Most of the authors who answered TIME's questions on the state of U.S. writing (see above) were interviewed by correspondents. Ernest Hemingway answered his questions by mail. He requested that both TIME's questions & his answers be published "since this has to do with my trade. You can say that when you saw me I was unshaven, needed a haircut, was barefoot, wearing a pyjama bottom and no top." The questions, and his replies:
What do you find wrong with present-day writing—or good about it? Why aren't we getting more significant writing?
"Really good writing very scarce always. When comes in quantities everybody very very lucky."
Has postwar or atomic era had any influence on writers; has it had a tendency to dry them up creatively?
"Writers dry up when their juice dries up. Atomic bomb probably as fatal to writers as cerebral hemorrhage or senility. Meantime good writers should keep on writing."
Which U.S. writers in your opinion are doing good work?
"Writers my generation mostly dead except Dos Passes, going very good with Number One. Robert Penn Warren writing very well. First rate books by new writers that have read are All Thy Conquests, Alfred Hayes—Never Come Morning, Nelson Algren—The Big Sky, A. B. Guthrie Jr.—The Assault, Allen R. Matthews."
Which once-prominent ones have slipped or failed to measure up to early promise?
"Prefer not to answer this question. A writer has no more right to inform the public of the weaknesses and strengths of his fellow professionals than a doctor or a lawyer has.
"Writers should stick together like wolves or gypsies and they are fools to attack each other to please the people who would exploit or destroy them. Naturally I know the weaknesses of my fellow professionals but that information is not for sale nor for free."
How much has the big money of slicks, Hollywood, radio, etc., taken writers away from serious personal themes?
"Most whores usually find their vocations."
Is a writer-Hollywood combination capable of doing good literary work?
"So far hasn't. But Hollywood has proven can make good pictures from good stories honestly written."
What is your own attitude toward writing for Hollywood?
"Never done it."
Do you detect any trends, or any new schools in recent U.S. writing? If so, what are they?
"Ask a professor."
Has the "Hemingway influence" declined? If so, what kind of writing are we heading for?
"Hemingway influence only a certain clarification of the language which is now in the public domain."