Chris Warren The Rocky Mountain West and Winner Take Nothing

My paper will examine the influence that the Rocky Mountain West had on Winner Take Nothing. I intend to focus on five stories in particular; “The Light of the World” and “A Natural History of the Dead” which were both written at the L--T Ranch and the final three stories in the collection; “Wine of Wyoming”, “The Gambler, the Nun, and the Radio” and “Fathers and Sons” which represent Hemingway’s first 3 trips to the American west. There are many interesting themes that connect these stories, such as Nick Adams’s appearance in “Light of the World” and “Fathers and Sons”. It seems Hemingway is trying to drag Nick out west with him. In the former story we are introduced to Nick’s companion Tom. Could this be an early representation of Thomas Hudson of Islands in the Stream who owns a ranch in Montana, and Tom of “A Man of the World” which is set in Cooke City, Montana? In “A Natural History of the Dead” we are given graphic descriptions of bloated rotten corpses. Hemingway’s closest friends at the L—T were Chub Weaver, Lawrence Nordquist and John Staebe; an American, a Swede and a German; all were, like Hemingway, involved in WWI. I will examine whether their habit of using old horses and mules as bear bait along with their collective memories of that horrific war compelled the author to write such a bleak piece. The final three stories of Winner Take Nothing are representations of Hemingway’s first three trips to the west. In “Wine of Wyoming” we are given insight into his 1928 visit to Sheridan, Wyoming where the author is confronted with the coarseness of the locals and comforted by a family of civilized French bootleggers; illustrating a conflict in the American west that we also see in Hemingway himself. “The Gambler, the Nun, and the Radio,” the story of his 1930 convalescence at a Billings, Montana, hospital again illustrates the author’s struggle with western identity as he chooses the Mexican gambler Cayetano to represent the Hemingway code hero rather than the more obvious choices of Frazer the autobiographical character or the old west sheriff. In “Fathers and Sons” we get an adult Nick Adams reminiscing about his father while his son asks him why the never go to visit his Grandfather’s grave. The two then decide to be buried at ‘the Ranch’ so they can be together. This passage suggests that Hemingway is moving his spiritual, psychological and emotional home form the Oak Park/Michigan of his youth to the American west where he would spend the bulk of the second half of his life. This paper continues my work in revealing the importance of the Yellowstone High Country to Hemingway’s work in general, and to Winner Take Nothing in particular.