The Editing of Hemingways The Garden of Eden :: Hemingway The Garden of Eden

The Editing of Hemingways The Garden of Eden One deceased master author, one 1500 page manuscript, three previously unsuccessful redact attempts. This comparison would scare away most curveors. At first, it even scared away tom Jenks. When his bosses at Scribners Publishing asked him to revise Hemingways 1500 page manuscript, Jenks initially declined. He told the company, I dont care if I never see another Hemingway story again (http//narrativemagazine.org/html/eden.htm). For Jenks, Publishing more Hemingway seemed less interesting than publishing fresh writers, which is what I came to Scribners to do (http//narrativemagazine.org/html/eden.htm). Ultimately Jenks did take on the impossible task of editing Hemingway. One would expect a Hemingway expert to do the editing of The Garden of Eden, however for Jenks, editing Hemingway was an entirely new experience. Eric Pooley, a writer for New York Magazine, states, Jenks hadnt read a Hemingway novel in years. He didnt rev iew the Hemingway mandate before he started, and he still hasnt read Islands in the Stream. Preparing to edit, he asked no one for advice( http//narrativemagazine.org/html/eden.htm). Yet Charles Scribner Jr., one of the three editors who tried and failed to edit the book before Jenks, believes that Jenks lack of Hemingway worship made editing the book easier. He states, coming to the task fresh, without a long personal association with Hemingway, Tom was less inhibited (http//narrativemagazine.org/html/eden.htm). Jenks could not afford to be enamored with the work of Hemingway. In front of him lay the task of removing hundreds of pages from one of the worlds most respected authors. The task of editing The Garden of Eden was two fold. First, Jenks take to preserve the writing of Hemingway. Yet at the same time, he needed to remove hundreds of pages that he believed to be redundant or insubstantial. Jenks calls substantial portions of the manuscript embarrassingly flimsy (Jenks 54). As he began the long task of editing, Jenks was lucky enough to have got some notes from the original author. Certain parts, especially the first hundred or so pages, had already been edited by Hemingway. Hemingway also left behind go out notes about his work. Hed say, This is good, or This is shit, said Jenks. Sometimes the notes were quite detailed (http//narrativemagazine.org/html/eden.htm). Jenks used these notes, along with his own gut feelings to cut the book down to the surface it is today.