Critical Writing

Prior to Arrow Books’ 2004 editions, recent publication of Hemingway’s works has usually taken place within a larger series of literary “classics,” such as the 1999 Vintage Classics editions. In these cases, jacket designs have conformed to a pre-established template, unifying and identifying them with works by other authors in the same series, but allowing for individuation in the choice of cover photograph.

Despite the arguable advantages of this method - such as the associative prestige of visually connecting a number of respected authors, the designs of the 2004 Arrow Editions are unique to Hemingway. The author’s works are connected by a similar system of basic template conformity, distinguished by individual cover photographs. However, no other authors are packaged in the same way by the publisher, leaving Hemingway to stand, as it were, on his own merit.

There are a number of possible reasons for this. Perhaps it relates to the centenary of Hemingway’s birth in 1999. The decision might be commercial in basis; the early 21st Century has seen a resurgence of interest in this periodically unfashionable author, following a recent wave of revisionist criticism. In this period of deeply unpopular warfare, the publishers may also have seen fit to reinvigorate a so-called “anti-war” writer in the hopes of providing comment on our own time. Most likely it is a combination of all three; and others besides.

The appearance of the author’s name varies in both position and colour from book to book. For The Old Man and the Sea, it is in light blue - evocative of the tropical sea upon which the book’s action takes place - and appears at the very top of the image. For the blood-soaked Death in the Afternoon, with its commentary on the art of bullfighting, the text appears in an appropriate crimson, and is placed at the very bottom. For The Sun Also Rises, a very light shade of yellow was chosen. The colour reflects the setting of the novel; the sun-drenched white buildings of Spain, and the bright heat of Mediterranean summer. It is also harmonious with the sepia tone of the cover photograph.

The decision to exclude capital letters in the author’s name reflects his extreme no-nonsense, almost anti-grammatical writing style. Hemingway, a notoriously bad speller, preferred to leave such matters to his editors. The decision to use a thick, sans serif typeface evokes Hemingway’s infamously blunt and unsympathetic prose. The tendency of his diction is towards the simple, the Anglo-Saxon. Not a single adjective is given over to ornamentation. For both typeface and writing, plainness and legibility is the order of the day. Perhaps the sole area in which Hemingway’s writing does tend to the ornamental and allusive is in his choice of titles, which proliferate with Bible verses and quotations from metaphysical poetry (in this case, Ecclesiastes). As such, the titles of these editions are permitted a serif typeface.

The main image of the jacket design, the photograph of the couple, relates to the novel’s content on a number of levels. In a specific sense, the two represent the novel’s central couple, Jake and Brett. The couple’s body language screams unease; their hold on their relationship seems tenuous. While the man holds the woman protectively close, her posture leans away from him, pushing against his restrictive embrace. This refers to Jake’s desperate desire to settle down with Brett, to tame her headstrong and independent nature with a traditional domestic arrangement. The woman’s posture and her distracted gaze suggest Brett’s unwillingness to be tied down and her roaming sexual appetite; she seems to be on the lookout for her next conquest.

Furthermore, the deeply ambiguous expression on the man’s face is evocative of the sort of emotional forces that act on Jake during the novel. The man seems preoccupied or troubled by some unknown thought. Similarly, Jake is clearly a troubled man, but what haunts him is not immediately obvious. It is only by unpacking the tight prose that the deep trauma that the Great War has impressed upon him becomes apparent. The man, like Jake, seems to be clinging to the woman in order to reassure himself, rather than out of any tender emotion.

On a more general level, the photograph suggests the more general state of play between men and women as it is depicted in the novel. While the man gazes backward and inward, the woman looks forward and outward. The men of the novel are mired in an outdated model of Victorian manhood, and are consequently tormented by their perceived failures as men. The women, however, embrace the new emancipated roles becoming available to them, and step firmly out of the traditional, housebound female spheres and into the male.

In this way, the jacket design reflects a dialogue of ideas and interpretations with the contents of the novel. It fulfils the traditional role of the illustration in providing comment on the text, but also fulfils a commercial function; presenting an appealing product for the potential consumer.