101 Books, Number 19

Favorite Books Throughout My Life

19: A Farewell to Arms, 1929, by Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)

This was the first by Hemingway

That I had ever read at all.

A college frosh—back in the day—

I fell for Papa’s waterfall

Of words. A book suggested for

The frosh beginning their careers,

It drew me in—it was no chore

For me and others of my peers.

Okay, I cried there at the end—

My first “book cry”—but not the last.

There was no way I could pretend:

Oh, yes, my tears were leaking fast.

I read much more of Hemingway—

I saw his homes, stood by his grave.

I loved his stories—war and play—

And men who sometimes … misbehave.

I later taught some stories, too*—

And liked to see each student’s face

When Hemingway—in ways so true—

Showed them the injured human race.

*“The Killers,” “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” “Hills like White Elephants,” “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” and others.