The story about how the Nobel Laureate in literature wrote the shortest story that can touched anyone, has been walking on social networks in the form of text and graphic memes for many years. We checked whether Hemingway wrote such a story in fact.

In canonical form in Russian, the story sounds like this:

“Once Ernest Hemingway argued that he could write the shortest story that could touched anyone. He won the dispute: "Children's boots are sold. Unsheated."

The English -language sources usually also mention the specific length of the story according to the bet - six words (“For sale: Baby Shoes, Never Worn”). In the West, this text is so popular that it led to the appearance of the site http://www.sixwordstories.net/ With similar works. In Russia, he gave rise to a series of memes, starting with the phrase “Once Ernest Hemingway argued that he could write the shortest story that was able to move any ..” and ending with the author’s photography or screenshot.

In the collections of the works of Hemingway, as well as in individual publications of the work of the American, there is no such story or any information about it. But such ads can be found in the American periodicals of the beginning of the 20th century. For example, “a baby stroller is sold. Never used ”in the 1906 newspaper. And in 1910, in one of the newspapers of Spokan, Washington, an article entitled "The Tragedy with the death of the baby was revealed during the sale of clothes." The nameless author noted:

“The world is the interweaving of joy and sadness, the continuous game of comedy and tragedy. And even in everyday life there are small details in which touching stories are woven. Last Saturday, an announcement appeared in a local newspaper: "Handmade children's clothing and a crib are sold. Never used." <...> Perhaps this means little for an ordinary reader. But for a mother who has given many days to plan the life of the unborn child, this is a huge grief and disappointment. ”

Most likely, it was the quoted article that contributed to the transition of this small household plot to the literary plane. Because only seven years later, in 1917, the Essay of William Kane was released, dedicated to “powerful short stories”. Among others, it described a hypothetical story under the title “Little Boots. Unserrown ”about a woman who has lost a child. Others picked up the idea - in 1921 the story appeared as an example of the “Piercing Drama” in Life and Boston Globe.

As you can see, by the time Ernest Hemingway had just begun to engage in writing, the story about boots was already known in literary circles. And for the first time, the authorship of this work is attributed to Hemingway in the biographical play of the playwright John de Grut "Dad", published in 1984. The premiere of the play took place three years later and did not gain particular popularity. But it is there that an episode appears in which Ham states that a perfect story from six words will be able to write on a dispute. Later de Gruat claimed that the play “Based on the events described by Ernest Hemingway or those who knew him well. Whether it actually happened or not, we will never know. ”

Then, in 1988, the book of Cuban Norberto Fuentes was published in the United States, the newly open Ernest Hemingway, in which he shared a hitherto unknown facts from the life of the great writer. In particular, there is such an episode there:

“One morning, Hemingway entered the New York branch of Scribner’s publishing house and argued that he could write the“ shortest story in the world. ” A full -fledged story with a plot of all six words. He was ready to write it on a piece of paper, and if Skiber and other those present would agree that the story is acting, then everyone would pay him $ 6. ”

“We read this story and were forced to fork out,” Risobner recalled. - This story brought him $ 60. The nameless story looked like this: "For Sale, Baby Shoes, Never Worn". "

In connection with Hemingway, this story was really widely known in 1991, when the case ended up in Peter Miller's book “publish and advance! Secrets of the sale of manuscripts from a literary agent. " The author claimed that in 1974, one "very solid newspaper tycoon" told him the story. Moreover, in the version of Miller, Hemingway did not argue with the employees of the publisher, but with his colleagues in the restaurant. The bike was soon retold by the famous writer Arthur Clark, and in his version the rate was not $ 6, but $ 10. Well, in 2006, Miller in his new book moved the scene of the dispute from the restaurant to the hotel.

In 2014, in the scientific journal “Bulletin of Popular Culture”, an article by Frederick Wright “Malaya Prose became even less: Hemingway, a statement of facts and a city legend of four words”. The author came to the conclusion that the whole story was invented, since there is very little evidence.

Thus, in the case of the story of Hemingway and the shortest story, we most likely are dealing with a bike that arose in the 70s, after the death of the writer. Variations of the story appeared at the beginning of the 20th century, and all evidence of his connection with Hemingway surfaced implausively late and differ too much in details.