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Big Two-Hearted River: The Centennial Edition
A gorgeous new centennial edition of Ernest Hemingway’s landmark short story of returning veteran Nick Adams’s solo fishing trip in Michigan’s rugged Upper Peninsula, illustrated with specially commissioned artwork by master engraver Chris Wormell and featuring a revelatory foreword by John N. Maclean.
"The finest story of the outdoors in American literature." — Sports Illustrated
A century since its publication in the collection In Our Time, “Big Two-Hearted River” has helped shape language and literature in America and across the globe, and its magnetic pull continues to draw readers, writers, and critics. The story is the best early example of Ernest Hemingway’s now-familiar writing short sentences, punchy nouns and verbs, few adjectives and adverbs, and a seductive cadence. Easy to imitate, difficult to match. The subject matter of the story has inspired generations of writers to believe that fly fishing can be literature. More than any of his stories, it depends on his ‘iceberg theory’ of literature, the notion that leaving essential parts of a story unsaid, the underwater portion of the iceberg, adds to its power. Taken in context with his other work, it marks Hemingway’s passage from boyish writer to accomplished nothing big came before it, novels and stories poured out after it. —from the foreword by John N. Maclean
"The finest story of the outdoors in American literature." — Sports Illustrated
A century since its publication in the collection In Our Time, “Big Two-Hearted River” has helped shape language and literature in America and across the globe, and its magnetic pull continues to draw readers, writers, and critics. The story is the best early example of Ernest Hemingway’s now-familiar writing short sentences, punchy nouns and verbs, few adjectives and adverbs, and a seductive cadence. Easy to imitate, difficult to match. The subject matter of the story has inspired generations of writers to believe that fly fishing can be literature. More than any of his stories, it depends on his ‘iceberg theory’ of literature, the notion that leaving essential parts of a story unsaid, the underwater portion of the iceberg, adds to its power. Taken in context with his other work, it marks Hemingway’s passage from boyish writer to accomplished nothing big came before it, novels and stories poured out after it. —from the foreword by John N. Maclean
112 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1925
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2298 people want to read
About the author
Ernest Hemingway
2,180 books32.2k followersErnest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Best known for an economical, understated style that significantly influenced later 20th-century writers, he is often romanticized for his adventurous lifestyle, and outspoken and blunt public image. Most of Hemingway's works were published between the mid-1920s and mid-1950s, including seven novels, six short-story collections and two non-fiction works. His writings have become classics of American literature; he was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature, while three of his novels, four short-story collections and three nonfiction works were published posthumously.
Hemingway was raised in Oak Park, Illinois. After high school, he spent six months as a cub reporter for The Kansas City Star before enlisting in the Red Cross. He served as an ambulance driver on the Italian Front in World War I and was seriously wounded in 1918. His wartime experiences formed the basis for his 1929 novel A Farewell to Arms. He married Hadley Richardson in 1921, the first of four wives. They moved to Paris where he worked as a foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star and fell under the influence of the modernist writers and artists of the 1920s' "Lost Generation" expatriate community. His debut novel The Sun Also Rises was published in 1926.
He divorced Richardson in 1927 and married Pauline Pfeiffer. They divorced after he returned from the Spanish Civil War, where he had worked as a journalist and which formed the basis for his 1940 novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. Martha Gellhorn became his third wife in 1940. He and Gellhorn separated after he met Mary Welsh Hemingway in London during World War II. Hemingway was present with Allied troops as a journalist at the Normandy landings and the liberation of Paris. He maintained permanent residences in Key West, Florida, in the 1930s and in Cuba in the 1940s and 1950s. On a 1954 trip to Africa, he was seriously injured in two plane accidents on successive days, leaving him in pain and ill health for much of the rest of his life. In 1959, he bought a house in Ketchum, Idaho, where, on July 2, 1961 (a couple weeks before his 62nd birthday), he killed himself using one of his shotguns.
Hemingway was raised in Oak Park, Illinois. After high school, he spent six months as a cub reporter for The Kansas City Star before enlisting in the Red Cross. He served as an ambulance driver on the Italian Front in World War I and was seriously wounded in 1918. His wartime experiences formed the basis for his 1929 novel A Farewell to Arms. He married Hadley Richardson in 1921, the first of four wives. They moved to Paris where he worked as a foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star and fell under the influence of the modernist writers and artists of the 1920s' "Lost Generation" expatriate community. His debut novel The Sun Also Rises was published in 1926.
He divorced Richardson in 1927 and married Pauline Pfeiffer. They divorced after he returned from the Spanish Civil War, where he had worked as a journalist and which formed the basis for his 1940 novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. Martha Gellhorn became his third wife in 1940. He and Gellhorn separated after he met Mary Welsh Hemingway in London during World War II. Hemingway was present with Allied troops as a journalist at the Normandy landings and the liberation of Paris. He maintained permanent residences in Key West, Florida, in the 1930s and in Cuba in the 1940s and 1950s. On a 1954 trip to Africa, he was seriously injured in two plane accidents on successive days, leaving him in pain and ill health for much of the rest of his life. In 1959, he bought a house in Ketchum, Idaho, where, on July 2, 1961 (a couple weeks before his 62nd birthday), he killed himself using one of his shotguns.
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February 10, 2025
‘The river was there,’ writes Ernest Hemingway. Even when the world seems to bruise you. The river is there. Even when your own mind or heart causes you pain and the past aches like an open wound —the river is there. Having returned home from the war haunted and broken hearted, Hemingway took a trip with some friends to the wilderness of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, an outdoors vacation that would inspire the two parts to his beloved Big Two-Hearted River. Published in 1924, it would mark a definitive start to his illustrious career. And deservingly so. While I’ve never had much particular fascination with Hem, this story has long been dear to my heart having, like Nick in the story, spent time fly fishing in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula where I would spend summers as a kid. Praised by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Edmund Wilson as a minor masterpiece when it originally appeared in Hemingway’s debut collection In Our Time in 1925 and reprinted as a standalone with an erudite introduction from John N. Maclean, The Two-Hearted River is succinct and serene in it’s examination of the inner turmoils that linger in our hearts and the healing power of nature. A minor masterpiece indeed.
Art in the Centennial Edition by Chris Wormell
Beleaguered by emotional blows in the aftermath of his war service, Hemingway’s recurring character and autobiographical alter ego Nick Adams travels to Seney, Michigan to do some fly-fishing and hopefully allow the peaceful flow of the river to wash away his worries. There is a real truth to the way a solo journey into nature can be refreshing and redeeming. Lonely, sure, but as Nick thinks ‘it was better to be alone, to eat in solitude, on the trout stream.’ In my teens, my father and I often travelled to the trout streams to fly fish together. I’ve never been the sporting sort and, truth be told, always sort of hoped I never caught anything because I didn’t want to mess with the fish, but it meant a lot to my father and wading out into the center of a river, fly pole in hand, was the most at ease and happy I’d ever seen him. We might not always see eye to eye and are quick to argue (but mostly get along), and I often spent those weekends rather quiet, absorbed in my thoughts and a book, but I treasured that, for a time, we were at ease with each other and bonding. To read this story for the first time since high school brought back a river of memories that once again brought me to ease during a rough week in an even rougher string of harsh months. The search for that ease is in Nick’s heart throughout this story and it reminds me of a favorite poem by Wendell Berry which you should read in full:
The Peace of Wild Things
Wendell Berry
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
One can find themselves, for a time, free from worldly worries in nature. In her poem When I Am Among Trees , poet Mary Oliver reflects on being alone yet surrounded by trees and remarks ‘I would almost say that they save me, and daily.’ I too find this to be true. And with that aim we return to Nick. We know something is bothering him, though it's never explicitly stated. The story is very much in keeping with Hemingway’s own iceberg theory and we can only deduce what is beneath the surface. Those charting the Nick Adams timeline will have learned in Hemingway’s story The End of Something that Nick recently broke up with his girlfriend, telling her ‘I feel as though everything was gone to hell inside me,’ and with that chaos in his heart The Two-Hearted River begins with Nick entering the town of Seney, Michigan.
‘His heart beat hard against his chest as it did sometimes, and this, the empty feeling, came before rain.’
To his dismay, a recent fire has burned down much of Seney and the surrounding area. A harsh discovery for one whom ‘the burned country, the burned hillsides and the black stumps and the charred logs’ easily recall scenes of his time in World War I, a likely culprit for the hell inside him. In his introduction (which you can read in full HERE), John N. Maclean—his father Norman Maclean is best know for another book about fly fishing: A River Runs Through It and Other Stories—traced Hemingway’s fishing story to the town of Seney to discover it had, in fact, been victim to a fire in 1919 before Hemingway visited, though not to the extent that it was in the book. He also discovers that the location of the story is not actually the Two-Hearted River (by the way, there is an excellent local IPA of that name I often enjoy) but the East branch of the Fox River and he found the location exactly as described in the story. Hemingway is purported to have said he used the name for his story ‘not from ignorance nor carelessness but because [the name] Big Two-Hearted River is poetry.’ Having been in the river, I can confirm that not only the name is poetry.
Bridge over Fox River where Nick goes when he first arrives in Seney. Photo by John N. MacLean
‘.The country is swell,’ Hemingway wrote to Gertrude Stein in 1924 about Northern Michigan and its appearance in the book, ‘I made it all up, so I see it all and part of it comes out the way it ought to.’ Still, even in fiction, much of the Michigan landscape and locales remain recongnizable .As a Michigander, it is always with some pride that northern locals talk about how Hemingway spent time there. As a boy his family would go stay on a cabin off Walloon Lake near Petoskey, MI (there is an EXCELLENT bookstore there, McLean and Eakin I visit every summer camping in Petoskey) and much of his Nick Adams stories are inspired by the local scenery.
A young Ernest fishing in Michigan and (left) his family cottage on Walloon Lake
Returning again to Nick, once he reaches the water he begins to feel more at ease. Eating late and working up a hunger makes the food more rewarding, the river feels clean and calm and, so too does his inner currents. He find the fish ‘very satisfactory,’ and ‘It was a good place to be, he decided,’ as if willing himself to match the satisfactory calm.
Hemingway creates a sense of calm with his writing. The images are crystalline clear and the writing is not unlike the river itself where ‘there was nothing in the current but the leaves of the water’ creating this zen-like atmosphere. The repetition on words like “sun” and “trout” become almost hypnotic and we, too, are lulled into a sense of calm with Nick.
‘There was a trout that lived in the river and all the other fish were his friends.’
The imagery does a lot to relay Nick’s emotional state even if it is never explicitly stated. It is telling that one of the rare moments of dialogue in the story is Nick telling the grasshopper to ‘fly away somewhere.’ The grasshoppers are still black from the fire a year ago, retaining a stain of trauma not unlike Nick himself, and we can theorize that Nick finds a lesson in the grasshopper’s resilience and in wishing them well, he is wishing himself well on the road to recovery. But most notable is his depiction of the landscape:
It could not all be burned. Like the land, he too is burned and changed inside but, seeing that it still retains its beauty and peace, Hemingway suggests that, Nick, too, cannot be all burned, all changed, all destruction. That Nick, too, may find some peace.
‘You must not lose your life if you wanted to keep it. It was easy to lose it, if you wanted to keep it.’
Nature is full of wonders. Nature can show you great beauty, great danger, great calm and, if you allow it, can heal your weary soul. ‘Nick’s heart tightened as the trout moved,’ Hemingway writes, ‘he felt all the old feeling.’ In the currents of the river, Nick feels his old feelings return. There is hope. There is recovery. The river is there if you need it. The Two-Hearted River is a marvelous and miniature little story, but one bursting with power and heart.
4.5/5
Art in the Centennial Edition by Chris Wormell
Beleaguered by emotional blows in the aftermath of his war service, Hemingway’s recurring character and autobiographical alter ego Nick Adams travels to Seney, Michigan to do some fly-fishing and hopefully allow the peaceful flow of the river to wash away his worries. There is a real truth to the way a solo journey into nature can be refreshing and redeeming. Lonely, sure, but as Nick thinks ‘it was better to be alone, to eat in solitude, on the trout stream.’ In my teens, my father and I often travelled to the trout streams to fly fish together. I’ve never been the sporting sort and, truth be told, always sort of hoped I never caught anything because I didn’t want to mess with the fish, but it meant a lot to my father and wading out into the center of a river, fly pole in hand, was the most at ease and happy I’d ever seen him. We might not always see eye to eye and are quick to argue (but mostly get along), and I often spent those weekends rather quiet, absorbed in my thoughts and a book, but I treasured that, for a time, we were at ease with each other and bonding. To read this story for the first time since high school brought back a river of memories that once again brought me to ease during a rough week in an even rougher string of harsh months. The search for that ease is in Nick’s heart throughout this story and it reminds me of a favorite poem by Wendell Berry which you should read in full:
The Peace of Wild Things
Wendell Berry
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
One can find themselves, for a time, free from worldly worries in nature. In her poem When I Am Among Trees , poet Mary Oliver reflects on being alone yet surrounded by trees and remarks ‘I would almost say that they save me, and daily.’ I too find this to be true. And with that aim we return to Nick. We know something is bothering him, though it's never explicitly stated. The story is very much in keeping with Hemingway’s own iceberg theory and we can only deduce what is beneath the surface. Those charting the Nick Adams timeline will have learned in Hemingway’s story The End of Something that Nick recently broke up with his girlfriend, telling her ‘I feel as though everything was gone to hell inside me,’ and with that chaos in his heart The Two-Hearted River begins with Nick entering the town of Seney, Michigan.
‘His heart beat hard against his chest as it did sometimes, and this, the empty feeling, came before rain.’
To his dismay, a recent fire has burned down much of Seney and the surrounding area. A harsh discovery for one whom ‘the burned country, the burned hillsides and the black stumps and the charred logs’ easily recall scenes of his time in World War I, a likely culprit for the hell inside him. In his introduction (which you can read in full HERE), John N. Maclean—his father Norman Maclean is best know for another book about fly fishing: A River Runs Through It and Other Stories—traced Hemingway’s fishing story to the town of Seney to discover it had, in fact, been victim to a fire in 1919 before Hemingway visited, though not to the extent that it was in the book. He also discovers that the location of the story is not actually the Two-Hearted River (by the way, there is an excellent local IPA of that name I often enjoy) but the East branch of the Fox River and he found the location exactly as described in the story. Hemingway is purported to have said he used the name for his story ‘not from ignorance nor carelessness but because [the name] Big Two-Hearted River is poetry.’ Having been in the river, I can confirm that not only the name is poetry.
Bridge over Fox River where Nick goes when he first arrives in Seney. Photo by John N. MacLean
‘.The country is swell,’ Hemingway wrote to Gertrude Stein in 1924 about Northern Michigan and its appearance in the book, ‘I made it all up, so I see it all and part of it comes out the way it ought to.’ Still, even in fiction, much of the Michigan landscape and locales remain recongnizable .As a Michigander, it is always with some pride that northern locals talk about how Hemingway spent time there. As a boy his family would go stay on a cabin off Walloon Lake near Petoskey, MI (there is an EXCELLENT bookstore there, McLean and Eakin I visit every summer camping in Petoskey) and much of his Nick Adams stories are inspired by the local scenery.
A young Ernest fishing in Michigan and (left) his family cottage on Walloon Lake
Returning again to Nick, once he reaches the water he begins to feel more at ease. Eating late and working up a hunger makes the food more rewarding, the river feels clean and calm and, so too does his inner currents. He find the fish ‘very satisfactory,’ and ‘It was a good place to be, he decided,’ as if willing himself to match the satisfactory calm.
‘He sat on the logs, smoking, drying in the sun, the sun warm on his back the river shallow ahead entering the woods, curving into the woods, shallows light glittering, big water-smooth rocks, cedars along the bank and white birches, the logs warm in the sun, smooth to sit on, without bark, gray to the touch; slowly the feeling of disappointment left him.’
Hemingway creates a sense of calm with his writing. The images are crystalline clear and the writing is not unlike the river itself where ‘there was nothing in the current but the leaves of the water’ creating this zen-like atmosphere. The repetition on words like “sun” and “trout” become almost hypnotic and we, too, are lulled into a sense of calm with Nick.
‘There was a trout that lived in the river and all the other fish were his friends.’
The imagery does a lot to relay Nick’s emotional state even if it is never explicitly stated. It is telling that one of the rare moments of dialogue in the story is Nick telling the grasshopper to ‘fly away somewhere.’ The grasshoppers are still black from the fire a year ago, retaining a stain of trauma not unlike Nick himself, and we can theorize that Nick finds a lesson in the grasshopper’s resilience and in wishing them well, he is wishing himself well on the road to recovery. But most notable is his depiction of the landscape:
‘Seney was burned, the country was burned over and changed, but it did not matter. It could not all be burned.’
It could not all be burned. Like the land, he too is burned and changed inside but, seeing that it still retains its beauty and peace, Hemingway suggests that, Nick, too, cannot be all burned, all changed, all destruction. That Nick, too, may find some peace.
‘You must not lose your life if you wanted to keep it. It was easy to lose it, if you wanted to keep it.’
Nature is full of wonders. Nature can show you great beauty, great danger, great calm and, if you allow it, can heal your weary soul. ‘Nick’s heart tightened as the trout moved,’ Hemingway writes, ‘he felt all the old feeling.’ In the currents of the river, Nick feels his old feelings return. There is hope. There is recovery. The river is there if you need it. The Two-Hearted River is a marvelous and miniature little story, but one bursting with power and heart.
4.5/5
October 5, 2024
There are two parts to this, that is, there is a second story coupled to the first, and they are simply descriptions of forest and stream and Nature, and a man fishing for trout in jade green waters, and I love it 🐟🌲🌳🎣
September 10, 2016
I appreciate nature and how Hemingway honors it in this short story: how nature can heal, how it can bring you back to your core, and how it can simplify life and remind you of what matters. You could read this story as a tale of post traumatic stress disorder, of a man soothing himself in the woods because he cannot yet confront his inner demons. You could read this story as a man's straightforward, quiet foray into the scenery for some time off. No matter how you read it, the story is grounding, this short tale of how purity and happiness can spring from scenery and nature.
A drab and boring story in many ways, but it does offer tidbits to appreciate, in particular for those who enjoy Hemingway's sparse style. I apologize for the upcoming flux of Hemingway reviews: I am taking a course on his work, and I am looking forward to building empathy for an author who, despite his shortcomings (e.g., misogyny, homophobia, etc.), offered his soul to the literary world.
A drab and boring story in many ways, but it does offer tidbits to appreciate, in particular for those who enjoy Hemingway's sparse style. I apologize for the upcoming flux of Hemingway reviews: I am taking a course on his work, and I am looking forward to building empathy for an author who, despite his shortcomings (e.g., misogyny, homophobia, etc.), offered his soul to the literary world.
May 13, 2023
Don't Go Down to the Swamp Today
Review of the Mariner Classics Kindle ebook (May 9, 2023), with an Introduction by John N. Maclean with Illustrations by Chris Wormell, of the original short story written from 1923-24 and first published in the Boni & Liveright 1925 edition of In Our Time.
Big Two-Hearted River is probably one of the most analyzed of Ernest Hemingway's short stories. It is a famous example of his 'iceberg theory' where the main subject of the story is hidden from the view of the reader, just as the bulk of an iceberg is hidden underwater. In this case, it is the story of a solo camping and fishing expedition by Nick Adams, a fictional proxy of the author, in which he seeks to blot out memories of his injuries and trauma from the First World War. The war itself is never mentioned, but at various times Nick views, but avoids, a nearby swamp, which stands as a metaphor for his wartime experiences.
This Centennial edition is enhanced by an extended introduction by journalist & writer John N. Maclean, son of Norman Maclean, author of A River Runs Through It, and Other Stories (1976) and a dozen commissioned prints by artist Chris Wormell which illustrate the story's events.
A lino print of a rainbow trout by artist Chris Wormell. There are other Wormell black & white fish prints in this edition of 'Big Two-Hearted River,' but I could not locate an online link for any of those. This image is sourced from Pinterest.
Big Two-Hearted River is also an excellent example of writer and mentor Gertrude Stein's influence on early Hemingway. Her more experimental repetitive style (most famously exemplified by the quote "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose") is regularly adopted by Hemingway as words repeat or are echoed in the short declarative sentences which submerge you into a visceral experience of building a camp, cooking food and fishing a river.
Stein was also key in advising Hemingway to cut a major portion of the text, which later appeared as On Writing in various posthumous editions such as The Nick Adams stories (1972) and The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Hemingway Library Collector's Edition (2017). Stein's advice to make the cut was: "Hemingway, remarks are not literature."
I'll leave the last word to writer Tim O'Brien:
Trivia and Link
For some reason, my Kindle highlights for this book are not viewable or shareable on Goodreads, but I did enter them as status updates which you can view here.
Review of the Mariner Classics Kindle ebook (May 9, 2023), with an Introduction by John N. Maclean with Illustrations by Chris Wormell, of the original short story written from 1923-24 and first published in the Boni & Liveright 1925 edition of In Our Time.
In the swamp the banks were bare, the big cedars came together overhead, the sun did not come through, except in patches; in the fast deep water, in the half light, the fishing would be tragic. In the swamp fishing was a tragic adventure. Nick did not want it. He did not want to go down the stream any farther today.
Big Two-Hearted River is probably one of the most analyzed of Ernest Hemingway's short stories. It is a famous example of his 'iceberg theory' where the main subject of the story is hidden from the view of the reader, just as the bulk of an iceberg is hidden underwater. In this case, it is the story of a solo camping and fishing expedition by Nick Adams, a fictional proxy of the author, in which he seeks to blot out memories of his injuries and trauma from the First World War. The war itself is never mentioned, but at various times Nick views, but avoids, a nearby swamp, which stands as a metaphor for his wartime experiences.
This Centennial edition is enhanced by an extended introduction by journalist & writer John N. Maclean, son of Norman Maclean, author of A River Runs Through It, and Other Stories (1976) and a dozen commissioned prints by artist Chris Wormell which illustrate the story's events.
In Paris, he was an ocean and more away from his home waters in Michigan. The separation intensified the writing. While he worked on the story, he kept a map of northern Michigan posted in his apartment, with blue marks for significant locations. In succeeding drafts, he stripped the story down to one disturbed person moving through a dreamlike, almost hallucinatory landscape of distorted reality. Brown grasshoppers evolve to black in the fire’s footprint, a physical impossibility in the time between flames and green-up. Swamps are not known for being deep and full of swift currents; they are still and often shallow—the many swamps I saw around Seney certainly are. Words repeat, the rhythm pulses, and the prose becomes an incantation. - from the Introduction by John N. Maclean.
A lino print of a rainbow trout by artist Chris Wormell. There are other Wormell black & white fish prints in this edition of 'Big Two-Hearted River,' but I could not locate an online link for any of those. This image is sourced from Pinterest.
Big Two-Hearted River is also an excellent example of writer and mentor Gertrude Stein's influence on early Hemingway. Her more experimental repetitive style (most famously exemplified by the quote "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose") is regularly adopted by Hemingway as words repeat or are echoed in the short declarative sentences which submerge you into a visceral experience of building a camp, cooking food and fishing a river.
Stein was also key in advising Hemingway to cut a major portion of the text, which later appeared as On Writing in various posthumous editions such as The Nick Adams stories (1972) and The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Hemingway Library Collector's Edition (2017). Stein's advice to make the cut was: "Hemingway, remarks are not literature."
I'll leave the last word to writer Tim O'Brien:
I identify with Nick Adams probably more than any other hero in American letters because of his fragility and vulnerability. Yes, he sometimes tries to disguise it, but it shines through. - Introduction by Tim O'Brien to the short story Big Two-Hearted River in the collection The Hemingway Stories (March 2021).
Trivia and Link
For some reason, my Kindle highlights for this book are not viewable or shareable on Goodreads, but I did enter them as status updates which you can view here.
June 20, 2025
*** 2025 reread -
Just about as perfect a short story as I’ve ever read.
“Say Lyn, isn’t it about … fly fishing?”
Why yes, yes it is. The SURFACE story is about fly fishing and like any great sports story the devil is in the details. Hemingway, clearly an experienced fisherman himself, first wrote and published this in his twenties, and we see a man living in the moment, mindful of what he’s doing and why and we are provided minute details of his preparedness, resourcefulness and action involved in making camp and in the act of fishing.
But!
We then must consider Hemingway’s Iceberg theory of prose, or otherwise known as the theory of omission, where what he does not say is spoken as clearly as what he writes.
There is a scene in Hemingway’s 1929 novel, A Farewell to Arms, where the protagonist is terribly worried about losing a loved one. In the scene, he goes into a library and looks at the books on the shelf. When I first read that, I thought, what in the hell is he doing? He was trying not to cry. The reader must take the literal scene of what is written and examine what is described and then can be seen the underlying importance.
The protagonist here, Nick Adams, steps off a train and into a burned up forest, and sees the loss of a town that had formerly been there, but obviously gone due to the preceding fire. Hemingway described his hero shoulder his pack expertly and start off anyway, seemingly unperturbed by the loss and walks into the forest to find where he wants to setup his camp so that he can fish.
There are hints and symbolism and we understand that Adams has walked away from a disillusioning experience at war. We see a man who is clearly accustomed to living in a harsh, outdoors environment. Carrying a heavy pack up hill and then expertly and efficiently establishing a good camp seem to come second nature.
What I took from this was a man being mindful and living in the moment. Whatever it is he is escaping: war, injury, a relationship, troubles - he has left that behind. Those old worrisome and damaging thoughts do not even enter his mind, he is camping and fishing and there will be time later to deal with more difficulties, but for now he will take care of himself and heal and focus on the here and now.
The imagery and focused narrative, sparsely written in Hemingway’s inimitable style, is excellent.
A fine short story.
Just about as perfect a short story as I’ve ever read.
“Say Lyn, isn’t it about … fly fishing?”
Why yes, yes it is. The SURFACE story is about fly fishing and like any great sports story the devil is in the details. Hemingway, clearly an experienced fisherman himself, first wrote and published this in his twenties, and we see a man living in the moment, mindful of what he’s doing and why and we are provided minute details of his preparedness, resourcefulness and action involved in making camp and in the act of fishing.
But!
We then must consider Hemingway’s Iceberg theory of prose, or otherwise known as the theory of omission, where what he does not say is spoken as clearly as what he writes.
There is a scene in Hemingway’s 1929 novel, A Farewell to Arms, where the protagonist is terribly worried about losing a loved one. In the scene, he goes into a library and looks at the books on the shelf. When I first read that, I thought, what in the hell is he doing? He was trying not to cry. The reader must take the literal scene of what is written and examine what is described and then can be seen the underlying importance.
The protagonist here, Nick Adams, steps off a train and into a burned up forest, and sees the loss of a town that had formerly been there, but obviously gone due to the preceding fire. Hemingway described his hero shoulder his pack expertly and start off anyway, seemingly unperturbed by the loss and walks into the forest to find where he wants to setup his camp so that he can fish.
There are hints and symbolism and we understand that Adams has walked away from a disillusioning experience at war. We see a man who is clearly accustomed to living in a harsh, outdoors environment. Carrying a heavy pack up hill and then expertly and efficiently establishing a good camp seem to come second nature.
What I took from this was a man being mindful and living in the moment. Whatever it is he is escaping: war, injury, a relationship, troubles - he has left that behind. Those old worrisome and damaging thoughts do not even enter his mind, he is camping and fishing and there will be time later to deal with more difficulties, but for now he will take care of himself and heal and focus on the here and now.
The imagery and focused narrative, sparsely written in Hemingway’s inimitable style, is excellent.
A fine short story.
January 10, 2022
When reading this story I felt as though I was there with Nick; experiencing the same things he experienced, doing as he did. I found myself drawn into the story, captured by the ordinary acts done within the text. I personally love the great outdoors, so reading about how Nick set up his camp and caught food interested me. The absence of plot was a brilliant choice that Hemingway made when writing this story. It leaves so much to the imagination of the reader. Being able to have your own personal take on a story is very important to me. It adds a personal touch and allows you to better connect to the story. Even though Hemingway states that Nick is happy quite often, I felt as though there was a sad undertone to the tale. It seemed as though Nick's camping trip was a distraction to the internal conflict going on within him.
December 5, 2023
My favorite work of fiction ever written. A masterpiece of subtlety and outdoors imagery, a story of how the wilderness is a healing salve. Like Hemingway’s favorite protagonist, his Nick Adams, I am also a military veteran who has found a peace and solace in the great outdoors. There is so much in this story that sticks to my ribs.
I simply adore it, always and forever.
I simply adore it, always and forever.
May 27, 2017
"Nick was happy as he crawled inside his tent .... It had been a hard trip. He was very tired .... He had made his camp. He was settled. Nothing could touch him. It was a good place to camp."
Lesson?
Be like Nick.
Lesson?
Be like Nick.
May 29, 2016
Big Two-Hearted River is a masterpiece, the cleanest, purest story I ever read. Every line is right. Every movement of the story is right. Nick Adams goes fishing, and Ernest Hemingway gets every line cast perfectly to the deep spots in the river. Adams's satisfaction is the best satisfaction I've ever read. The happiness and contentment build until they couldn't be sustained without a gaffe, but they are sustained until the last word has gone.
March 1, 2020
4.5
Z każdą kolejną pozycją Hemingway zaskakuje mnie coraz bardziej. Moje pierwsze spotkanie z autorem nie było zbyt przyjemne, jak to zazwyczaj jest, gdy w szkole zmuszają cię do czytania lektur. "Stary człowiek i morze" nie przekonało mnie do prozy autora. Ciężko było mi je zrozumieć, choć czytało się dosyć szybko. Zrozumienie przyszło dopiero z czasem. Gimnazjum nie był okresem, w którym coś tak złożonego mogło do mnie trafić. Teraz natomiast, gdy czytam Hemingwaya nie mogę się nadziwić jak wielkim geniuszem był. W tak prostych słowach, pozbawionych wszelkich ozdobników i upiększeń, w opisach do bólu realistycznych oraz bohaterach pozbawionych "polukrowania" przedstawił świat takim jaki jest, odkrył przed nami ludzką psychikę i zrobił to w sposób przerażająco trafny.
Z każdą kolejną pozycją Hemingway zaskakuje mnie coraz bardziej. Moje pierwsze spotkanie z autorem nie było zbyt przyjemne, jak to zazwyczaj jest, gdy w szkole zmuszają cię do czytania lektur. "Stary człowiek i morze" nie przekonało mnie do prozy autora. Ciężko było mi je zrozumieć, choć czytało się dosyć szybko. Zrozumienie przyszło dopiero z czasem. Gimnazjum nie był okresem, w którym coś tak złożonego mogło do mnie trafić. Teraz natomiast, gdy czytam Hemingwaya nie mogę się nadziwić jak wielkim geniuszem był. W tak prostych słowach, pozbawionych wszelkich ozdobników i upiększeń, w opisach do bólu realistycznych oraz bohaterach pozbawionych "polukrowania" przedstawił świat takim jaki jest, odkrył przed nami ludzką psychikę i zrobił to w sposób przerażająco trafny.
October 24, 2025
I thought he wanted to be friends with the fish…I was wrong
Read
October 23, 2025mans just wanted a big ol' fish
Read
October 26, 2025Is this why men post pictures of themselves and fish…
July 26, 2023
this one is hard to rate because there was nothing i disliked about it but without spending time to really delve into it there was nothing i particularly liked either - again, probably because i didn’t sit with this one much. this is actually my first hemmingway and i should probably look into some of his more popular works. but i will say i do have an inescapable urge to wade in a river right now
April 2, 2024
are we... for real? I'm sure this is part of a bigger story but then why would we only read this one for class? wtf was this other than boring and over detailed?
June 17, 2024
Not much happens and that’s a good thing. The story follows a man hiking into backcountry and fishing for big trout.
I saw another review that described it as “grounding” I think that describes this perfectly. Hemingway puts you right there in the river and you have the same emotions as the character, Nick. I suspect the more you are familiar with fishing and the outdoors the more you feel the book.
An excellent short read.
I saw another review that described it as “grounding” I think that describes this perfectly. Hemingway puts you right there in the river and you have the same emotions as the character, Nick. I suspect the more you are familiar with fishing and the outdoors the more you feel the book.
An excellent short read.
November 2, 2024
I think the main message of this story escaped me. The language and description allowed me to be there with the character, but as I have written, I felt a lack of something.
December 17, 2012
I go fishing every day -- in my mind. So a fishing/camping short story by one of my favorite authors is a can't lose read for me.
I love nature and Hemmingway's descriptions of the scenery, and the simple tasks involved with camping and fishing a trout stream really hit home. The camping experience brings happiness and seems to have a cleansing effect on Nick the same way as it does me. You are never told why he is venturing out: Is he returning from war, was he supposed to visit someone in the burned-down town, is this just a vacation? No matter what the reason for his escape, the trip is definitely healing of any ill. This short story is calling me back to the north woods of the UP of Michigan. I will definitely fish the Big Two-hearted river some day.
I love nature and Hemmingway's descriptions of the scenery, and the simple tasks involved with camping and fishing a trout stream really hit home. The camping experience brings happiness and seems to have a cleansing effect on Nick the same way as it does me. You are never told why he is venturing out: Is he returning from war, was he supposed to visit someone in the burned-down town, is this just a vacation? No matter what the reason for his escape, the trip is definitely healing of any ill. This short story is calling me back to the north woods of the UP of Michigan. I will definitely fish the Big Two-hearted river some day.
July 25, 2024
Hemingway was one of the founders of literary modernism...and this story from 1925 was one of his best examples. It is taught and extremely explicit, with only a very small hint of emotion. Beautifully written.
May 25, 2018
What's with Hemingway and fish? I don't get it
October 18, 2024
Super mid
November 5, 2024
I loved the solitude of the man being alone on the river. Just him, his thoughts, and nature, is there a better way to spend time.
July 13, 2025
“Nick was happy as he crawled inside the tent. He had not been unhappy all day. This was different though. Now things were done. There had been this to do. Now it was done. It had been a hard trip. He was very tired. That was done. He had made his camp. He was settled. Nothing could touch him. It was a good place to camp. He was there, in the good place. He was in his home where he had made it. ”
fishing saves lives
fishing saves lives
November 14, 2024
3.5/5.
this was such an endearing little story that i read for my comparative literature class. honestly, it was rather boring but i enjoyed the depiction of nature :)
this was such an endearing little story that i read for my comparative literature class. honestly, it was rather boring but i enjoyed the depiction of nature :)
February 15, 2025
This is a delightful short read about the healing properties of nature over trauma. It is packed with beautiful, vivid prose.
June 12, 2025
Back from my annual trout fishing trip for a day and I received the centennial edition of this book from a nephew, with whom I had fished for several days before. We had quite a discussion on the stream one evening, about trout fishing, Hemingway and reading in general. It had been years since I had read any Hemingway. I was ready for this even though his gifting of the book was a surprise.
Don’t get carried away by the symbolism. Fine if you do but, it’s a fishing story. Then it’s a reconnecting. Nick to nature, then Nick to himself.
Standing in a stream can be an emotional experience, especially if you’re still, and you simply let the stream rush by and teach you it’s secrets. The reconnection. Nick gets there. I think, given a few moments in the stream, we all do.
Don’t get carried away by the symbolism. Fine if you do but, it’s a fishing story. Then it’s a reconnecting. Nick to nature, then Nick to himself.
Standing in a stream can be an emotional experience, especially if you’re still, and you simply let the stream rush by and teach you it’s secrets. The reconnection. Nick gets there. I think, given a few moments in the stream, we all do.
December 12, 2024
I love Hemingway so this is far from an unbiased review. That being said the best part of this is the ability to read it as both a great fishing story or as a metaphor for something far deeper. As is his style the author can say more with two words then most can say with pages of them.
A fishing story worth reading. Highly recommended.
A fishing story worth reading. Highly recommended.
May 9, 2023
I have long had a love-hate relationship with Ernest Hemingway’s writing. Since I was first introduced to Hemingway in my high school American Lit class (long, long ago), I have been intrigued with the power of his sparse - yet pitch-perfect - writing. The subject matter? Not so much. But I do - very much - appreciate his writing style.
As a Michigander myself, and as the wife of a trout fishing enthusiast (I don’t fish myself, but I am well acquainted with the passion), I was eager to read an advance copy of the centennial edition of Hemingway’s Big Two-Hearted River. I thoroughly enjoyed this short story. The well-researched introduction by John Mclean (nearly as long as the short story itself) provided helpful context and added to my enjoyment. The engravings by Chris Wormell are wonderful, and certainly enhance this new edition.
I will look forward to purchasing a hard copy of the book after publication. (It deserves a place in any trout fisherman’s library.)
Thank you to Mariner Books and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on May 9th, 2023.
As a Michigander myself, and as the wife of a trout fishing enthusiast (I don’t fish myself, but I am well acquainted with the passion), I was eager to read an advance copy of the centennial edition of Hemingway’s Big Two-Hearted River. I thoroughly enjoyed this short story. The well-researched introduction by John Mclean (nearly as long as the short story itself) provided helpful context and added to my enjoyment. The engravings by Chris Wormell are wonderful, and certainly enhance this new edition.
I will look forward to purchasing a hard copy of the book after publication. (It deserves a place in any trout fisherman’s library.)
Thank you to Mariner Books and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on May 9th, 2023.
April 21, 2021
After watching Ken Burns' documentary, Hemingway, I have begun revisiting his short stories. I am a big fan of the stories featuring Nick Adams. Big Two-Hearted River is a one of his best known. It is clean and spare without any wasted words. The story is about fishing and making his camp. It is a quiet story where not much happens, but the contentment of the character shines through the writing, and the reader is transported to both the place and into the same mood.
“He sat on the logs, smoking, drying in the sun, the sun warm on his back the river shallow ahead entering the woods, curving into the woods, shallows light glittering, big water-smooth rocks, cedars along the bank and white birches, the logs warm in the sun, smooth to sit on, without bark, gray to the touch; slowly the feeling of disappointment left him.”
“He sat on the logs, smoking, drying in the sun, the sun warm on his back the river shallow ahead entering the woods, curving into the woods, shallows light glittering, big water-smooth rocks, cedars along the bank and white birches, the logs warm in the sun, smooth to sit on, without bark, gray to the touch; slowly the feeling of disappointment left him.”
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