"I had but hugged the shore..."

Says Hemingway referring to his early writing experimentations. I'm skipping through Carlos Baker's "Hemingway: The Writer as Artist." The theme of nada, nothingness as a contrast, figures strongly in his analysis of Hemingways first 45 stories. [Current project in addition to my next novel is a bevy of short stories.]
On another note I'm always fascinated by explanations of process. In this article from 1940 Hemingway answers the question as to how many words he writes each day: "Hemingway looked at him, not sure whether or not he was being ribbed." The author continues.