I have a friend in prison (LWOP) who is a reader and a writer.
Hemingway is his favorite author.
But, obviously, he has read all of Hemingway’s published works.
Which other authors’ works would be a good fit to send?
[ My friend is not above trashy books, but he appreciates “literature” ]
While I haven’t read Hemingway for decades here are what others have suggested:
https://tastedive.com/like/Ernest-Hemingway-Author
https://www.literature-map.com/ernest+hemingway.html
Raymond Chandler - anything and everything by him including his short stories - one of the original noir detective authors.
Jack London - great adventure stories in the wilderness.
Dashiell Hammett - another great classic detective author.
Stephen King - you already know who he is…
Stephen King mentions Raymond Chandler as one of his influences and Raymond Chandler mentions Dashiell Hammett as one of his. Jack London is just great on his own!
Elmore Leonard is another fave of mine. As for him and the ones above - not sure how to describe their likeness to Hemingway other than they tend to stick to a narrative that keeps the action going forward - with the exception of Stephen King, who can go round in circles with his suspense.
Not tying to hog the thread but one more: George Orwell, “Down and out in Paris and London” was a great read for me.
William Faulkner? :dubious: Henry James? :dubious:
Some of those writers may be similar to Hemingway in some ways, but I wouldn’t recommend them to someone looking for Hemingway’s writing style.
Yes, Dashiell Hammett. I’d take him over Hemingway any time. Especially the short stories, Red Harvest, The Maltese Falcon, The Glass Key.
Chandler, I think, is quite a bit fancier than Hemingway. He’s great nonetheless.
Same for Raymond Chandler.
If you’re going to name these folks, why not go all the way and say F. Scott Fitzgerald? :smack: OMG, I found his name in one of those links! They’re just lists of good 20th century authors, with nothing to say about writing style.
I haven’t read him but Robert Ruark was supposed to be very similar to Hemingway in subject. I don’t know about his style, but his first novel, a parody, is definitely nothing like Hemingway’s. The Wikipedia article says he went downhill after his first half dozen novels, though.
Come to think of it, the same was true of Hemingway.
I recall reading about how Hemingway developed his style of writing during one of his early jobs as a newspaper reporter which meant he used short sentences that described facts and sequences of events in a clear and succinct manner unlike what Im doing now which is a run-on sentence that goes on and on without ever getting to the point if you see what I mean.
He would get right to the point. Like this. Easy to read. Easy to understand. I ain’t no Hemingway. But I like his style.
Adam Hall writes the Quiller novels in a terse 1st-person get-to-the-point style that Hemingway fans might like.
Adam Hall is one of several pen-names. Several Quiller stories, along with stories by Elleston Trevor (another pen-name that he made his legal name), have been made into movies, but he still seems somewhat little-known and under-appreciated. (I look for him whenever I go to a bookstore, but seldom find anything. 
)
(Maybe he’d be more famous and popular if he did his writing under a single name, rather than eleven different aliases! )
I always found Truman Capote to be similar stylistically.
I learn from the Wikipedia article on the International Imitation Hemingway Competition that “two anthologies of Imitation Hemingway have been published (The Best of Bad Hemingway, Volumes I & II) and include contest winners as well as satires of Hemingway written by E. B. White, Raymond Chandler, F. Scott Fitzgerald and George Plimpton.”
IMHO, Roger Zelazny was the Hemingway of SF.
What I suggest you do is send him some anthologies. Textbooks have a large variety of writers and quite a lot of material. Their prices are very high for current editions but cheap for older editions. Hopefully after browsing through the anthology he will find authors he likes.
Here is a cheap one: The Heath Anthology of American Literature. 3rd edition. Published 1998. 3200 pages. Search Amazon for ISBN 0395868238
Prices start at $.01 Plus $3.99 shipping for used copies [although you might go for the Like New copy at $7.66 free shipping].
One thing about sending books to prisons–some prisons prohibit hardcover books. You need to check this before ordering them.
Thank you for the suggestions.
I will look through these.
I bet there are some winners in here…
I like Zelazny myself.
It’s been decades since I read any of his stuff.
Here the books also need to come from some bookseller instead of from me.
Some of the booksellers have special options for correctional institutions surprisingly.
You know who is sort of like Hemingway is Cormac McCarthy. Not in the super-stylized prose, but in his general take on things.
I came in to mention F. Scott Fitzgerald also. While having different writing styles of course, they were contemporaries and friends, and so took their subject matter from the same time period, and even though their styles were miles apart, they often have much the same sort of vibe. Plus, it gives me a chance to quote Hemingway on Fitzgerald’s decline as an author (which I love so much), and might encourage those who have never read Fitzgerald:
I meant to post this before but forgot, remembered as I just finished this book. The sparse but elegant writing style and the subject matter reminds of The Nick Adams short stories
You can of course find less expensive copies but this is a good overview
Hemingway+Fitzgerald fans might enjoy this “interview”–from Dan Simmons site:
“The following is a transcript of moderator Dan Simmons asking questions of writers Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald regarding the craft and profession of writing. All quotes by Mr. Hemingway and Mr. Fitzgerald are verbatim.”
See “Dan’s note” at bottom of page for sources of quotes–