Stemming from the Spanish word for cord, cordilla, cordilleras describes a long chain of mountains. Often, The Cordilleras references parts of the Andes, a stretch of mountains in the Philippines, and mountains in the western part of Canada.  While a cordillera can in theory be anywhere in the world, for an author to title a book “The Cordilleras” he or she is most likely referring to a popular chain of mountains.  This should make the plausibility of Vaclav being Straka shrink.  European born and raised, the young potential author, Vaclav, most likely knew very little of The Cordilleras, and his audience in Europe also would have little idea of the setting he would be referencing (whoisstraka.wordpress.com).  However, Straka can not be eliminated from being a possible candidate, as this is one small anecdote speculates a tremendous amount about Straka’s knowledge or travel, and also assumes he wrote alone.  Regardless, this remains an interesting topic to explore.

Summersby, a more likely candidate to write The Cordilleras, was an American pulp novelist and therefore has a far greater chance of knowing The Cordiileras. Another possibility altogether, while being far more unlikely, is C.F.J Wallingford. A Canadian Adventurer, Wallingford would have spent much of his time in The Cordilleras, making it an easy setting for him to describe.  However, according to the “Thoughts on ‘S’” blog, Wallinford’s addition to the novel can not be more than just a fun addition by Dorst. Dorst acknowledged that a part of his inspiration for this novel was the Shakespearean author controversy, and C.F.J points us to the most prominent Shakespeare character of the 20^th Century, Horace Howard Furnace.  When writing to letters to his daughter Caroline Furness Jayne he would title them C.F.J. then the location, Wallingford, creating C.F.J. Wallingford (whoisstraka.wordpress.com).

Through Eric’s comments in the margins we learn a little bit more about The Cordilleras. He pencils in,

“CF. THE CORDILLERA-ZARATE, THE CONCERTINA (an accordion like instrument) PLAYER,”

giving us a small insight into a character from The Cordilleras (Dorst 138).  The concertina, traditional to Irish, English, and South African music, had a strong prevalence in 19^th century American music, but by the 20^th century had only become popular in Hollywood movies and displayed old ugly instruments (Worrall).  This ties in well with reference of a “scavenged concertina with a ruptured bellows” that Straka gives (Dorst 138).   This tidbit hints towards Summersby being the writer, as his pulp novels and screen writing would surely give him the background to see a concertina in this fashion.

Later we find little information into the true identity of Straka in The Cordilleras references, but rather some basic info on the book.  First, F.X.C. notes that Hemingway admired Straka’s work and that “he felt an intuitive sense that he and Straka would be ‘simpactico’ as ‘artistis and men,’” but Straka simply scoffed at the man’s comments (117).  Mockingly, Straka assigned a quote from Hemingway’s, a well known misogynist, letter to a female.

In addition to this, F.X.C. explains that Hemingway criticized Straka’s novels, but not until some point after 1935 when he “begged for a personal audience with Straka” (vi).  This most likely means that The Cordillera was written at some point around or before 1935, because in this time period Hemingway admired Straka. 

An active hunter and world traveler, Hemingway loved adventures.  From this we can assume that for him to love the Cordilleras it must have included some sort of adventure. However, typically Hemingway absolutely despised stories which were not true and accurate, thus The Cordillera must not have been nearly as fictitious as The Ship of Theseus (Hemstock 104).  This small idea, solidifies the previous one, that the author knew this mountain range well.

To add onto this, the room in the ship which “looks like an abattoir where the writhing animals spurt vineblack” also appeared in The Cordillera as a slaughterhouse (295).  Now we have two different Straka books about the evilness of writing.  Straka must have either been hinting at something, or truly disliked the “violent act” of writing at this point in his life (295).  When The Cordillera was written, Straka must have begun to feel the destructiveness of his writing on his relationship with F.X.C.  

Linking these clues here with what we find throughout the novel solidifies the view that writing did evil things to Straka as well as it tacks onto the idea that Summersby wrote the novel.

Works Cited

“A Brief History Of the Anglo Concertina in the United States.” A Brief History of the Anglo Concertina in the United States. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2015.

“Cordillera Central | Mountains, Colombia.” Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2015.

“Ernest Hemingway Biography | List of Works, Study Guides & Essays.” Ernest Hemingway Biography. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2015.

Hemstock, John Blair. “Hemingway’s Awareness of Other Writeres.” Historic Documents of 1978 (1979): 598-666. Web.

“Thoughts On “S”” Thoughts On S. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2015.

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