Hemingway shows a passionate affection for his novella. He corresponded with Sherwood Anderson in May–July 1926, stating that his motivation for writing his first long work was more motivated by his refusal to "pull punches" and encourage sub-par work out of Anderson—as his peer—and not to simply get out of a contract with Boni & Liveright. The Torrents of Spring was a satirical treatment of pretentious writers. Written in ten days, at an average of 2,000 words a day, there was little if any time for the repeated and forensic editing that Hemingway lavished on his other writings. Hemingway submitted the manuscript early in December 1925, and it was rejected by the end of the month. In January 1926, Max Perkins at Scribner's agreed to publish The Torrents of Spring in addition to Hemingway's future work. The Torrents of Spring was published by Scribner's in May of that year; the first edition had a print run of 1250 copies. Critical reception Mixed reaction greeted the novella, itself sharply critical of other writers. The work is generally dismissed by critics and seen as vastly less important than The Sun Also Rises, which was published in the same year. Hadley Richardson, Hemingway's wife at the time, believed his characterization of Anderson was "nasty", while John Dos Passos considered it funny but did not want to see it published. F. Scott Fitzgerald, on the other hand, considered the novella a masterpiece. Little scholarly criticism has been devoted to The Torrents of Spring, as it is considered less important than Hemingway's subsequent work. American readers would have recognized "a Great Race" in the subtitle as alluding to Madison Grant's The Passing of the Great Race, a eugenic history and argument for the superiority of Nordic blood, influential in the USA and Germany when first published (1916.) References Sources Berg, A. Scott (1979). Max Perkins: Editor of Genius. New York: Washington Square Press. . External links Hemingway Archives, John F. Kennedy Library 1926 American novels 1926 debut novels American novellas Books by Ernest Hemingway Charles Scribner's Sons books Novels by Ernest Hemingway Novels set in Michigan Parody novels