Hello hemingwaywantabes. How is the writing going? Are you writing every day, writing good “true sentences,” as Hemingway suggested? I hope so.

As I mentioned in a previous entry, I am currenly entranced in a reading journey of the great writers. Started with the man himself, Hemingway, then Mailer, then Fitzgerald, then Kerouac, and wow, just finished the 700-page biography of Albert Camus. I am certain I have never read a book this long before, but I am certainly pleased I did.

Biographer Herbert Lottman’s account is amazing, right down to what Camus ate for breakfast on several occasions. But it is much more than that, what every good biography should be, a true slice of history for we learn of Camus during a time of turmoil as Hitler tries to destroy the world. We learn that not only was Camus the brillant writer of such books as The Stranger and The Plague, but a superb adaptor and screenwriter with praise all around. And we learn of his battle with continual illness, loneliness, depression, and the writer’s true enemy, writer’s block. But he won’t give up and just before his death in a car accident at a young age, he wins the Nobel Prize for Literature. Mesermizing story all around, and superbly told.

Also, this type of biography is a must read for anyone deciding a first book will be a biography, an excellent stepping stone into the publishing world. This is how I began, and nearly twenty books later, I am still writing them with the latest Beneath the Mask of Holiness: Thomas Merton and the Forbidden Love Affair That Set Him Free. It will be published in November by Palgrave Macmillan.

One interesting aspect of the Camus biography for those of us who love Mr. Hemingway’s writing is the link between the master and Camus. Biographer Lottman points to American influence of Camus’ writing caused by Hemingway, Faulker, etc. Amazing how all of this is intertwined, master writers learning from master writers.

Have you read any of Camus’ books? If so, please let me know your impressions.