Great Works Of Friction: Legendary Literary Feuds

Ernest Hemingway

The Huffington Post UK   First Posted: 15/02/2012 09:11 Updated: 15/02/2012 09:16

Feuding, fighting and fisticuffs are not things we normally associate with literary types.

More often we think of someone sat at a desk covered in paper, curtains billowing in the wind beside an open window looking out on to rolling hilltops, their hands stained with ink.

Well, think again. Often over the years, those ink stains have been blood stains - metaphorical or otherwise - as authors and poets who have lost their rag and filled literary circles with ill-manners, crossed words or worse.

Often the clashes came about because of a harsh review or two, but equally there are instances where betrayals, lies and accusations of adultery have come between men and women of letters.

To celebrate these moments, we’ve dished the dirt on the most poisonous literary feuds in history...

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Literary Feuds: Ernest Hemingway vs. William Faulkner

The pair quarrelled over their stylistic differences.

Faulkner said of Hemingway: "He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary."

Hemingway replied: "Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?"

PHOTO: PA Pictures

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Feuding, fighting and fisticuffs are not things we normally associate with literary types. More often we think of someone sat at a desk covered in paper, curtains billowing in the wind beside an op...
Feuding, fighting and fisticuffs are not things we normally associate with literary types. More often we think of someone sat at a desk covered in paper, curtains billowing in the wind beside an op...
 
 
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naschkatze
A free man creates himself.
05:08 PM on 03/04/2012
Gore Vidal also with William F. Buckley.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
andwhatarmy
Life is good beyond the United Gulags of America.
10:48 AM on 02/17/2012
I think I LOVE Harold Bloom!
12:10 PM on 02/15/2012
Martin Amis vs Terry Eagleton
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
George Hoffman
Drive into your dreams.
10:13 AM on 02/16/2012
Very good match up, Amy.
11:57 AM on 02/15/2012
How can Stephen King complain that anyones books are all the same? He has made himself a millionaire writing the same book over and over.
03:50 PM on 02/15/2012
Not sure I completely agree. He is a genre fiction writer but he has diverged on occasion, notably Hearts In Atlantis (which was more of a coming-of-age drama) and the Dark Tower series (which was sci-fi). Anyway thanks for reading!
08:36 PM on 02/15/2012
Aristophanes and Plato.