"Cockeyed Happy: Ernest Hemingway's Wyoming Summers with Pauline" author Darla Worden debuted a from-the-files "Love and Folly" blog post about a Hemingway-created pewter trophy that now resides in a Wyoming library. The tale is one of many behind-the-scenes stories she unearthed in her research for her book and will be sharing with her newsletter readers in new "Cockeyed True Stories."
DENVER, April 7, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Author Darla Worden is deep into the writing process of a new book, but while organizing her research from her recently published "Cockeyed Happy: Ernest Hemingway's Wyoming Summers with Pauline" (Chicago Review Press), she unearthed some stories she'd discovered about the famous writer that she wanted to share—behind-the-scenes tales that hadn't made it into the final edit of her book. She recently published one of those stories, "Love and Folly: Hemingway's 'Trophy' Gift," on her blog and shared it with readers of her newsletter as part of a new series titled "Cockeyed True Stories." "Ernest Hemingway was a larger than life character and there are many stories that Hemingway fans probably haven't heard before," Worden says.
"In 1928, Ernest Hemingway and his friend Bill Horne arrived at Folly Ranch, a dude ranch in the Bighorn Mountains owned by the Donnelley family," the "Love and Folly" post begins, echoing the opening scene of Worden's "Cockeyed Happy," which observes Hemingway and Horne's playful sparring en route to the ranch as they drive up steep, curving Red Grade road. As Horne, a Princeton alum, wrote in 1979 for the Princeton Alumni Weekly about that fateful visit: "On a plateau 8,000 feet up, we reached our destination, the Folly Ranch, owned by Eleanor Donnelley. At least 16 lovely girls, mostly Eleanor's Bryn Mawr classmates, were waiting to greet us—including my future wife, Frances "Bunny" Thorne. The place turned out to be heaven, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, with a swell cook, Folly the collie, and some active trout ponds."
Several romances blossomed on the ranch that summer: Eleanor "Darn" Donnelley met Pardee Erdman and they married later that year; Bill Horne met Bunny Thorne, and they married in 1929, spending their honeymoon at Folly Ranch. As a thank you following his stay, Hemingway gifted to the ranch in 1929 a pewter bowl he'd had engraved with the words "HEMINGWAY-HORNE TROPHY, Folly Ranch Loving Cup, 1928 Darn-Pardee, 1929 Bunny-Bill."
Worden tells the rest of the story of the trophy and how it eventually came to reside in The Wyoming Room of the Sheridan County Fulmer Public Library in the "Love and Folly" blog post and invites readers interested in reading additional "Cockeyed True Stories" to sign up for her newsletter on her darlaworden.com author website. "It's fun to have a place to share some of these stories about Ernest Hemingway, his second wife, Pauline Pfeiffer, their friends, and Ernest and Pauline's time in Wyoming that I discovered while researching 'Cockeyed Happy,'" says Worden. "I hated to just shut them away in a file drawer once the book was published."
Called "an immersive debut," by Publisher's Weekly and "an enticing story" that's "a lot of fun to read" by the Denver Post, among other acclaim, "Cockeyed Happy" reveals the little-known tale of Hemingway's impactful time in Wyoming, as well as the often-overlooked story of his marriage to second wife Pauline Pfeiffer. Chronicling the highs and lows of the couple's relationship through Wild West adventures over six summers from 1928 to 1939, "Cockeyed Happy" is now available in paperback, as well as hardcover and eBook editions.
About Darla Worden:
Wyoming native Darla Worden lives in Denver, Colorado, where she is editor in chief of "Mountain Living" magazine. Worden also is founder and director of the Left Bank Writers Retreat in Paris and a journalist known for articles about art, architecture, travel and the West. Her quest to uncover the story of Hemingway's time in Wyoming was first sparked when she learned the author had spent a summer in her hometown of Sheridan and nearby Big Horn, Wyoming. For additional information about "Cockeyed Happy" and related book events, visit darlaworden.com or follow @authordarlaworden on Facebook and @darlaworden on Instagram.
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SOURCE Darla Worden
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