Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Preface: What We Bring Home ix
4. Introduction: Hemingway’s Shadow 1
5. Part 1 Cowboys on the Wartime Frontier
6. 1 Never a Secondhand Man: James Jones and the Perils of Homecoming 21
7. 2 The Big Noise: Stewart Stern’s Long March to Gar Naruah 51
8. 3 The “Age of Heroes” Edward Field and Gay Authenticity in the Midst of War 75
9. Part 2 Coming Home
10. 4 The Hipster, the Prophet, and the Angel: Writers on the Edge of Eternity 93
11. 5 The Men Who Came Running: James Jones and the Handy Writers’ Colony 120
12. 6 Waiting for Peter Pan: Adulthood and How to Attain It 141
13. 7 The Continuing Adventures of Icarus: Edward Field’s Life in the Postwar Closet 167
14. Conclusion: A Nation of Gray Flannel Men 191
15. Acknowledgments 215
16. Notes 217
17. Index 247
18. About the Author 251