英语名人家书之欧内斯特·海明威(英汉对照读物).doc

英语名人家书之欧内斯特·海明威(英汉对照读物) Ernest Hemingway to His Mother（Grace Hall Hemingway） Gstaad，5 February 1927 Dear Mother： Thank you very much for sending me thecatalogue of the Marshal Field exhibit with thereproduction of your painting of the BlacksmithShop in it．It looks very lovely and I should haveliked to see the original． I did not answer when you wrote about theSun etc．book as I could not help being angry andit is very foolish to write angry letters；and morethan foolish to do so to ones mother．It is quitenatural for you not to like the book and I regretyour reading any book that causes you pain ordisgust． On the other hand I am in no way ashamed ofthe book，except in as I may have failed inaccurately portraying the people I wrote of，or inmaking them really come alive to the reader．I amsure the book is unpleasant．But it is not allunpleasant and I am sure is no more unpleasantthan the real inner lives of some of our best Oak Park families．You must remember that in such abook all the worst of the peoples lives is displayedwhile at home there is a very lovely side for thepublic and the sort of thing of which I have hadsome experience in observing behind closed doors．Besides you，as an artist，know that a writer shouldnot be forced to defend his choice of a subject butshould be criticized on how he has treated thatsubject．The people I wrote of were certainlyburned out，hollow and smashed——and that is theway I have attempted to show them．I am onlyashamed of the book in whatever way it fails toreally give the people I wished to present．I have along life to write other books and the subjects willnot always be the same——except as they will all，I hope，be human beings． And if the good ladies of the book study clubunder the guidance of Miss Fanny Butcher，who isnot an intelligent reviewer——I would have feltvery silly had she praised the book——agreeunanimously that I am prostituting a great talentetc．for the lowest ends——why the good ladiesare talking about something of which they k