The Hemingway quote makes for a good blurb but it is in fact worthless,
particularly when you read the assessments of other American writers
(e.g., Melville, Moby-Dick just rhetoric, and Thoreau - who cares about a
naturalist - I'm paraphrasing).  And, yes, it's a character speaking
(although that character is close to Hemingway).  So, it's really
irritating, reductionist, and close to idiotic.  However, it could be
worse.  The could quote Jane Smiley.

Hilton Obenzinger

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Twain Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Harold Bush
Sent: Saturday, October 16, 2010 6:49 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Autobiography of Mark Twain on CBS Sunday Morning

you know what always irritates me just a little?  It's when someone says
th=
e
following:

>
> He's been called the greatest American writer of all time. His
bestsellin=
g
> novel, "The [sic] Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" =97 the book, Ernest
> Hemingway wrote, from which "all American literature comes"
>
>
Now, perhaps I'm splitting hairs here.  But Hemingway never said this.  A
character in one of his stories said it.  Which means, it's like saying
Poe
once said that "I looked for the opportunity to dismember him" (Tell-tale
Heart).

Is it just me here?  I beg you, members of the guild -- please help me to
overcome my own rather severe weaknesses on this extremely trivial
matter...  best, -hb


--=20
Harold K. Bush, Ph.D
Professor of English
Saint Louis University
St. Louis, MO  63108
314-977-3616 (w); 314-771-6795 (h)
<www.slu.edu/x23809.xml>