Ernest Hemingway lost all his manuscripts when his wife’s suitcase was stolen at a train station in Paris. Despite being devastated, he continued to write and found his literary voice in Paris, influenced by friends like Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Years before becoming a literary icon of 20th century fiction, with novels like The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway worked as a journalist. In 1920, on assignment in Switzerland for the Toronto Daily Star, the young foreign correspondent met Lincoln Steffens, editor of The American Magazine, who told the 23-year-old he liked his work and asked to see more. Hemingway immediately contacted her wife, Hadley, in Paris, and asked her to collect all of her manuscripts and bring them to Switzerland. While waiting for the train in Paris, Hadley briefly left the suitcase containing Hemingway’s work unattended. When he returned, he had vanished and was never seen again.
“Papa” Finds His Literary Voice:
Hadley had packed up everything her husband had written over the past three years, including copies and first drafts. Hemingway was devastated and turned to drink and other diversions.
However, he was determined to become an accomplished novelist and learned to accept the loss. His new motto: “There is nothing to write. All you do is sit at a typewriter and bleed.”
Hemingway found his voice in Paris, influenced by friends such as Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald. “The world breaks everyone,” he used to say, “and afterward, many are strong in the broken places.”
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