Hemingway's Sun Valley

Book excerpt: A Hemingway expert shares untold stories of the writer’s life in Idaho, together with passages from his works, to shed light on the ideals he lived by. It was a cold, "windless, blue sky day" in the fall of 1939 near Silver Creek—a blue-ribbon trout stream south of Sun Valley. Ernest Hemingway flushed three mallards and got each duck with three pulls. He spent the morning working on his novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. Local hunting guide Bud Purdy attested, "You could have given him a million dollars and he wouldn't have been any happier." In Hemingway’s Sun Valley, Phil Huss delves into previously unpublished stories about Hemingway's adventures in Idaho. Each chapter is devoted to a principle of the author's Heroic Code, such as Complete Tasks Well, Embrace the Present, and Avoid Self-Pity. Combining true stories and literary passages, this book reveals how Hemingway’s life and work embody this code.