Hemingway Feedback

Here is a collection of some of the nice things people have said about my Hemingway site:

• I read your essay on A Farewell to Arms and it easily proved the point my teacher couldn’t get across. This has helped me to understand the story much better. Do you think Fred was a hero? My teacher believes he is but can’t prove her point.
• I totally agreed with you on your essay. I am writing a research paper on SAR and I found your essay very informative. Thank you.
• I finished reading A Farewell to Arms yesterday, and I found it incredible, which led me to look for more about it…I found your essay, and was thoroughly enthralled with it. It was true in every sense, and full of accurate observations. The book itself was slow in the beginning, as I’m not one for war stories, but it picked up speed, and ended with a devastating blow. I preferred the love parts, and at first it seemed that he was not in love with her, but that gradually evolved. I was enraptured with their love, and their self-imposed seclusion in Switzerland. It seemed too good to be true…the desire to be with no one else and complete satisfaction and happiness with only one. And it was…because it ended tragically…I found it most poignant when he said “they always get you in the end…” referring to many different people, each with their own afflictions and problems, who were being “brought down” by their situations and circumstances. Anyways, thank you for posting your thoughts and insights for others to enjoy, and I wish you success with whatever you are doing.
• I’m a senior in high school and I just finished reading The Sun Also Rises. I have to admit, for the first half to three quarters of the book I did not enjoy it. By the end of the book, however, everything came together and I realized how much I had actually enjoyed it. I then had to reread the book to pick up on all of things which I had missed. After I was done I was curious to know what other people thought of the book and if they had the same perceptions that I do. I started searching the net however computers by nature hate me and I came up with nothing. I stumbled across your page and I enjoyed being able to read other peoples thoughts.
• i absolutely loved your hemingway page and the essays. as a long time hemingway fan i enjoyed spending a lunch hour reading your response papers and reliving my own introduction to hemingway. by the end i felt as though i knew you and was disappointed that your response to the old man and the sea wasn’t posted.
• Hi. Just a brief note to let you know how much I enjoy your site. Anything having to do with Hemingway is of great interest to me. Unlike yourself, I never had the privilege to study his works in detail while in college. I have done much independent research and have always found the information too “matter-of-fact”. Usually in attempting to prove some small detail to validate a theory of sorts that the author holds. Anyhow… Once again, great site.
• I just found your website and think it’s fantastic. Your essay on “To Have and Have Not” was dead on. If Hemmingway could have written this in the 90’s the book would’ve been a hot item. I enjoyed the characters, especially Captain Harry Morgan. It’s been quite a while since I read it, but since I found your sight, I just might read it again. I thought I was the only wacko out there who liked the book, guess I was wrong. It’s nice to know I’m not alone. In fact, a lot of hemmingway’s stuff that got trashed, I liked, and a lot that was praised, I hated. Later.
• Just wanted to drop a line saying this is a great page!!
• Having recently visited Mr. Hemingway’s charming home in Key West, I have great interest in knowing more about this famous writer. I was happy to come upon your interesting sight to read more about him and enjoyed the photos very much.
• I was looking for useful information on Hemingway and I found it, thanks! I am a senior in high school in Louisville Kentucky. For a non-fiction class assingment I chose to write a paper on Hemingway and how I love how he writes. I have just read The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell To Arms. I enjoyed them both besided the fact that they had classic Hemingway endings! Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that your site really helped.
• You have no clue who I am, But my name is Emily and I am a college Jr. who was lost wrtiting my paper, your site gave me great ideas for a paper and a lot of information……
• Thought I’d drop you a line concerning your Hemingway site, and request that you shake the hand of every college student whose essay is anywhere under the short story section. They may not know it, but they are of invaluable assistance to those of us still struggling through high school. Those were the days, huh? Concerning yourself, congratulations on one of the least confusing sites I’ve visited yet. I’d shake your hand if I could.
• I thouroughly enjoyed your essay on A Farewelll to Arms, i also feel that it was a great book and wish to thank you for your motivational essay on this subject. Thanks!!!!!!
• I am working on a study of alcoholic American writers, and understandably Hemingway figures prominantly on the list. (I am a professor of American literature and have published books on Owen Wister and John le Carre) I gave a paper last year at a branch of the Pennsylvania State system on “Hemingway’s Lost Last Years,” which essentially suggested that he was almost perpetually drunk during the last years of his life, which accounted for the dramatic falling off in the quality of his writing.
• i read your comments on the book and had some insight into hemingways style. when he is saying short, to the point statements or quotes, hemingway is trying to relate that the situation is tense and there is no calm times present. but when hemingway writes long, elaborous sentences, he is realting a time of happiness and joy. his style is quite unique and hard to pick up but when one does, it makes the reading even more enjoyable. this has to be one of my favorite books. the love triangle between jake, brett and mike is an excellent example of hemingway’s skill to make the reader fall deeper into the story. an excellent book.
• I totally agreed with you on your essay. I am writing a research paper on SAR and I found your essay very informative. Thank you.
• I finished reading A Farewell to Arms yesterday, and I found it incredible, which led me to look for more about it…I found your essay, and was thoroughly enthralled with it. It was true in every sense, and full of accurate observations. The book itself was slow in the beginning, as I’m not one for war stories, but it picked up speed, and ended with a devastating blow. I preferred the love parts, and at first it seemed that he was not in love with her, but that gradually evolved. I was enraptured with their love, and their self-imposed seclusion in Switzerland. It seemed too good to be true…the desire to be with no one else and complete satisfaction and happiness with only one. And it was…because it ended tragically…I found it most poignant when he said “they always get you in the end…” referring to many different people, each with their own afflictions and problems, who were being “brought down” by their situations and circumstances. Anyways, thank you for posting your thoughts and insights for others to enjoy, and I wish you success with whatever you are doing.
• “There was no plot in the book in the sense that there was no twists, intrigue, or goals for any of the characters…” I’m shocked that you say this about this story. Did you not see that truought the story Jake grows and changes and that all the characters change his out look on life. Do you really not see the plot?
• Hello,my name is Katie and I used the timeline on Ernest Hemingway.. I noticed there was a typo in it..for 1969, you typed teh instead of the…sorry for the inconvenience, but I thought you might want to know. Thanks so much, the timeline was a great help for my school project.. Gr.10 student.. =)
• thank you so much for your website. honestly, i am enthralled with hemingway, and admire his work above all others. i appreciate your time and effort put into this, and again thank you.
• I am a student who recently did a report on Mr. Hemingway and I found your page vey hepful in finding vital information!!!!! Thank you Unfortunately your hemmingway homepage is one of the few sites related to this incredibly genious man – your essays spend too much time reacting to what was happening to you while reading his novels or short stories rather than the content itself… you really need to update these essays. I don’t care about how much you enjoy reading it, that you didn’t want to read in one big gulp but you finished it around ten o’clock, i don’t care if Paul Simon attempted to read hemmingway, I don’t appreciate your pathetic attempt to quote Shakespear, I don’care that you are trying to quote Shakespearfor Christ sake man! This is dribble… fucking dribble man… attempt to talk about His work!
• good essay on farewell to arms
• I just wanted to write, to say, that i found your essay enlightening. I’ve read For Whom the Bell Tolls but never made the association between bridge building, and bridege destroying; and I failed to see the irony of “No man is an island.” I see the story differently now.
  Anyway, I hope to see more reveiws like this. I hope to one day see the metaphors more clearly. This essay helped me to reconsider what I’ve read.
• I read your essay and wanted to congradulate your creative and intersting view on Hemingway’s story. It inspried me and made me think. It was different. Thanks.
• Hey I thought that your essay on FTA was written very well. I just wanted to let you know that. * from Illinois.
• hello, excellent website. i’ve had my student tickling around on this week. perhaps the brief treatment of the bulls-scene, despite the intense build-up through the story–is just another echo of jake barnes and his state–all anticipation but no physical fulfillment. the scene is so full of life-force, vitality, power and senusality–things that are missing from jakes’ life? my class will start the novel next week, i wonder what they will say… thanks again for all the great info–well constructed!!
• this is a great site and i think you saved my life by having it here i am doing a research paper over hills like white elephants for school but i have been unable to find any thing on the story thank you for having this site and please recomend more if you know of them greatfully yours
• HELLO MR. GAGNE. I WAS JUST THINKING ABOUT THE ARTICLE THAT YOU HAD WRITTEN AN DECIDED TO WRITE TO YOU. I LOVE THE WATY THAT YOU WRITE.
• I think you should have wrote a little more on For Whom the Bell Tolls.. It didn’t help me out any on what you wrote.. Sorry but I’m just stating my opinion.. I was trying to help my friend out cause that was the book she was supposed to read for our Lit class (we’re juniors in high school), but there wasn’t enough information.. I like what you wrote on A Farewell to Arms though.. That helped me out alot.. I think that out of all Hemingway’s books FTW it the best.. Well thats all I wanted to say. Thanks for your time..
• as this is one of my favorite books (as The Sun Also Rises), i was very impressed by your site. i especially liked your essay on FTA. i wish more readers were as aware of hemingway and his message, and sites like this help to enforce that message.
• Thank you for allowing students like my self learn about some of the worlds greatest authors and learn to be able to link up with some of the great information on the web.
• Thanks, David. Reading your essay on _The Sun Also Rises_ allowed me to complete the crossword puzzle I was working on; I had only two squares and needed the L and E in “Lady Brett Ashley”! Have a good weekend.
• Your response paper, RE: IN OUR TIME, is very highly intellectually formed as if in one with Ernest Hemingway. His books, the same as the other great authors, are to be read through the eyes and mind of the man who is so eloquent in his simplicity of word structure, that while creating his stories, he brought forth the emotional surges which only a true genius can do.
• Intelligence is not based on what we are taught. It, like Hemingway, is based on life and living it. Another great man called “Michael Angelo”, while painting the Sistine Chapel Ceiling, was asked by a friend why he took such care in his work and it is reported that he replied: “It is not the stroke of my hand nor the colours of the paints I use, but, the pictures that I have already formed in my head where only the release of being able to use the brush to bring them forth will set me free.” And like Ernest Hemingway, and all great artists of any kind, it is just being able to express, and put down, does give them peace.
• Keep up the good work my young man and please read all of Hemingway’s stories but, do not form tunnel vision. Learn from all writers from all walks of life because, each one will give you the key to coming close to understanding yourself and others and in doing so becoming an indiviual.
• i’m a first year at ***** university, and have to do an enlightenment cousre, which involves an essay on Descartes and his thoughts on god. I would just like to take this opportunity to thank you for the availibility of your essay along a similar vein. It has been quite helpful, though i still feel the old boy was wasting his time!
  Cheers
• Just want to say how much I appreciate your response papers on H. writings, and how helpful they are. I teach a high school class called College Prep Language and Literature, and showing them your response papers with attention to H.’s style, and also real examples of things they will be asked to write in their college future is extremely helpful. I really appreciate your inclusion of this material on your page. Sincerely, ****
• Hey, You might be thinking, what the heck, why is some seventeen year old highschool kid that has never met me want to write me? Well, let me have the pleasure in telling you. I somewhat know who you are by the internet, like you didn’t know that already, anyways I was searching the internet for information on Ernest Hemingway and the … Home Page came up giving me all these essays about his books, most of whom you wrote. So I read some and learned how enthused you were to read Ernest Hemingway. I admit I didn’t read them all but I read the ones that interested me. Also on the … home page you gave me another home page named something like Papa’s Home Page that was very helpful. I am writing this paper for the English paper that all juniors in high school have to take. Well I want to thank you for making it a little easier for me. …
• Thanks a ton, ****
• Mr. Gagne- Hola! This is a 9th grader and I wrote you before asking for help on my English paper concerning Ernest Hemingway. Okay I Just wanted to say thank-you for the help. I got an A- which is like a 150 in his class. I was incredibly psyched and my grade was one of the best in the class. I had finally gotten a compliment from the ogre that has no feelings. Thanx a bundle.
• I just read your piece on Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms.” I must say that it made some parts of the book very clear, such as how Catherine was a flake and how they felt love for one another. I also really enjoyed your insight about Fredric’s reasons for leaving the war. I just finished reading the book about 20 minutes ago, and I found your piece to contain quite a few refreshing insights. So, I just wanted to say thanks or putting your thoughts up on the net so students, like myself, can read them.
• Hey. Great Page. Thanks for having a page that helps people out. You have no idea how long I have been looking for a page like this. It is too bad this page doesn’t come up first when I type in “Hemingway” in the search engines, This page is going to lead me thorugh my Research paper so it better not go anywhere. I better not get a 404 one day… 🙂
• Our congratulations on an informative and aesthetically pleasing web site. You probably know that Hemingway is a collectable author and that many people desire to know more about the information you provide. A group of web site owners have just formed the Rare Books Ring to help promote quality web sites that appeal to collectors or others who appreciate fine and rare books. Like you, our member sites have information and quality standards similar to those that you have cultivated. We invite you to join the Rare Books Ring (RBR).
• Dear Sir,
  This is just a quick line to tell you how much I’ve enjoyed reading your essay on, ‘A Farewell to Arms’. I had purchased the book some time ago, but school usually keeps me so busy other readings fall to the wayside. Recently during some snow days I found the perfect opportunity to catch up, starting with FTA. I couldn’t put it down, it took a little over two days to finish cover to cover. I found your articles very insightful. Thank you for sharing them.
• Dear sir:
  I’d like to thank you for setting up this page. It has helped me tremendously on a school project. I especially liked the essays, they opened me up to many different thoughts in my own critique of his work. Once again thank you very much.
• I am doing a research paper on Earnest Hemingway’s A Farewell To Arms. While searching for information on him, I stumbled across your two essays. They were just what I was looking for. Thank you!!!!
• Hello. I just read your poem. I wanted to let you know that I thought it was good. I ended up at your page by going through the EH page. I just read “The Old Man and the Sea.” I came searching to see if others found the same meaning in it as I did. I found no answers, and guess I don’t really need them anyhow.
• I also enjoy writing poetry. Although mine is not very similar to yours, it holds it’s own meaning to me, and I suppose that’s what poetry is for. Anyhow, I hope I didn’t bore you to death with my random thoughts. Just wanted to drop a compliment on your poem, and tell you that I think it takes immense courage to allow your poetry to been seen and possibly criticized by so many people.
• Good luck in all that you do. God bless.
• I just wanted to let you know that your page concerning Ernest Hemmingway has been extremely helpful. I am currently researching for a term paper, and found the links useful. Great Page!
• I’m writing to say Thanks. I spent a good part of 1997 re-reading all of Hemingway’s published work in the order of publication. The website was invaluable, particularly regarding chronology.
  I suppose I must have read a good bit of EH as a young man. I undertook this re-read to see if I would be as impressed 30 years later. I find I’m not as impressed by the machismo as I was at 25 – not surprising – but I was enthralled by his sheer craftmanship, his use of the language. He wrote wonderfully well.
  I found all the longer works in the **** county Public Library and was pleasantly surprised to find that a lot of people still read Hemingway. In fact, when I went to get The Green Hills of Africa I had to put my name on the waiting list. Both copies were checked out! The only thing I haven’t read is the collection of Toronto Star dispatches. One must save something for later.
  So thanks again for all the work you’ve put into the website.
• David:
  I stumbled on to your web page via Hemingway links, and I have to confess that I was heartily amused by your boring personal stuff because in it I recognized a good deal of my younger self …
  …
  When I was in grad school, I fell in love with the Lost Generation, although I’m more a Fitzgerald partisan than Hemingway. As you get older, I’m willing to be that you’ll lose your infatuation with Hemingway, as I have, and come to see him as being completely written out by the mid-1930s, and that includes The Old Man and the Sea. His greatest fiction was himself and his self-aggrandizing lifestyle. I’m not trying to pick a fight here …
  Having confessed that, I should also mention that I’ve had a drink in almost every bar mentioned in The Sun Also Rises, I’ve found all of his apartments in Paris, I’ve set foot in the family cabin on Walloon Lake, and I’ve even had a drink in one of his favorite watering holes in Madrid, the Gran Cafe de Gijon.
  …
  Finally, I see from the message on the bottom of my screen that you and Sylvia (I presume) married this month. You’re probably on your honeymoon even as I tap these lines from *****. Again, I wish you all the best in your quest as a writer and urge you to remember that it’s the quest, not the grail, that’s important.
  I suppose this is rather more than you wanted to hear from someone you’ve never met, so I’ll close.
  Good luck.
• … Anyway, tonight things slowed down thanks to you and your essays. I didn’t think that guys wrote any more …
  I have enjoyed your writing very much. I especially liked what you did for Macomber. He was (is?) a good guy. His shorts were a little tight, but she bought them so what can you expect?
  Sometime maybe you could do a little thing about the Swede, or maybe some thoughts about bullfighters and boxers, call it a pigtail and fifty grand.
  … Thanks again. I would have enjoyed being in class with you.