One True Sentence: Writers & Readers on Hemingway's Art

by Mark Cirino (Editor), Michael Von Cannon (Editor), Ken Burns (Introduction), Lynn Novick (Introduction)

Overview

A selection of the greatest sentences by the master, Ernest Hemingway. Sentences that can take a reader’s breath away and are not easily forgotten. Each sentence has been selected and examined by authors such as Elizabeth Strout, Sherman Alexie, Paula McLain, and Russell Banks; filmmakers Ken Burns and Lynn Novick; Seán Hemingway, A. Scott Berg, and many others in this celebration and conversation between Hemingway and some of his most perceptive and interesting readers.

“All you have to do is write one true sentence,” Hemingway wrote in his memoir, A Moveable Feast. “Write the truest sentence that you know.” If that is the secret to Hemingway’s enduring power, what sentences continue to live in readers’ minds? And why do they resonant? The host and producer of the One True Podcast have gathered the best of their program (heard by thousands of listeners) and added entirely new material for this collection of conversations about Hemingway’s truest words.

From the long, whole-story-in-a-sentence line, “I have seen the one-legged streetwalker who works the Boulevard Madeleine between the Rue Cambon and Bernheim Jeunes’ limping along the pavement through the crowd on a rainy night with a beefy red faced episcopal clergyman holding an umbrella over her.”, to the short, pithy line that closes The Sun Also Rises, “Isn't it pretty to think so?”, this is a collection full of delights, surprises, and insight.

“All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened,” wrote Hemingway. “And after you're finished reading one, you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards, it all belongs to you.” For readers of American literature, One True Sentence is full of remembrances—of words you read and the feelings they gave you. For writers, this is an inspiring view of an element of craft—a single sentence—that can make a good story come alive and become a great story.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781567927139
Publisher:	David R. Godine, Publisher
Publication date:	08/23/2022
Pages:	200
Sales rank:	521,396
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Mark Cirino is the host of One True Podcast. He is the author/editor of six books about Ernest Hemingway and serves as the general editor for Kent State UniversityPress’s “Reading Hemingway” series. He served as the literature consultant on the forthcoming cinematic adaptation of Hemingway's Across the River and into the Trees. Cirino teaches American literature at the Universityof Evansville.

Michael Von Cannon is the producer of One True Podcast. He serves as an advisory editor on the multi-volume Hemingway Letters Project and is currently working on the forthcoming The Letters of Ernest Hemingway: 1957-1961 (Cambridge UniversityPress). He has published extensively on Hemingway’s relationship with F. Scott Fitzgerald. Von Cannon teaches at Florida Gulf Coast University.

 

Ken Burns  has been making documentary films for over forty years. Since the Academy Award nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, Ken has gone on to direct and produce some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made, including The Civil War; Baseball; Jazz; Jackie Robinson; The Vietnam War; and Hemingway

Lynn Novick has been directing and producing landmark documentary films about American life and culture, history, politics, sports, art, architecture, literature, and music for more than 30 years. One of the most respected documentary filmmakers and story tellers in America, Novick has received Emmy, Peabody and Alfred I. duPont Columbia Awards. Her most recent documentary is Hemingway, produced, directed and written with Ken Burns.

Table of Contents

Preface / One Step Closer to the Man and His Work 3

Introduction / Hemingway: His One and Only Life 11

Valerie Hemingway

From A Farewell to Arms 15

Brian Turner

From The Old Man and the Sea 20

Alex Vernon

From For Whom the Bell Tolls 24

Mark Salter

From For Whom the Bell Tolls 29

Elizabeth Strout

From "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" 34

Lesley M.M. Blume

From The Sun Also Rises 40

Paula McLain

From A Moveable Feast 48

Kirk Curnutt

From "In Another Country" 53

Craig Johnson

From "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" 58

Marc K. Dudley

From A Farewell to Arms and Green Hills of Africa 63

Carl P. Eby

From the "Paris 1922" sketches 68

Erik Nakjavani

From Green Hills of Africa 72

Stacy Keach

From The Sun Also Rises 77

Verna Kale

From "Soldier's Home" 83

Craig McDonald

From "Old Newsman Writes: A Letter from Cuba" 89

Andrew Farah

From "Ten Indians" 94

Joshua Ferris

From The Sun Also Rises 100

Ross K. Tangedal

From "Indian Camp" 106

Suzanne del Gizzo

From "Big Two-Hearted River" 111

Kawai Strong Washburn

From "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" 116

Scott Donaldson

From A Farewell to Arms 120

Russell Banks

From A Moveable Feast 125

Gail Sinclair

From A Farewell to Arms 130

James Plath

From "Big Two-Hearted River" 135

Andre Dubus III

From "Hills Like White Elephants" 140

Jennifer Haigh

From "Mr. and Mrs. Elliot" 145

Adrian Sparks

From Treasury for the Free World 151

Paul Hendrickson

From A Moveable Feast 156

A. Scott Berg

From The Sun Also Rises 161

Mark Thompson

From Men at War 167

Sherman Alexie

From "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" 173

Boris Vejdovsky

From "Cat in the Rain" 179

Mark P. Ott

From "Big Two-Hearted River" 184

Michael Mewshaw

From A Farewell to Arms 189

Seán Hemingway

From The Old Man and the Sea 194

Hideo Yanagisawa

From Hemingway's letter to Charles Scribner 199

Pam Houston

From Hemingway's letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald 203

Michael Katakis

From "Indian Camp" 208

Notes 215

Editorial Reviews

05/02/2022

Thirty-eight writers reflect on Ernest Hemingway’s advice that “all you have to do is write one true sentence” in this revelatory compendium brought together by Cirino (Ernest Hemingway: Thought in Action) and Von Cannon (Hemingway Letters Project), host and producer of the One True Podcast podcast. Each contributor picks and discusses one sentence from the novelist’s work: Sherman Alexie’s choice, from “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” is “We all take a beating every day, you know, one way or another.” The line, he reflects “rings so clearly to me on a personal level, the way I grew up.” For Gail Sinclair, it’s a winding sentence from the opening chapter of A Farewell to Arms, which he writes brilliantly sets the stage for the book to come. Each chapter includes an interview between the editors and the contributor about their relationship with Hemingway’s work. The varied sentences on offer create a rewarding tapestry of Hemingway’s work and belie the idea that he wrote nothing but short, stripped-down prose. The premise may be simple, but readers are likely to come away with a deepened understanding of—and even awe at—Hemingway’s vast talent. (July)

Publishers Weekly

One True Sentence is an excellent read for Hemingway aficionados, casual readers, and all those in between . . . an invitation to all to read and reread Hemingway’s oeuvre by offering an accessible and engaging plunge into Hemingway’s life and writing from many perspectives.”
—The Hemingway Review

“A revelatory compendium....readers are likely to come away with a deepened understanding of—and even awe at—Hemingway’s vast talent.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Bright, intense, and fascinating.”
—AirMail

“An enjoyable exploration of how Hemingway’s influence on American literature continues to be significant....A valuable take on a canonical writer, highlighting how good work stands the test of time.”
—Kirkus

“Fascinating array of commentary...contributors often reveal heartfelt confessions of their own. It’s good to know there are people who still believe literature has the power to change your life. Because it does.”
—Wonderlust

From the Publisher

2022-03-19
An enjoyable exploration of how Hemingway’s influence on American literature continues to be significant.

In A Moveable Feast, Hemingway gave a direct instruction to writers: “All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” Find the essential truth of the story, and the rest will eventually follow—profound, yes, but surprisingly difficult to do. Cirino and Von Cannon, academics who share a special interest in Hemingway, have been pursuing this idea for years, especially via their One True Podcast. This collection brings together the best of the interviews and adds some other material. Each interviewee was asked to pick their favorite Hemingway sentence (although some pick a paragraph or several sentences) and explain what it means to them. Some examine a sparse, compact line. Others opt for one of Hemingway’s long, swirling sentences. This underlines the variety of Hemingway’s writing as well as his capacity to imply volumes in a few words. Several contributors discuss why Hemingway’s writing has endured, pointing to his focus on the evergreen themes of love, loss, and war. Others note the time and consideration that Hemingway put into his craft, with endless redrafting and rethinking, as well as his embrace of a wide range of the human experience. As he demonstrated, writing is not, in fact, particularly difficult; doing it well and making it look easy, however, is. This is one of the keys to Hemingway: polishing the text until the effort seems to disappear and the authenticity shines through. This is summed up by a line that several writers point to as their inspiration—the concluding line from The Sun Also Rises: “Isn’t it pretty to think so?” Yes, it is. Ken Burns and Lynn Novick co-wrote the foreword, and contributors include Valerie Hemingway, Elizabeth Strout, Sherman Alexie, Paula McLain, Craig Johnson, Joshua Ferris, Russell Banks, and Pam Houston.

A valuable take on a canonical writer, highlighting how good work stands the test of time.

Kirkus Reviews