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The story of Ernest Hemingway’s $187,000 magazine expenses claim
Columbia Journalism Review ^ | May 15, 2019 | Peter Moreira

Posted on 05/20/2019 6:17:53 AM PDT by Twotone

Ernest Hemingway had just returned to London, after the D-Day invasion of Normandy, when he ran into Roald Dahl, then a British Royal Air Force officer. Hemingway told Dahl he’d witnessed a soldier escaping a burning tank on Omaha beach. Dahl responded that Hemingway should include the scene in his next piece for Collier’s, the New York magazine he wrote for at the time.

“You don’t think I’d give them that, do you?” replied Hemingway. “I’m keeping it for a book.”

Collier’s, a glossy weekly with a circulation of 2.8 million, was known as a forum for stellar writing. It was perhaps the most prestigious magazine in America, rivaled only by The Saturday Evening Post. It had commissioned Hemingway to cover what are now some of the most famous events in history, including the western Allies’ invasion of France and the collapse of the Third Reich.

We might have remembered that reportage alongside the best of his fiction. But we don’t—because Hemingway’s stint at Collier’s was a disaster.

His editors in New York were unimpressed with the six articles he filed. They were heroic portrayals, as requested, but of himself as much as of the protagonists in the epic events he was covering. Though he’d proven himself a capable war correspondent in Spain, China, and elsewhere, he had grown to dislike journalism. The relationship with Collier’s was cursed from the outset, and by the end of the war it had descended into a spat over an expense claim for about $13,000—or $187,000 in today’s money.

(Excerpt) Read more at cjr.org ...


TOPICS: Books/Literature; History; Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: hemmingway
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1 posted on 05/20/2019 6:17:53 AM PDT by Twotone
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To: Twotone

$13,000 back then......Can the $187,000 headline be more phony??


2 posted on 05/20/2019 6:21:23 AM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: Sacajaweau

Money changes value.

A car used to cost less than $1000 brand new in those days.

13,000 was THE EQUIVALENT OF 187,000 today


3 posted on 05/20/2019 6:24:22 AM PDT by Mr. K (No consequence of repealing obamacare is worse than obamacare itself.)
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To: Twotone

Just reading Hemingway’s biography now. He was an insane liar - he claimed to have killed 129 Germans in battle although he wasn’t in any armed forces (he was a journalist in the field). His lies about his participation in WWI (he was an ambulance driver in Italy) are drawfed by his drunken, paranoid lies about WWII.

That being said, he and Fitzgerald are the greatest American short story writers.


4 posted on 05/20/2019 6:27:12 AM PDT by miss marmelstein
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To: Mr. K
13,000 was THE EQUIVALENT OF 187,000 today

Understood. But, those of us who know when Hemingway lived already did a quick recalculation in our head. I was thinking he was trying to charge $2 million before even getting to the body thanks to the misleading headline.
5 posted on 05/20/2019 6:30:53 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana (There is no salvation in politics.)
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To: miss marmelstein

“The Old Man and the Sea” was his best IMHO


6 posted on 05/20/2019 6:32:36 AM PDT by Robe (A nation can survive its fools and evet n the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within.)
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To: miss marmelstein

I did my thesis on Hemingway. Most good short story writers are terrific liars. Faulkner was the same way. Before he got famous, he lied that he was a pilot in WWI. He never got past Canadian flight training.


7 posted on 05/20/2019 6:32:43 AM PDT by struggle
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To: miss marmelstein

I always liked “Big Two Hearted River.” Great short story.


8 posted on 05/20/2019 6:39:11 AM PDT by 4yearlurker (If you are not interested you will see nothing but the road you walk on.-Jim Corbett)
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To: struggle

Brian William ought to give short story writing a shot. Ought to be terrific at it.


9 posted on 05/20/2019 6:43:31 AM PDT by John Milner (Marching for Peace is like breathing for food.)
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To: 4yearlurker

I found that just a couple of weeks ago.


10 posted on 05/20/2019 6:47:14 AM PDT by Moonman62 (Facts are racist.)
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To: struggle

I did my thesis on Hemingway. Most good short story writers are terrific liars. Faulkner was the same way. Before he got famous, he lied that he was a pilot in WWI. He never got past Canadian flight training.

Interesting.


11 posted on 05/20/2019 6:51:13 AM PDT by samtheman (To steal an election, who do you collude with? Russians in Russia or Mexicans in California?)
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To: miss marmelstein

Hemingway was a bloated egotist. It’s odd that he became so hostile toward journalism because that’s where he made his name and developed his terse, bare-bones style.

I’ve found most of his work over-rated. But I agree with you about Fitzgerald. If you’re only talking about 20th-century writers ...


12 posted on 05/20/2019 6:55:44 AM PDT by IronJack
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To: miss marmelstein
In terms of writing style, Hemingway is my favorite.

What always amazes me is that as much as Hemingway hated journalism, his style is pure, crisp journalism (just the basics...nothing extra, nothing not completely necessary).

13 posted on 05/20/2019 6:57:41 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
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To: IronJack
It’s odd that he became so hostile toward journalism because that’s where he made his name and developed his terse, bare-bones style.

Ditto. That's what I love most about his stories.

When I first read Hemingway as a kid, I thought it was masculine, nothing but the facts journalism.

I have done a lot of writing over the years and always used Hemingway as a guide of how to do it right.

And as much as I love Nabakov (absolutely beautiful prose), I always used him as a guide of how not to do it.

14 posted on 05/20/2019 7:03:02 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
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To: samtheman

Stories are fabrications. What’s the mystery about that?


15 posted on 05/20/2019 7:04:20 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
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To: John Milner

He did.


16 posted on 05/20/2019 7:05:03 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Baseball players, gangsters and musicians are remembered. But journalists are forgotten.)
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To: Robe

When the country was watching the OJ slow Bronco chase , I chose to watch The Old Man and the Sea .


17 posted on 05/20/2019 7:05:07 AM PDT by katykelly
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To: Twotone; SaveFerris; PROCON; FredZarguna; mylife; Lil Flower; Corky Ramirez; CopperTop; ...

Was a rat hat itemized on that voucher?


18 posted on 05/20/2019 7:10:15 AM PDT by Gamecock (In church today, we so often find we meet only the same old world, not Christ and His Kingdom. AS)
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To: RoosterRedux

Only liars can create fiction?

Fiction itself definitely isn’t a lie. Unless it’s seriously and convincingly labeled “non-fiction”.

I’ve written stories. I’m no pro but I have done it. But in my daily life I don’t tell lies.

So yes, to me it is a bit mysterious that greats like Hemingway and Faulkner have to embellish when they write non-fiction.

I bet Asimov wasn’t a liar (just picking one other great at random).


19 posted on 05/20/2019 7:10:50 AM PDT by samtheman (To steal an election, who do you collude with? Russians in Russia or Mexicans in California?)
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To: samtheman
Only liars can create fiction?

That's quite a little creation there on your part.

Nowhere did I make such a claim.

20 posted on 05/20/2019 7:15:44 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
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