local press for the sun also rises
OAK LEAVES, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1926
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
With the publication of "The Sun Also Rises," issued by Charles Scribner's Sons, literary America has an opportunity to appraise the first full novel
of an Oak Park writer who has already won wide attention at home and abroad. Ernest Hemingway's stories, gathered into the volume called "In Our Time," were generally praised. Apropos of then, Ford Madox Ford said: "The best writer in America at this moment (tho for the moment he happens to be in Paris) the most conscientious, the most master of his craft, the most consumate, is my young friend, Ernest Hemingway, His is very marvelous writing."
Mr. Hemingway is also the author of "The Torrents of Spring," a tale which broadly satirizes certain recent literary tendencies.
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OAK LEAVES, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1927
FORD MADDOX FORD
Luncheon With English Poet and Novelist at Home of Dr. and Mrs. C. E. Hemingway. Ford Madox Ford, English poet and novelist, was the guest of Dr. and Mrs. Clarence E. Hemingway of 600 North Kenilworth at luncheon on Thursday. Mr. Ford is a friend of Ernest Hemingway, son of Dr. and Mrs. Hemingway, who has achieved a notable success with his first full length novel, "The Sun Also Rises." Mr. Hemingway is the author also of "Torrents of Spring," and numerous short stories and verse. Mr. Ford rates his Parisian protege high among the moderns and predicts for him a brilliant future. He said his friend is at work upon another novel. The distinguished Englishman visited this country in the Mauve decade to study American agricultural methods, and resided for a time on a farm near Baltimore and on farms in New England.
He has a country place in Sussex and finds felling trees and sawing them into logs a healthful occupation. His appearance is more that of the country gentleman than of the master of words. Tall commanding, his ruddy face and light blue eyes are more reminiscent of riding to hounds, shooting, the convivial life of the squire, than the esthete seeking out the right expression for an afterthought
He fought in the war with the King's armies and was gassed, an experience which apparently left no effects, but he says that the youngier men suffered more in this respect than their seniors. How was England recovering? 'Well"—and the answer came a little sadly—"materially I think England is regaining herself, but, intellectually . . ." He left the exact reply vague, but one gathered what he meant when he added that the French call the generation which fought for four years "The lost generation."
Then one touched upon Paris and its meaning to artists and writers. Paris was still the intellectual capital of the world, and^moreover, there was the decided advantage of economical living. A single man could get along in Paris on $5 a week. He couldn't be extravagant, mind you, but . . . And Paris was comparatively small. You were in a position to meet your friends oftener, and in London, if you lived in Kensington, as Mr. Ford did. it took an hour and a half to get to Hampstead; rather inconvenient.
In, New York, on the other hand, transportation was so jammed that it was a terrible business getting from one end of Manhattan to Sixty-fifth street. Where a man in London could have four appointments of a morning and a like number in the afternoon, in New York you were only able to have one date in the morning. The sky-scrapers were to blame. When you considered that one sky-scraper disgorged 30,000 people in seven minutes, what could you expect? Chicago faced a similar situation if she continued to build sky-scrapers.