculous question, but I thought about it for a long time. Like years. And that idea about Hemingways one true sentence is now the crux of every introductory lecture I give on Hemingway. So, I never let go of that concept. I always thought it would be a fun way to get to know someones version of Hemingway, who he is to them.

A few years after that conversation with David, I created and moderated an American Literature Association panel in Boston called One True Sentence, where I asked this same question. All the presenters chose a sentence and then talked about it. It was great. It was such a fun event that what I wanted to do at the next Hemingway Society conference was just to write in everybodys welcome packet, Hey, whats your one true sentence? and then compile the responses. I thought it would be a nice keepsake. That never happened. It was in Kansas City, and there was a power outage in the hotelwith the electricity out, the only thing that was illuminated was the bar.

This sounds less a memory and more a dream inspired by a Hemingway story!

Right!? So, there were 180 angry, hot Hemingway scholars crammed in a bar. It was literally a drinking game. I asked Kirk Curnutt, one of the contributors to this volume, Whats your one true sentence in Fitzgerald? He was about to take a drink, and he just said blue gardens right into his cup. And that was all he needed to say. What a great answer! I wanted to go around the room and listen to everyones sentence. It was a fun curiosity, but to me it also really lent a new insight.

What about you, whats your genesis moment? You didnt go to that conference, did you?