Dr. Alex
Vernon’s Reading
Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls to be
released January 2024
CONWAY,
Ark. (November 29, 2023) — Hendrix College English professor Dr. Alex Vernon’s
latest book, Reading Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls: Glossary
and Commentary, will be released January 30, 2024, by The Kent State
University Press.
Vernon
is the M.E. and Ima Graves Peace Distinguished Professor of English at Hendrix.
“For Whom the Bell Tolls is a long novel, full of historical and
literary allusions, driving toward a climactic action. Readers tend to read
through it apace and forget to attend closely to passages, sentences, words. I
see my book as slowing our reading down to better engage with this very nuanced
(and controversial) work of art,” said Vernon. “I want to bring it alive to its
original contexts in a way that might bring it alive for future readers. In
terms of genre, it’s a very strange novel, and I hope to reconnect readers with
that strangeness.”
The
new book is the latest project in a professional lifetime of Hemingway
scholarship. A Hemingway scholar for over 20 years, Vernon has been an active
member of the Hemingway Society leadership. He is currently involved with the
ongoing, multi-volume publication of Hemingway’s complete letters and is
co-editing a new edition of a Hemingway title that is the book version of a
film Hemingway made in collaboration with Joris Ivens and others.
Carl
Eby, president of the Hemingway Society and author of Hemingway’s Fetishism:
Psychoanalysis and the Mirror of Manhood and coeditor of Hemingway’s
Spain: Imagining the Spanish World, called Vernon’s book “the indispensable
companion to For Whom the Bell Tolls.”
“Beautifully
researched, this volume elucidates the historical forces, figures, places, and
events essential to a deep understanding of this masterpiece set against the
complexities of the Spanish Civil War,” Esby said. “With vital insights into
the novel’s composition, its manuscript, its major themes, and Hemingway’s
craft, this book will be deeply appreciated by students and scholars alike.”
For
Vernon, working on the book about Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls represents
both sides of his career as a teacher and scholar.
Since
he was asked to write the book in the fall of 2015, he has co-taught two
sections of The Engaged Citizen, a course for new Hendrix students on the
Spanish Civil War, with Hendrix Spanish professor Dr. Gabby Vidal-Torreira. The
professors also took a group of students to Spain, where they walked the ground
where the novel’s characters walked, fought, and died. Vernon has also taught
an upper-class course on the literature and film of the war and the Hemingway
seminar —both of which included this novel.
“The
scholarship has made me a better teacher; teaching has made me a better scholar,”
said Vernon.
About the Book
“Beautifully
researched, this volume elucidates the historical forces, figures, places, and
events essential to a deep understanding of this masterpiece set against the
complexities of the Spanish Civil War. With vital insights into the novel’s
composition, its manuscript, its major themes, and Hemingway’s craft, this book
will be deeply appreciated by students and scholars alike.” ― Carl Eby,
president of the Hemingway Society and author of Hemingway’s Fetishism:
Psychoanalysis and the Mirror of Manhood and coeditor of Hemingway’s Spain:
Imagining the Spanish World
“Published
in 1940, Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls is widely considered
a masterpiece of war literature. A bestseller upon its release, the novel has
long been both admired and ridiculed for its depiction of Robert Jordan’s
military heroism and wartime romance. Yet its validation of seemingly
conflicting narratives and its rendering of the intricate world its characters
inhabit, as well as its dense historical, literary, and biographical allusions,
have made it a work that remains a focus of interest and study. Alex Vernon, in
this contribution to the Reading Hemingway series, mines the historical record
to unprecedented depths, examining Hemingway’s drafts and correspondence,
synthesizing the body of literary criticism about the novel, and engaging in
close textual analysis. As a result, new and important insights into the
complex situation of the Spanish Civil War―integral to the novel―emerge,
enriching our understanding of the novel. Through Vernon’s comprehensive work,
contemporary readers and scholars are reminded that For Whom the Bell Tolls
is still vital, significant, and relevant.” The Kent State University Press
About the Author
Dr.
Alex Vernon is the M.E. and Ima Graves Peace Distinguished Professor of English
at Hendrix College, where he teaches a variety of courses in 20th Century
American literature and writing. He has held multiple Odyssey Professorships,
which he used to take student groups abroad to study and perform service work
in Vietnam and to study the Spanish Civil War. Dr. Vernon has chaired the
College’s American Studies Program, English Department, and Humanities Area. In
2020, he was awarded a 12-month research fellowship by the National Endowment
for the Humanities (NEH), and he has directed a two-year NEH “Dialogues on the
Experience of War” program for central Arkansas veterans and the public. Dr. Vernon is the author of nine previous books.
He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy (West Point) in 1989 before
serving as a tank lieutenant in the transitional Persian Gulf War (1990 – 1991)
and earned his M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina. Dr. Vernon
joined the Hendrix faculty in 2001.
About
Hendrix College
Founded in 1876, Hendrix
College is featured in Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change
the Way You Think About Colleges and celebrated among the country’s leading
liberal arts colleges for academic quality, engaged learning opportunities and
career preparation, vibrant campus life, and value. The Hendrix College
Warriors compete in 21 NCAA Division III sports. Hendrix has been affiliated
with the United Methodist Church since 1884. Learn more at www.hendrix.edu.
“…
Through engagement that links the classroom with the world, and a commitment to
diversity, inclusion, justice, and sustainable living, the Hendrix community
inspires students to lead lives of accomplishment, integrity, service, and
joy.” —Hendrix College
Statement of Purpose