The Garden of Eden: A Question of Dates

Hemingway biographers and critics have proposed a wide variety of conflicting dates, ranging from 1946 to 1958, for composition of the sprawling manuscript that makes up The Garden of Eden. After reviewing what is known about the various identifiable sections of The Garden of Eden, this essay proposes that the central section of the novel—Folder 8 (Chapter 13) through Folder 28 (Chapter 35)—was composed between 20 May and 11 September 1957. The essay treats a series of marginal dates in Hemingway's handwriting (months and days given without the year) discovered in the body of the manuscript, and overlays these dates year by year on events in Hemingway's life from 1946 to 1958.