Award Date
5-1-2016
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
English
First Committee Member
John Hay
Second Committee Member
Vincent Perez
Third Committee Member
Christopher Decker
Fourth Committee Member
Deirdre Clemente
Number of Pages
67
Abstract
This essay will conduct a comparative analysis of the editing practices of Tom Jenks during his work on Ernest Hemingway’s posthumously novel The Garden of Eden, and Hemingway and Maxwell Perkins editorial work on A Farwell to Arms. Considering the severity of Tom Jenks’ alterations to the novel and the seemingly intentional scarcity of information related to Jenks engagement with the text, a consideration for how Hemingway’s style of editing compares to Jenks’ is necessary in order to determine the accuracy of the published version of The Garden of Eden in relation to Hemingway’s larger body of work. In order to accomplish this, I will analyze the existing material available related to Hemingway’s editorial practices to evaluate the changes made by Jenks to The Garden of Eden manuscript. What this research shows is that while Hemingway performed revisions throughout the process of publication, most of his editorial work occurred during the initial writing stage. By evaluating Garden through a comparison in the editing process performed on both texts, it is clear that while Jenks attests to an adherence to what he describes as the “law of an ancient god,” his version of the text is ultimately insufficient in presenting The Garden of Eden as Hemingway intended. Following a number of other scholars opinions, such as John Leonard, K.J. Peters, and even Tom Jenks, I propose the text be restored to its manuscript form to provide readers with an authentic draft of the novel, expanding upon the new avenues The Garden of Eden provides for Hemingway scholarship.
Keywords
A Farewell to Arms; Editing; Ernest Hemingway; The Garden of Eden; Tom Jenks
Disciplines
Arts and Humanities
File Format
Degree Grantor
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Language
English
Repository Citation
Cook, Jesse Lee, "'The Only Thing That Matters': A Critique of the Editorial Practices in The Garden of Eden" (2016). UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones. 2656.
http://dx.doi.org/10.34917/9112051
Rights
IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/