The 25+ Books Hemingway Recommends For Writers

The book, “Ernest Hemingway on Writing” is a collection of Hemingway quotes taken from novels, stories, letters, interviews and other sources.

When it comes to writing, Hemingway said “I think you should learn about writing from everybody who has ever written that has anything to teach you” (page 91).

Hemingway goes on to recite a list of necessary books to read including:

• “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy

• “Anna Karenina” by Leo Tolstoy

• “Midshipman Easy” by Captain Marryat

• “Frank Mildmay” by Captain Marryat

• “Peter Simple” by Captain Marryat

• “Madame Bovary” by Gustave Flaubert

• “L’Education Sentimentale” by Flaubert

• “Buddenbrooks” by Thomas Mann

• “Dubliners” by James Joyce

• “Portrait of the Artist” by James Joyce

• “Ulysses” by James Joyce

• “Tom Jones” by Henry Fielding

• “Joseph Andrews” by Henry Fielding

• “Le Rouge et Le Noir” by Stendhal

• “La Chartreuse de Parme” by Stendhal

• “The Brothers Karamazov” by Fyodor Dostoevsky

• “Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain

• “The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane

• “The Blue Hotel” by Stephen Crane

• “Hail and Farewell” by George Moore

• “Autobiographies” by W.B. Yeats

• “All the good De Maupassant”

• “All the good Kipling”

• “All of Turgenev”

• “Far Away and Long Ago” by W.H. Hudson

• “Madame de Mauves” by Henry James

• “The Turn of the Screw” by Henry James

• “The Portrait of a Lady” by Henry James

• “The American” by Henry James

“‘Should a writer have read all of those?’ ‘All of those and plenty more.’”

— Page 92

What are your thoughts on Hemingway’s list of necessary books to read to become a writer?

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