Editing For Whom the Bell Tolls (section)

==Background==
Ernest Hemingway wrote ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' in 1939 from three locations: [[Havana]], Cuba; [[Key West, Florida]]; and [[Sun Valley, Idaho]].<ref name="Meyers p326">{{Harvnb|Meyers|1985| p=326}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Hunting for Hemingway in Yellowstone country |url=http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/dailyfeatures/hunting-for-hemingway-in-yellowstone-country/article_1ec909fe-96bd-55f8-a7d6-a3224a6ec61d.html |website=Bozemandailychronicle.com |access-date=October 1, 2016 |archive-date=September 4, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904101707/http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/dailyfeatures/hunting-for-hemingway-in-yellowstone-country/article_1ec909fe-96bd-55f8-a7d6-a3224a6ec61d.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> In Cuba, he lived in the [[Hotel Ambos Mundos]], where he worked on the manuscript.<ref name="Mellow p516">{{Harvnb|Mellow|1992| p=516}}</ref><ref>One source, however, says he began the book at [https://books.google.com/books?id=7Y3VpdaWgKoC&pg=PA133&dq=%22finca+vigia%22+%22for+whom+the+bell+tolls%22&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html&cd=1 the Sevilla Biltmore Hotel] and [https://books.google.com/books?id=7Y3VpdaWgKoC&pg=PA135&lpg=PA133&dq=%22finca+vigia%22+%22for+whom+the+bell+tolls%22&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html finished it at "Finca Vigia"]</ref> The novel was finished in July 1940 at the [[InterContinental New York Barclay Hotel]] in [[New York City]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://intercontinentalnybarclay.com/history/whom-the-bell-tolls-written-at-the-barclay/ |title=History: For Whom the Bell Tolls Written at the Barclay |access-date=2017-07-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180912023635/https://intercontinentalnybarclay.com/history/whom-the-bell-tolls-written-at-the-barclay/ |archive-date=2018-09-12 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and published in October.<ref name="Meyers p334">{{Harvnb|Meyers|1985| p=334}}</ref><ref name="Meyers p339">{{Harvnb|Meyers|1985| p=339}}</ref> The story is based on Hemingway's experiences during the [[Spanish Civil War]] as a reporter for the [[North American Newspaper Alliance]]<ref>{{cite journal|last=Mitgang|first=Herbert|title=Hemingway On Spain: Unedited Reportage|date=August 30, 1988|url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/99/07/04/specials/hemingway-reportage.html?_r=2|journal=The New York Times Book Review|quote="Hemingway later turned his experiences on the Loyalist side into the play "The Fifth Column" and the novel "For Whom the Bell Tolls"..."}}</ref> and features an American who fights alongside Spanish guerillas for the Republicans.<ref name="Meyers pp335–338"/> The novel graphically describes the brutality of the war and is told primarily through the thoughts and experiences of the protagonist, Robert Jordan.

The characters in the novel include those who are purely fictional, those based on real people but fictionalized, and those who were actual figures in the war. Set in the [[Sierra de Guadarrama]] mountain range between [[Madrid]] and Segovia, the action takes place during four days and three nights. ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' became a [[Book of the Month Club]] choice, sold half a million copies within months, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and became a literary triumph for Hemingway.<ref name="Meyers pp335–338">{{Harvnb|Meyers|1985| pp=335–338}}</ref> Published on October 21, 1940, the [[first edition]] print run was 75,000 copies priced at $2.75.<ref>Oliver, p. 106</ref>

The book's title is taken from the [[metaphysical poets|metaphysical poet]] [[John Donne]]'s series of meditations and prayers on health, pain, and sickness (written while Donne was convalescing from a nearly fatal illness) published in 1624 as ''[[Devotions upon Emergent Occasions]]'', specifically [[s:Meditation XVII|Meditation XVII]]. Hemingway quotes part of the meditation (using Donne's original spelling) in the book's [[Epigraph (literature)|epigraph]]. Donne refers to the practice of [[funeral toll]]ing, universal in his time.

<blockquote>No man is an ''Island'', intire of it selfe; every man is a piece of the ''Continent'', a part of the ''maine''; if a ''Clod'' bee washed away by the ''Sea'', ''Europe'' is the lesse, as well as if a ''Promontorie'' were, as well as if a ''Mannor'' of thy ''friends'' or of ''thine'' ''owne '' were; any mans ''death'' diminishes ''me'', because I am involved in ''Mankinde''; And therefore never send to know for whom the ''bell'' tolls; It tolls for ''thee''.</blockquote>

Due to the popularity of Hemingway's book, this text became known to many people who never read any other of Donne's works.