User:KWatson/sandbox: Difference between revisions

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Such criticisms in the final analysis might bear out. As Scott Donaldson writes, Hemingway advanced the Republican cause in his dispatches by eliciting “the deepest possible feelings of horror and of sympathy for the victims” of the Madrid bombardment; his “undue optimism” often “ignored Loyalist defeats and exaggerated the importance of its victories”; and “he repeatedly called attention to the participation of Italians and Germans on Franco’s side” (426)**. It also served as a recruitment tool—Milton Wolff, for example, acknowledged the strong influence Hemingway’s dispatches

had on his decision to volunteer. Nevertheless, I think it a worthwhile exercise to attend a little more studiously to Hemingway’s dispatches, their context, and their artistry. I don’t necessarily intend to reverse the general opinion of the correspondence, only to achieve a better and more sympathetic understanding.

Herbert Matthews’ reporting for the ''New York Times'' will serve as a convenient comparison for two reasons. First, because both Baker and Knightley use Matthews’ journalism as the standard of excellence to pass judgment on Hemingway’s; and second, because the two worked practically side-by side, seeing and reporting on many of the same events. In fact, so closely did they work together that NANA sometimes complained that the ''Times'' was not buying Hemingway’s pieces because they resembled Matthews’ (Donaldson 411, 420), and at one point Matthews’ own editors at the ''Times'' suspected him of plagiarizing Hemingway. A note from Matthews’ assigned editor Raymond McCaw provides, in two columns, seven quite similar passages from Hemingway’s Aragon front dispatches of September 13 and 14 with Matthews’ of September 14, with a penciled note at the bottom: “a

deadly parallel if you ask me” (McCaw, Note)**. Edwin James, the managing editor and McCaw’s boss, eventually agreed with Matthews’ defense: “It is quite apparent that you did not file any duplicate of the Hemingway story, or vice versa. As I understand it, the similarity arose from the fact that you

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 Such criticisms in the final analysis might bear out. As Scott Donaldson writes, Hemingway advanced the Republican cause in his dispatches by eliciting “the deepest possible feelings of horror and of sympathy for the victims” of the Madrid bombardment; his “undue optimism” often “ignored Loyalist defeats and exaggerated the importance of its victories”; and “he repeatedly called attention to the participation of Italians and Germans on Franco’s side” (426)**. It also served as a recruitment tool—Milton Wolff, for example, acknowledged the strong influence Hemingway’s dispatches
 had on his decision to volunteer. Nevertheless, I think it a worthwhile exercise to attend a little more studiously to Hemingway’s dispatches, their context, and their artistry. I don’t necessarily intend to reverse the general opinion of the correspondence, only to achieve a better and more sympathetic understanding.
+Herbert Matthews’ reporting for the ''New York Times'' will serve as a convenient comparison for two reasons. First, because both Baker and Knightley use Matthews’ journalism as the standard of excellence to pass judgment on Hemingway’s; and second, because the two worked practically side-by side, seeing and reporting on many of the same events. In fact, so closely did they work together that NANA sometimes complained that the ''Times'' was not buying Hemingway’s pieces because they resembled Matthews’ (Donaldson 411, 420), and at one point Matthews’ own editors at the ''Times'' suspected him of plagiarizing Hemingway. A note from Matthews’ assigned editor Raymond McCaw provides, in two columns, seven quite similar passages from Hemingway’s Aragon front dispatches of September 13 and 14 with Matthews’ of September 14, with a penciled note at the bottom: “a
+deadly parallel if you ask me” (McCaw, Note)**. Edwin James, the managing editor and McCaw’s boss, eventually agreed with Matthews’ defense: “It is quite apparent that you did not file any duplicate of the Hemingway story, or vice versa. As I understand it, the similarity arose from the fact that you
+Page break