Hemingway’s Now I Lay Me : Rivers, Writing, and Prayers

Manuscript study. Detailed investigation of Hemingway’s extensive drafting and revision process, drawing on biographies, memoirs, correspondence, and other resources. Beall traces Hemingway’s transformation of early fragments of men listening to munching silkworms and Nick’s childhood memories of his mother’s burning his father’s artifacts into a compelling war story on the power of imaginative writing and ritual. Examines additions, deletions, and fusions, including scenes of remembered and imagined fishing, exchanges between Nick and John on writing, and Nick’s prayers. Frequent references to “Big Two-Hearted River” and “In Another Country.