Library of America seeks to rectify censored Ernest Hemingway works

If you’re a fan of Ernest Hemingway, the revelation that some of the language and content in his most famous novels was censored won’t be a surprise.

The Library of America seeks to remedy this in its Hemingway edition, which reclaims these lost words and important plotlines, helping to create a more realistic portrayal of men at war and sexual themes. Among the works published in the first two volumes are “The Sun Also Rises,” “The Torrents of Spring,” “In Our Time,” “A Farewell to Arms,” “Men Without Women,” and “Death in the Afternoon.”

The series’ editor, Robert W. Trogdon, said, “There was a lot of censorship in that era, especially with sexually explicit material.”

Through letters to his editor, which are reprinted in the Library of America volumes, Hemingway made it clear that he didn’t approve of the censorship that was commonplace in publishing. However, according to Trogdon, “Hemingway was a writer, but he was also a businessman and made compromises.” Hemingway understood that having a book banned was not in his best interest, though “A Farewell to Arms” was still banned in Boston when it was serialized in Scribner’s Magazine.

Courtesy Kent State University Robert W. Trogdon has edited two volumes of Ernest Hemingway’s work for the Library of America’s Hemingway edition and has already begun the third, which will include the works “Winner Take Nothing,” “To Have and Have Not” and “Green Hills of Africa.”

“What was even more remarkable was that any mention of the pregnancy of Catherine Barkley, the girlfriend of the protagonist, Frederick Henry, was removed from the book until its terrible denouement,” Trogdon said.

Hemingway also saw that his pal John Herrmann, a Lansing native, had his first novel, “What Happens,” confiscated by U.S. Customs and subsequently banned, which may have derailed an important literary career.

However, it’s clear from Hemingway’s letters to his editor that was against the sanitization of battlefield language by soldiers.

Hemingway was also a traditionalist when it came to punctuation, according to Trogdon. He appreciated his editor’s role in correctly punctuating his work.

Trogdon said that at the time, punctuation was “not as set and rigid as it is now. Lots of punctuation rules came from printers and compositors. They were sometimes the most literate people around.”

However, when Trogdon compared Hemingway’s manuscripts to the printed versions, numerous examples emerged of how punctuation changes resulted in significant changes in meaning. He cites examples of question marks being used to replace Hemingway’s original periods at the end of rhetorical questions. Hemingway often used this subtle technique to show sarcasm, which was lost when a question mark was used.

Trogdon said he’s been interested in Hemingway’s work since he read “The Old Man and the Sea” as a sophomore in high school.

He went to North Carolina State University with the idea that he would become an engineer but soon switched his major to English. He said he “was at the right place at the right time. The last semester of my senior year, I took a class on Hemingway by Michael Reynolds.” Reynolds was the author of a five-volume biography of Hemingway.

That class put Trogdon on his way to becoming a Hemingway scholar who has edited two volumes of the author’s work for the Library of America and has already begun the third, which will include the works “Winner Take Nothing,” “To Have and Have Not” and “Green Hills of Africa.”

The second volume includes 81 retouched versions of the original bullfighting photographs printed in the 1932 first edition of “Death in the Afternoon.” The photographs are accompanied by cutlines written by Hemingway.

Trogdon said the hardest part about editing the books has been reviewing the voluminous documents, including manuscripts and proofs that are available at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston.

When the series is complete, it’s expected to be the definitive and “truest” edition of some of Hemingway’s most important work.