At 黑料网, academic excellence is brought to life through the expertise and dedication of scholars like Robert W. Trogdon, Ph.D., professor of English, who dedicated years to his newest volume of editions of three classic Ernest Hemingway books.
Trogdon is a scholar of 20th-century American literature and textual editing and has, since 2018, been working on editions for two volumes of Ernest Hemingway books. He has written extensively on Ernest Hemingway's works and served as an editor for The Cambridge Edition of the Letters of Ernest Hemingway.
When he was in high school, he read 鈥淭he Old Man and the Sea" by Hemingway and fell in love with it. In college, he had the luck of working with a professor on a large-volume Hemingway biography.
鈥淚 liked to see how the works developed and everything that comes before the published version of the work,鈥 Trogdon told Kent State Today.
Hemingway was wounded working as an ambulance driver during World War I. In 1921, Trogdon says Hemingway traveled to Paris and began writing, publishing his first book in 1925 and following it up with 鈥淭he Sun Also Rises," which was a huge success.
In 2018, Trogdon was invited by the Library of America to work on Hemingway editions to correct the errors and language in the texts.
鈥淚n the 1920s and 1930s, publishing standards and morals were different,鈥 Trogdon said. 鈥淐ertain things they considered to be obscene were not allowed to be published.鈥
At the time, Hemingway wanted to respect the language that men and soldiers used in his work. Trogdon valued correcting and publishing the works the way the writer intended for them to be published.
Trogdon鈥檚 volume of Hemingway鈥檚 first three books was published in 2020, including 鈥淭he Torrents of Spring,鈥 鈥淚n Our Time鈥 and 鈥淭he Sun Also Rises.鈥

As he began working on another volume in 2021, the major challenge for Trogdon was visiting the repository where most of Hemingway鈥檚 manuscripts reside. Trogdon went to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston during the summer of 2023 to examine the materials on site.
In October 2024, his volume of Hemingway鈥檚 鈥淎 Farewell to Arms,鈥 鈥淢en Without Women鈥 and 鈥淒eath in the Afternoon鈥 were published. In both of Trogdon鈥檚 volumes, the way he restored the books gives a clearer indication of Hemingway鈥檚 intentions and the portrayal of his characters.
鈥淚n Hemingway鈥檚 published work, we get a skewed view of the past and what it was like for the characters,鈥 Trogdon said. 鈥淭he language Hemingway used shows a little more of the stress the characters were under, their level of anger and the situation they find themselves in.鈥
This contrast between Hemingway鈥檚 published work and the author鈥檚 original intentions highlights Trogdon鈥檚 belief in honoring a writer鈥檚 vision in how their work is presented.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 important that writers are treated with respect and the greatest way to respect them is to present the works as they wanted them presented,鈥 Trogdon said.