American writer Ernest Hemingway lived in and visited many places. While much has been written about the author’s exploits in Paris, Key West, Cuba, Spain, Italy, and Michigan, there has yet to be a full treatment of Hemingway’s connection to the American West. Starting in 1928, and lasting until his death in 1961, Hemingway traveled out West to what he called “good country”. Places like Sheridan, Wyoming; Cooke City, Montana; and Sun Valley, Idaho (where the author lived out his final days) were where he worked on A Farewell to Arms (1929), Death in the Afternoon (1932), To Have and Have Not (1937), and Across the River and Into the Trees (1950), the stories “Wine of Wyoming” (1930), “The Gambler, the Nun, and the Radio” (1933), and “A Man of the World” (1957) and posthumously published works Islands in the Stream (1970), The Garden of Eden (1986), and A Moveable Feast (1964). He compares the African terrain to mountains he had traversed in Wyoming in Green Hills of Africa (1935), and Robert Jordan, the protagonist in For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940), is a native of Red Lodge, Montana. Good Country: Ernest Hemingway and the American West will serve as the first complete study of the author’s relationship to the West, a region we held in high regard for over 30 years. The editors have received early interest from a university press, who has encouraged the submission of a full proposal for further consideration.
Topics may include (but are not limited to):
Hemingway and the environment/natural world
Hunting and fishing
Conservation and ecology
The American West in Hemingway’s novels, stories, nonfiction
Hemingway and Western film/filmmakers
Intertextual relationships with other Western writers/works/artists
State-specific treatments: Montana, Wyoming, Idaho
While the editors welcome biographical work, we encourage potential contributors to consult Hemingway-related titles that examine the author and the region:
Cockeyed Happy: Ernest Hemingway’s Wyoming Summers with Pauline (Darla Worden, 2021)
Ernest Hemingway in the Yellowstone High Country (Chris Warren, 2019)
Hemingway: High on the Wild (Lloyd Arnold, 1977)
Potential contributors are encouraged to submit 500-word proposals on any aspect of Ernest Hemingway and the American West to Ross K. Tangedal (rtangeda@uwsp.edu) and Larry Grimes (lgrimes@bethanywv.edu) by 15 August 2022. Proposal decisions will be sent out by 1 September, with completed essays due to the editors by 15 February 2023. *Please note that an accepted proposal does not guarantee an essay’s inclusion in the final volume. All essays will be subject to peer review per the press’s requirements.