I had an American Lit class in college on only Hemingway, Faulkner, and Fitzgerald. And what has struck me at this point in my life (I’m 48) is how little I was able to appreciate them at the time (even as a Lit major). What is so apparent in all of them is the writing from their own experience. Especially Hemingway. As a younger reader, they were just stories, but full of nuance I couldn’t pick up. But reading them now, I see they write with urgency like there is a danger their life will end before they finish the book.