Publisher launches Hemingway book by local educator
By Eric Valentine
“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.”
Ernest Hemingway’s famous quote is being put to good use by Phil Huss. In fact, the longtime Sun Valley Community School English teacher and local Hemingway expert has written far more than a sentence; Huss has written a 10-chapter nonfiction book on Idaho’s most famous resident that officially releases July 20.
How can one immediately know it must contain truth? A good indicator is that the three-page forward for the book was penned by Mariel Hemingway, the granddaughter of the prolific author who in recent years shifted much of her focus to bringing awareness to mental health issues—something Ernest battled especially hard toward the end of his life cut short by suicide and something Huss addresses in “Hemingway’s Sun Valley: Local Stories Behind His Code, Characters and Crisis.”
“I understand why some people dance around it, but I don’t do that in the book,” Huss said in a recent interview with Wood River Weekly.
Huss doesn’t sensationalize it either, but he notes that Hemingway attempted suicide multiple times and memory loss contributed to the writer’s struggles.
“It’s something that needs to be contextualized,” Huss said.
Context Is Everything
The book has been a labor of love for Huss, who has been writing it off and on for the past five years. Of his 20 years teaching at Sun Valley Community School, he’s spent 15 of them teaching an English elective called “Hemingway” for upper division students, a sort of “greatest hits” review of Hemingway’s short stories and novels, Huss explained.
One particular unit convinced Huss that all of his research to teach the class was fodder for a book.
Huss explained that one unit of his course asks students to create a short documentary film on the five different Hemingway sites in the Wood River Valley. The research needed to make these films enhanced the student readers’ understanding of the seminal Hemingway novels Huss was teaching.
“That’s when I saw there was a book in there,” Huss said.
So Huss started writing. In addition, Huss published articles related to his research in Sun Valley Magazine and BigLife Magazine and became a frequent speaker at the Ernest Hemingway Seminar held each September at The Community Library.
And that’s ultimately how Arcadia Publishing saw there was a book in there, too.
“It was at the end of one of my lectures that I said I was writing a book on Hemingway in Sun Valley and if anyone knew how to get something published they should let me know,” Huss recounted. “That’s when John Lundin told me about Arcadia and their interest in local history works.”
Lundin, a seasonal Valley resident, is a lawyer and historian who authored a number of books. He got Huss in touch with his editor at The History Press, a division of Arcadia Publishing.
About The Book
Readers will get a first-hand look into local stories about Ernest Hemingway in Sun Valley and the surrounding area and how they embody principles of what’s known as his “Heroic Code.” This will help readers understand Hemingway’s most famous texts, including characters in his novels and stories that both exhibit and fail to exhibit the code principles.
Each chapter is a code principle. Each chapter leads with local Sun Valley stories that develop the code principle, and the second half of the chapter develops how moments from his most famous texts embody the code principle as well. There are also previously unpublished stories about Hemingway obtained from personal interviews with locals and by reviewing archives of interviews at The Community Library.
“I think that’s the contribution this book makes to the Hemingway legacy, the new stories and how I’ve codified the code into distinct chapters.” Huss said.
Release Info
The book will be available online via Amazon, Target, Barnes & Noble, Arcadia Publishing, as well as locally at Chapter One Bookstore, Iconoclast Books & Gifts, Atkinsons’ Markets, Sun Valley Museum of History, Silver Creek Outfitters and Lost River Outfitters.
Huss will be giving a public talk and signing books at The Community Library in Ketchum from 6–7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 21.
That’s also the date of Ernest Hemingway’s birthday.