In 2018, Daily Beast writer Allen Barra asked: “Why the hell are we still reading Ernest Hemingway?” Smith College professor Michael Thurston sought to provide an answer in his recent symposium, “’In Our Time’ in Its Time: The Story of a Book, the Story of Book Culture.” Thurston organized the event to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of Hemingway’s “In Our Time.” Hosted on Oct. 17, the event consisted of a three-guest panel, a reception in Neilson Library and a lecture by Thurston. The panelists were three prominent Hemingway scholars: Suzanne del Gizzo, editor of The Hemingway Review, Marc Dudley, author of “Hemingway, Race, and Art: Bloodlines and the Color Line” and Smith College Professor Emeritus Richard Millington.
This symposium had been in the works in Thurston’s mind for several years. He noted that many works in the twentieth century canon are now entering the public domain. He said, “they’re able to bring a different kind of attention to Hemingway… It seemed like the 100th anniversary (of “In Our Time”) would be a good opportunity to represent him to readers.”
In part, Thurston was motivated by the abundance of misconceptions surrounding Hemingway and his writing. “Like many writers, he gets reduced to a parody,” he said.
Hemingway has become a caricature for many who exaggerate and satirize his unique style. Thurston discussed how this misunderstanding erases all the details under the surface of Hemingway’s work. Due to these characterizations, readers miss out on the complexity and meaning of Hemingway’s writing.
“I think Hemingway is much more interesting, much richer than when he gets collapsed into that caricature… his thinking about and treatment of things that matter to us, like gender and sexuality and the complications of desire and ability and disability, all of those things make him worth returning to,” said Thurston.
The panelists agreed with Thurston on this point. Each one spoke extensively about Hemingway’s iconic style and its impact on readers. According to Del Gizzo, one of the best elements of Hemingway’s style is the hidden sentiment beneath it. “There is so much emotion and feeling in Hemingway’s writing, but his language is (usually) so simple,” del Gizzo wrote in an email to The Sophian.
Professor Dudley said that a large part of his interest in Hemingway stems from his complexity. “He is so much more than that ‘simple declarative sentence’ that often defines him/his work.”
Millington echoed these sentiments. “I love the way the stories are both so revealing and so reticent,” he said.
Smith College Special Collections played a large role in making the symposium possible. The college’s archives contain almost 40,000 linear feet of archives and materials, including a significant collection of Hemingway materials from a single donor. For Thurston, Special Collections played a large role in his studies of Hemingway.
“It’s part of what renewed my interest in Hemingway scholarship…(when) I discovered that we have this really important collection of Hemingway materials that all came through one donor,” he said.
Students in Thurston’s first-year seminar course FYS192: America in 1925 worked to create an exhibit for the reception, compiling and displaying several Special Collections pieces that told the literary journey of “In Our Time.” While many colleges have hosted panels and events commemorating the novel, Thurston said that the archive collections drew a diverse audience.
“The fact that our special collections are as rich and amazing as they are was like a great way to attract people to come to this and a great way to get multiple communities involved in the conversation,” he explained.
Most attendees were primarily interested in Hemingway and his work, but several were attracted by the more bibliographic side of the event in the display. Liliana Katz-Hollander ’29 spoke about the strong impact the symposium had on guests. “I do think it is really important to have events like this, because they’re a really good academic supplement to our courses and work.”
