I recently completed an assignment where I made a presentation of
Twain and Hemingway and their view of the Midwest. I was asked by my
instructor if Twain was an influence on Hemingway. I said that it was
definitely so. Hemingway commented several times in interviews about the
importance of Twain, and there is even a Nick Adams story
(early Hemingway) where Nick crosses the Mississippi on train and sees
the river for the first time, and in Carlos Baker's biography of
Hemingway, the scene is autobiographical of Hemingway himself. As Baker
had written, "Visions of Mark Twain, Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer...crowded one
another in his mind."And also from Baker's book- "Anyway," he thought
happily, "I've seen the Mississippi."

I feel that Twain had a great influence on Hemingway.

Joseph Adams
Western Illinois University
Macomb, IL