5 x 5 CONTINUED - BOOKS

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Continuing 5 facts about 5 of my fabourite books . . . 

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THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA

Original book cover

The Old Man and the Sea is a 1952 novella by the American author Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961). Written between December 1950 and February 1951, it was the last major fictional work Hemingway published during his lifetime. It tells the story of Santiago, an aging fisherman, and his long struggle to catch a giant marlin. The novella was highly anticipated and was released to record sales; the initial critical reception was equally positive, but attitudes have varied significantly since then.

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Facts:

1.

The Old Man and the Sea was the last major work Ernest Hemingway published in his lifetime. The simple story is about an old man who catches a giant fish in the waters off Cuba, only to have it devoured by sharks. Defeated, he returns home with the fish’s skeleton attached to the boat. Many consider this spare novel to be Hemingway’s best work. He wrote The Old Man and the Sea to prove he wasn’t finished as a writer - his last successful book, For Whom the Bell Tolls, came out in 1940 and his 1950 novel Across the River and Into the Trees was panned by critics. There was comment that Hemingway was "through" as a writer, The Old Man and the Sea was intended to prove that not only was he still in the writing game, he had yet to produce his best work.

2.

Ernest Hemingway claimed there was no symbolism in The Old Man and the Sea. The fable-like structure of the novel suggests that the story is symbolic, which is why many view The Old Man and the Sea as an allegory. But Hemingway thought all that was bunk—or at least, that’s what he said. "There isn’t any symbolism," he wrote to critic Bernard Berenson. "The sea is the sea. The old man is an old man … The sharks are all sharks no better and no worse. All the symbolism that people say is shit. What goes beyond is what you see beyond when you know."

3.

In the mid-1930s, the Cuban guide Carlos Gutiérrez had related a story involving an old man and a giant marlin to Hemingway, who retold it in Esquire magazine in an essay titled "On the Blue Water: A Gulf Stream Letter". This tale was likely first told in 1891 and was consistently retold by fishermen over the next forty years. Significant influence came from Hemingway's own experience with the Gulf Stream, where he sailed for thousands of hours in the decades before writing The Old Man and the Sea. He greatly enjoyed the sport of big-game fishing, participating in and winning several tournaments on his boat, the Pilar. Having put off a novelisation for sixteen years, but aided by his love and knowledge of fishing and the sea, Hemingway suddenly found himself writing a thousand words a day for The Old Man and the Sea, Twice as fast as usual.

4.

After early adulation faded, less positive reviews began to appear – overrated, more of the past bad writing, a "mock-serious fable" with "radical weaknesses". Despite the cooling critical outlook, The Old Man and the Sea won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction on May 4, 1953, the first time Hemingway had received the award, having been overlooked previously for A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls. The Old Man and the Sea's highest recognition came in 1954, as the only work of Hemingway's mentioned by the Swedish Academy when awarding him the Nobel Prize in Literature; they praised its "powerful, style-making mastery of the art of modern narration".

5.

In 1958 The Old Man and the Sea was made into a superb motion picture, starring Spencer Tracy. After seeing the film, Hemingway expressed his disappointment, remarking that Spencer Tracy looked less like a Cuban peasant fisherman than the rich actor he was. Nevertheless, Tracy earned an Oscar nomination for the role. Ernest Hemingway can be seen sitting in the cafe in the final scene wearing a tan baseball cap and conversing with other fishermen. This was his movie debut. Mary Hemingway, who was Ernest Hemingway's fourth wife and later became his widow, plays the blonde tourist at the end of the film. She crosses the street and takes a seat in the café, but speaks no lines.

Spencer Tracy as Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea

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