SOURCE: “Food for Fiction: Lessons from Ernest Hemingway's Writing,” in Journal of American Culture, Vol. 15, No. 2, Summer, 1992, pp. 87-90.

In the following essay, Underhill and Nakjavani present an overview of Hemingway's use of food and related imagery in his novels.

More than any other American writer, Ernest Hemingway inspired the lifestyle of “living it up to write it down.” He traveled the world, drove an ambulance in World War II, boxed, married four times, hunted big game in Africa and big fish in the Gulf Stream. In general, he sampled most of what life had to offer, including the food and drink of many nations. He conveyed his experiences through his memoirs and newspaper articles, many of which appeared in the Toronto Star. “As a reporter and correspondent …” says William White, editor of the two published volumes of Hemingway's journalism, “Hemingway soaked up persons and places and life...