Errol Flynn is a better writer than Hemmingway: an old opinion revisited

Many years ago I tried to make it through some Hemmingway (the bullfighting one and the Spanish civil war one) and gave up. "Everyone thinks that this guy is some great writer," I said, "but I know better. It's so sparse that there's nothing there." Shortly after putting down Hemmingway's spanish civil war book I picked up something called "My Wicked, Wicked Ways" by golden age film star Errol Flynn and was blown away. This nonfiction piece was everything that I had wanted Hemmingway to be; it was engaging, funny, and unapologetically masculine. The contrast between the two books was particularly easy to make as Flynn had also fought in the Spanish civil war on the opposite side as Hemmingway. Where Hemmingway's prose was sparse and driven by dialogue Flynn's was lush and driven by action. I was convinced that I had discovered a forgotten literary masterpiece and still hold this book in very high regard.

So is Flynn really a better writer than Hemmingway? Well, Flynn is certainly underappreciated but Hemmingway is as beloved as he is for a reason. His use of dialogue is great if not masterful and his sparse writing acts as a sort of resonating chamber for what he does not express directly. The long strings of dialogue in "Hills Like White Elephants" are pregnant with what the characters are not saying to each other. Hemmingway communicates a lot without much happening, Errol Flynn has to have lots of stuff happen to tell his story. I would rather spend a weekend in 1930 hanging out with Flynn than with Hemmingway, but this does not speak to their respective styles. Through the development of his unique, economical writing style Hemmingway's work may be more rewarding and less accesible than Flynn and other writers whose styles are less distinctive.