In 1934, an aspiring writer asked Ernest Hemingway what books he should read. He responded with a list of 16 classic works. When Hemingway handed this list to his young writer friend, he noted: “If you haven’t read these, you just aren’t educated… “Some may bore you, others might inspire you. “And others are so beautifully written they’ll make you feel it’s hopeless for you to try to write…as a note, these are just the books a craftsman is offering as part of the craft–it is not an exhaustive list, and not all of his favorite writers are on it (Conrad, Woolf, Stein, and more…).
- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1869)
This epic tale of the Napoleonic wars’ impact on Russian society combines historical detail with deep philosophical inquiry.
Hemingway later wrote: “I don’t know anybody who could write about war better than Tolstoy did.”
- Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (1857)
The story of a married woman who, finding her life banal and empty, destroys herself.
Often misunderstood, this seminal work of literary realism is Flaubert’s devastating critique of romanticism.
- Dubliners by James Joyce (1915)
A collection of 15 stories capturing the essence of everyday middle-class life in Dublin.
While these stories are some of Joyce’s more accessible works, they are pioneering contributions to the development of literary modernism.
- The Open Boat by Stephen Crane (1897)
A raw tale of survival in nature, based on Crane’s own experience stranded at sea for 30 hours after a shipwreck.
This short story is the quintessential example of literary naturalism, and perhaps Crane’s most acclaimed work.
- The Blue Hotel by Stephen Crane (1898)
An intense short story about a group of young men snowed in at a Nebraska hotel and a deadly collision of fate with human nature.
Crane’s career was short, but it was innovative and an inspiration for Hemingway’s generation.
- The Red and the Black by Stendhal (1830)
Part “psychological” novel, part social satire, this is a portrait of a romantic youth who attempts to rise above his station in post-Napoleonic France.
It’s an novel that was ahead of its time and influenced generations of authors.
- Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham (1915)
This autobiographical novel traces the life of a troubled orphan and would-be artist, as he comes of age and falls in love.
A deeply emotional work, it’s the story of a young man trying to sort out the meaning of life.
- Far Away and Long Ago by W.H. Hudson (1918)
A nostalgic recounting of the author’s boyhood on the Argentinian frontier, it’s a blend of nature-writing (Hudson was by profession an ornithologist) and compelling autobiography.
- Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann (1901)
A chronicle of the decline of a merchant family in 19th-century Germany.
A masterpiece of realist fiction, it’s also a social commentary on the decadence and social changes Mann observed in a rapidly industrializing Germany.
- Hail and Farewell by George Moore (1911-14)
This memoir, by the most influential Irish novelist of the generation before Joyce, is a lively, at times gossipy, account of the Celtic literary revival.
- The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1880)
Part family drama, part theological drama, Dostoevsky’s masterpiece is a passionate exploration of faith, free will, and familial bonds, told through the lives of a father and his sons.
- The Oxford Book of English Verse
This comprehensive anthology of English poetry, spanning from medieval to modern times, belongs on every bookshelf.
Among Hemingway’s favorite poets featured in the volume are Yeats, Donne, Marvell, Browning, Kipling, and Shakespeare.
- The Enormous Room by E.E. Cummings (1922)
Better known as the ground-breaking poet “e e cummings”, this autobiographical novel was his first publishing success.
A witty, unconventional work, it tells of the four months he spent imprisoned in France during WWI.
- The American by Henry James (1877)
The story of the misadventures of an American businessman in Europe, it is a showcase for James’s psychological (if not always plot) realism and his deft touch for using both comedy and drama to critique society.
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (1847)
A profound tale of passion and revenge (featuring the brooding, Byronic hero, Heathcliff), this is a prime example of Gothic Romanticism’s exploration of the darker aspects of the human psyche.
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (1878)
A profound exploration of love and infidelity in Imperial Russian society, Tolstoy’s masterpiece is a cornerstone of Realist fiction.
It’s also universally considered one of the greatest novels ever written.
The recipient of Hemingway’s advice was a 22-year-old named Arnold Samuelson, a North Dakota farm boy and former journalism student. In Spring 1934, Samuelson showed up, unannounced, at Hemingway’s Key West home, hoping for a conversation with his literary hero. He ended up spending a year working on his boat. Samuelson wrote about this in his memoir, “With Hemingway: A Year in Key West and Cuba.
Keeping in mind that Hemingway was found dead July 2, 1961, of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head at his home in Ketchum, Idaho, where he lived with his wife Mary, one has to wonder which of those books might have driven him to do the deed.
My money would be on “Anna Karenina” by Leo Tolstoy.