Ernest Hemingway's List of Books to Read

Jason Boog, editor of GalleyCat and managing editor of AppNewser, has written an interesting piece on Hemingway's list of books to read.

In 1934, the great novelist Ernest Hemingway made a list of books that all aspiring writers should read. Below, we’ve linked to free copies of most of the books on his massive list.

Open Culture has an article about how a young hobo and aspiring writer named Arnold Samuelson ended up getting writing advice from Hemingway himself. Check it out:

Hemingway advised Samuelson to avoid contemporary writers and compete only with the dead ones whose works have stood the test of time: “When you pass them up you know you’re going good.” He asked Samuelson what writers he liked. Samuelson said he enjoyed Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped and Henry David Thoreau’s Walden. “Ever read War and Peace?” Hemingway asked. Samuelson said he had not. “That’s a damned good book. You ought to read it. We’ll go up to my workshop and I’ll make out a list you ought to read.”

Free Books Recommended By Ernest Hemingway Himself:
 
The Blue Hotel by Stephen Crane (Part of The Monster & Other Stories collection)
The Open Boat by Stephen Crane (Part of Men, Women & Boats Collection)
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Dubliners by James Joyce
Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Enormous Room by E.E. Cummings
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Far Away and Long Ago by W.H. Hudson
The American by Henry James

If you want to get a real glimpse into the literary life of Ernest Hemingway, find a book or two in this list.  Be a Hemingway voyeur of sorts, and have fun!