Hemingway impersonator, Richard Clark, told his audience that Ernie was challenged to compose a stirring piece of writing in six words to show his power as a writer. He purportedly penned, “For sale, baby shoes, never used.” And that apparently launched him as the paragon of modern 20th Century American writers.
Now that is a tough act to follow. But given the same circumstance of accepting such a challenge, could any writer, great or unknown have writ the same? Sure, but Hemingway was the first, apparently and that’s the rub. Everything after the first is, as Clark described his performance, anticlimactic, which the Compact Oxford English Dictionary defines as: noun, a disappointing end to an exciting series of events. There is only one Mona Lisa for a reason; it was the first — many copies or likenesses to follow never matched up.
So how does one compete with Hemingway and grasp the baton as America’s writer? Create a more succinct phrase? I can say it in four words! Again sure, but the original challenge has already been offered, accepted, and accomplished. And that is the essence of Hemingway, as distilled by Richard Clark, to be the first with the truth.
How do you like that now, gentlemen!

For more details click the new “Flyers” link on the right sidebar.

Yours,

Richard Clark

469 Linden St. Boylston, MA 01505

Phone: 508-869-6749

Fax: 508-869-6285

Email: darrowactor@aol.com

-Audience Member at the Northboro Senior Center, concerning “Life, Language, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Ernest Hemingway Alive!”

New flyer from my new show: “Atticus!”

-RC

-RC