Ernest Hemingway is an undeniably outstanding author of the 20th century, whose works remain relevant today. One of the best writers of his “lost” generation, Hemingway gained popularity among critics, receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954, and readers of Z lib.
Aspiring writers, contemporaries of the author, admiring his talent, sought his advice on how to learn to write well. Among them was 22-year-old Arnold Samuelson, who hitchhiked to Hemingway’s home in Florida in 1934.
During a long-awaited conversation about creativity, Hemingway asked Samuelson a very important question: “Have you ever read War and Peace?” Samuelson answered negatively, admitting that he had never had such a pleasure. “It’s a damn good book. You should read it. We’ll go up to my studio, and I’ll make a list of what you should read,” the author told him.
Then Hemingway made a list of 16 books for Samuelson, a budding writer eager to learn about life and properly depict it in his future works.
The list included the complex polystylistic works of Joyce, the vivid poetry of Crane, and the greatest novels of the classics. After reading them, perhaps you really can become a writer. Here’s the full list of recommendations:
“The Blue Hotel” — Stephen Crane
“The Open Boat” — Stephen Crane
“Madame Bovary” — Gustave Flaubert
“Dubliners” — James Joyce
“The Red and the Black” — Stendhal
“Of Human Bondage” — Somerset Maugham
“Anna Karenina” — Lev Tolstoy
“War and Peace” — Lev Tolstoy
“Buddenbrooks” — Thomas Mann
“Hello and Farewell” — George Moore
“The Brothers Karamazov” — Fyodor Dostoevsky
“The Oxford Collection of English Poetry”
“The Enormous Room” — Edward E. Cummings
“Wuthering Heights” — Emily Brontë
“Far Away and Long Ago” — William Henry Hudson
“The American” — Henry James
During his lifetime, Hemingway insisted that talking about writing — a waste of time. However, he often reflected on this topic in his stories, letters, interviews and even special articles.
If you are one of those people who are horrified by the number of books already written or doubt your talent or calling, do not lose hope. There is no such type of person as a “writer”. If you are afraid that you do not have something that other writers have, especially those you admire – calm down. To be a writer, you only need one thing: to be human.
Writing is not a matter of magic or mystery but of courage and honesty. Hemingway believed that if a person is brave enough to observe the world without flinching and write about it without lying, then that person is already halfway there. So read deeply, feel fully, and when you write—write the truest sentence you know.
The list Hemingway gave to Samuelson was not just a syllabus. It was a reflection of his belief that good writing starts with good reading. These books were chosen not for their fame but for their truth, their insight, and their ability to teach something real about the world and the people in it. If you study them with the same seriousness Hemingway approached his craft, you may find that your own voice begins to take shape—not as an echo of someone else’s, but as something clear and original. In the end, every writer begins as a reader who was moved.
