Ernest Hemingway skiing, Switzerland, 1927

"Cross Country Snow" is a short story written by

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...

. The story was first published in 1924 in Ford Madox Ford's literary magazine ''

Transatlantic Review Transatlantic, Trans-Atlantic or TransAtlantic may refer to: Film * Transatlantic Pictures, a film production company from 1948 to 1950 * Transatlantic Enterprises, an American production company in the late 1970s * ''Transatlantic'' (1931 film), ...

'' in Paris and republished by Boni & Liveright in Hemingway's first American volume of short stories ''

In Our Time In Our Time may refer to: * ''In Our Time'' (1944 film), a film starring Ida Lupino and Paul Henreid * ''In Our Time'' (1982 film), a Taiwanese anthology film featuring director Edward Yang; considered the beginning of the "New Taiwan Cinema" * ''In ...

'' in 1925. The story features Hemingway's recurrent autobiographical character Nick Adams and explores the regenerative powers of nature and the joy of skiing.

Background

In 1922 Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley came to Paris where he worked as foreign correspondent for the ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

''. During that period he made friends with modernist writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ford Madox Ford,

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...

and Gertrude Stein, who influenced his early development as a fiction writer.Desnoyers, Megan Floyd
"Ernest Hemingway: A Storyteller's Legacy".
JFK Library. Retrieved September 30, 2011 The year 1923 saw his first published work, a slim volume titled ''

Three Stories and Ten Poems ''Three Stories and Ten Poems'' is a collection of short stories and poems by Ernest Hemingway. It was privately published in 1923 in a run of 300 copies by Robert McAlmon's "Contact Publishing" in Paris.Oliver, Charles. (1999). ''Ernest Hemingw ...

'', followed the next year by a collection of short

vignettes Vignette may refer to: * Vignette (entertainment), a sketch in a sketch comedy * Vignette (graphic design), decorative designs in books (originally in the form of leaves and vines) to separate sections or chapters * Vignette (literature), short, i ...

, ''

in our time In Our Time may refer to: * ''In Our Time'' (1944 film), a film starring Ida Lupino and Paul Henreid * ''In Our Time'' (1982 film), a Taiwanese anthology film featuring director Edward Yang; considered the beginning of the "New Taiwan Cinema" * ''In ...

'' (without capitals).Baker (1972), 15–18 Hoping to have ''in our time'' published in New York, in 1924 he began writing stories to add to the volume.Mellow (1992), 271 On October 5, 1925, the expanded edition of ''In Our Time'' (with conventional capitalization in the title) was published by Boni & Liveright in New York. In those years the Hemingways were avid skiers after their first trip to Switzerland in 1922. Hadley wrote "skiing became a must", adding, "It is the kind of thing that it seems one will never learn, and then all of a sudden you can do it". In the early 1920s they stayed in Montreaux and skied at

Les Avants Les Avants (Montreux) is a village in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is located in the municipality of Montreux, in the east of the canton, in the district of Riviera-Pays-d’Enhaut. It lies north-east of the town of Montreux and east ...

; by the mid- 1920s they spent most of the winter months in Austria, at Schruns. Hemingway wrote "Cross Country Snow" in 1924 after wintering for the first time in

Cortina d'Ampezzo Cortina d'Ampezzo (; lld, Anpezo, ; historical de-AT, Hayden) is a town and ''comune'' in the heart of the southern (Dolomitic) Alps in the Province of Belluno, in the Veneto region of Northern Italy. Situated on the Boite river, in an alp ...

with Hadley and their infant son Jack.Danby-Smith, Valerie. "The Short Happy Ski Life of Ernest Hemingway". ''Skiing Heritage''. September 2009. Hemingway took skiing lessons from the partner of Austrian skiing instructor

Hannes Schneider Johann "Hannes" Schneider (24 June 1890 – 26 April 1955) was an Austrian ski instructor of the first half of the 20th century, famous for pioneering the Arlberg technique of instruction. Many consider him the Father of Modern Day Skiing. A ...

, where friends such as John Dos Passos joined him. Without ski lifts, skiers made the steep climb to high snow fields, a challenge Hemingway enjoyed, followed by the exhilaration of skiing down. In the spring months they were able to ski as many as 40 miles a day on the glaciers. For the first time he grew a beard during the winter months to protect his skin from sun and snow.

Plot summary

In "Cross Country Snow," Nick Adams and his friend George have gone skiing in Switzerland. The story begins with Nick riding up the mountain on a funicular car while watching George ski down the mountain. Nick then arrives at the top of the mountain and begins skiing down. He loses control and crashes into a pile of soft snow. He and George continue down the mountain, stopping several times to comment on the terrain. When they arrive at the base of the run, they walk to an inn for a drink. When they arrive at the inn, they order a bottle of wine and notice that their waitress is pregnant although she does not appear to be married. Nick and George then discuss their lives: how Nick’s wife is pregnant so they will be returning to the United States and how George must finish his education. They regret that they will have to give up their ski trips and discuss that perhaps they will return to ski once again sometime in the future. Finally, they leave the inn for a final run home together.

Themes and style

According to Hemingway scholar Wendolyn Tetlow the short stories in ''

'' are structured to form a thematic unity. The volume's early stories are about senseless death and the "ultimate nothingness of existence", whereas the second half of the collection focuses on how to cope with pain, wounding and suffering, and how to accept life. ''Cross Country Snow'' is about escape and yet the need to accept life's burdens. The story's tension lies in the need opposition of freedom and duty, with the opening conveying a sense of freedom as Nick Adams skis down the mountain. Joseph Flora says Hemingway juxtaposes pleasure and responsibility. Both young men, Nick and George face duties after this day of skiing; George must return to school and Nick's wife is pregnant. Hemingway scholar David Ferrero explains that some early stories from ''

'', including "Cross Country Snow", have received readings from critics positioning Hemingway as a misogynist in a world of men without women.Ferrero (2004), 126 In her article "Doomed Biologically: Sex and Entrapment in Ernest Hemingway’s ‘Cross Country Snow’," Olivia Carr Edenfield writes that by having Nick strap himself into his ski-binding creates and image of a young man bound and strapped into marriage and impending fatherhood. In the inn, while Nick and George are talking, the reader realizes several things about Nick. He is removed from the surroundings as if he were already a tourist visiting a foreign land. The Swiss locals in the bar are contrasted with the "boys" as they enter; and in counterpoint to Nick, the waitress is pregnant but unmarried. Although they want to ski again together the two young men know they might not; each has a responsibility and as Kenneth Johnston says "the best of friends often lose track of one another". The last piece of dialogue shifts from gloominess to hopefulness to defeat, according to Tetlow, ending with Nick's declaration there is no "good in promising".Tetlow (1992), 86 Hemingway used pervasive snow imagery in many short stories and in ''

A Farewell to Arms ''A Farewell to Arms'' is a novel by American writer Ernest Hemingway, set during the Italian campaign of World War I. First published in 1929, it is a first-person account of an American, Frederic Henry, serving as a lieutenant () in the am ...

'', usually symbolizing love and romance.Oldsey (1963), 172 The story's lyricism and "subtle nuances" are the strongest of the stories in the collection.Tetlow (1992), 84 Its structure is similar to " The Three-Day Blow", which Hemingway would use again in the fishing scenes of ''

The Sun Also Rises ''The Sun Also Rises'' is a 1926 novel by American writer Ernest Hemingway, his first, that portrays American and British expatriates who travel from Paris to the Festival of San Fermín in Pamplona to watch the running of the bulls and the bu ...

''.Tetlow (1992), 138 It begins with frequent use of soft sounds, "snow", "solidly", "surface", "skis", which reflect the movements of skiing. Tetlow says the "sensuous language renders the sensation of flight". The snow is equally visual and tactile. The language captures the rhythm of skiing, with up-and-down movements, the swoop of the slope, yet Nick tries to restrain himself from gathering too much speed, from losing control, and yet, not completely in control, he crashes.Tetlow (1992), 85

References

Sources

* Baker, Carlos (1981). ''Ernest Hemingway Selected Letters 1917–1961''. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. * Edenfield, Olivia Carr. ''Doomed Biologically: Sex and entrapment in Ernest Hemingway's 'Cross-Country Snow'". ''The Hemingway Review''. (Fall 1999). Volume 19, Issue 1 *

Fishkin, Shelley Fisher Shelley Fisher Fishkin (born May 9, 1950) is the Joseph S. Atha Professor of the Humanities and Professor of English at Stanford University. Fishkin received her B.A. and M.Phil. in English, and her Ph.D. in American Studies, all from Yale Univer ...

. (1985) ''From Fact to Fiction: Journalism and Imaginative Writing in America''. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press. * Ferrero, David. (2004). "Nikki Adams and the Limits of Gender Criticism", in ''Nick Adams''. (ed. Harold Bloom). Broomall, PA: Chelsea House. * Flora, Joseph (2004). "Soldier Home: ''Big Two-Hearted River''". in Bloom, Harold (ed.). ''Bloom's Major Literary Characters: Nick Adams''. New York: Chelsea House Press. * Flora, Joseph. (1989). ''Ernest Hemingway: A Study of the Short Fiction''. Boston: Twayne Publishers, * Hemingway, Ernest. (1925/1930) ''In Our Time''. (1996 ed.) New York: Scribner. * Johnston, Kenneth. (1987) ''The Tip of the Iceberg: Hemingway and the Short Story''. Greenwood, Florida: The Penkevill Publishing Company. * Mellow, James (1992).
Hemingway: A Life Without Consequences
'. New York: Houghton Mifflin. * Meyers, Jeffrey (1985). ''Hemingway: A Biography''. New York: Macmillan. * Oldsey, Bern. "The Snows of Ernest Hemingway". ''Wisconsin Studies in Contemporary Literature''. (Spring–Summer 1963). Volume 4, Issue 2. * Oliver, Charles (1999). ''Ernest Hemingway A to Z: The Essential Reference to the Life and Work''. New York: Checkmark Publishing. *Tetlow, Wendolyn E. (1992). ''Hemingway's "In Our Time": Lyrical Dimensions''. Cranbury NJ: Associated University Presses. * Vernon, Alex. "War, Gender, and Ernest Hemingway". ''The Hemingway Review'' (Fall 2002), Volume 22, Issue 1. 34–55 {{Hemingway 1924 short stories Short stories by Ernest Hemingway Works originally published in The Transatlantic Review (1924) Switzerland in fiction Skiing in Switzerland Skiing mass media