By Quit … in Writing.
All who’ve read Hemingway know the guy isn’t known for cutsey, cuddly ways. A vicious drunk and a pretty rough-and-tumble fellow, it’s doubtful that anyone would think twice about letting him do whatever he wanted — even if that meant quitting a job or failing to finish out his book deal. Obviously, those people don’t know book publishers…
So when Hemingway found himself unhappily locked into a three-book deal, he did what any cerebral mastermind would do — he found a loophole. That loophole? Write a first manuscript so heinously riddled with themes of corruption, sexuality, and race that the publisher not only felt uncomfortable editing it, he rejected it on the spot. The result? Hemingway was sent forth on his merry way, plus a novel (The Torrents of Spring) and minus a tiresome publishing contract.
