10/15/2024

Tap into the “Hemingway Effect” to Finish What You Start

To maintain momentum and flow, the novelist learned when to put his work down

In 1934, aspiring writer Arnold Samuelson set out to meet his literary hero, Ernest Hemingway. His plan was, to put it mildly, ramshackle. Without so much as an introductory letter, the young man hitch-hiked his way from Minnesota to Key West hoping that the famed author would spare him a moment to discuss the writing craft.

"It seemed a damn fool thing to do," Samuelson said. "But a 22-year-old tramp during the Great Depression didn't have to have much reason for what he did."

He got more than a moment. Samuelson stayed with Hemingway for a year, and during that time, the author made him a spur-of-the-moment protégé, teaching Samuelson all about writing and the good life. Samuelson's record of the experience was discovered by his daughter after his death, and she had it published as a book, With Hemingway: A Year in Key West and Cuba (1984).

Please select this link to read the complete article from Big Think.