Join The Community Library on Thursday, July 21 to celebrate the release of the new book, Hemingway’s Sun Valley: Local Stories Behind His Code, Characters, and Crisis by local author Phil Huss. Huss will share unpublished stories about Hemingway’s adventures in Idaho, and discuss principles of the author’s “Heroic Code.”
This event will be held outdoors on the Library lawn. **FACE MASKS AND SOCIAL DISTANCING ARE REQUIRED.** No reservations are needed, and space around the site will be available on a first-come, first-served basis beginning at 5:30. Books will be available for sale following the presentation. All books will be pre-signed to limit handling.
We are hoping to record this program if you are interested in watching from home at a later date. Thank you in advance to all attendees for following our requests to make this event possible!
In this new book, Huss delves into previously unpublished stories about Hemingway’s adventures in Idaho, with each chapter focusing on one principle of the author’s “Heroic Code.” Huss interweaves how both local Idaho stories and passages from the luminary’s works embody each principle. Readers will appreciate Hemingway’s affinity for Idaho and his passion for principles that all would do well to follow.
Huss writes, “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 Burdy attested, ‘You could have given him a million dollars and he wouldn’t have been any happier.'” Some of Hemingway’s finest days were spent writing, hunting, and enjoying “the family” of locals of the Wood River Valley. Some of his most challenging days were spent here as well. In his talk, Phil Huss will take us back to the halcyon and harrowing days Hemingway spent in this valley.
Philip Huss is an independent school English teacher and writer from Hailey, Idaho. A teacher for 25 years, he has taught for twenty years at Sun Valley Community School. Phil teaches a course on Hemingway at SVCS and has published articles related to his research on Hemingway in Sun Valley Magazine and BigLife Magazine. He is a frequent speaker and discussion leader at the Ernest Hemingway Seminar held each September at The Community Library. At the Tugboat Institute in Ketchum, Phil has also presented to business leaders on how the Hemingway heroic code can serve as a platform for codifying core principles of a company. Phil graduated with a BA in English from Amherst College and a MA in English from Boston College.
