Tuesday, September 08, 2009

The Old Man and the Sea

Fifty-seven years ago today Ernest Hemingway published his seventh novel The Old Man and the Sea. This was the last novel Hemingway published during his lifetime, and it won him the 1953 Pulitzer prize for literature. Kurt J. Krueger writes that "the story of Santiago, an old Gulf Stream fisherman, depicts a world filled with struggle, pain and loss but also shows how a human being may find meaning in such a tragic world."

Two years later, Hemingway accepted the Nobel prize for literature with the following words: "For a true writer each book should be a new beginning where he tries again for something that is beyond attainment. He should always try for something that has never been done or that others have tried and failed. Then, sometimes, with great luck, he will succeed."

Sources: Kurt J. Krueger. "Ernest Hemingway." Encyclopedia of the Novel, Ed. Paul Schneider. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1998. 535-537.

World Almanac and Book of Facts. New York: World Almanac Books, 2008.

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