The Shortest Story Ever Told - The American Scholar (2024)
Two excellent titles were proposed for the sonnet ghazal we finished last week. Diana, mindful that “Monday” is the title of the crowd-sourced sonnet we did in spring and summer, nominates “Saturday,” shrewdly forecasting a series that will not be complete until five more days get named. But the prize goes to Aaron fa*gan for “The Fall Inside the Fall,” which sounds like a phrase in a Frank Bidart poem. It is very apt for our effort here, in which the key word is “fall” in several senses.
Ernest Hemingway—perhaps at Harry’s Bar, perhaps at Luchow’s—once bet a bunch of fellows he could make them cry with a short story six words long. If he won the bet each guy would have to fork over 10 bucks. Hemingway’s six-word story was, “For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn.” He won the bet.
There has been a surge of interest in the prose poem and other “short” forms—as in Alan Ziegler’s inspired new anthology, Short. Getting into the spirit (exemplified by one wag as “prose poems, short shorts, or couldn’t finish”), contestants are asked to write the shortest story they can produce. It should be under 25 words and should contain the arc of a narrative. Brevity is obviously a virtue here (in addition to being, in general, the soul of wit), but the underlying rationale for the exercise is that tight constraints are paradoxically liberating for the imagination.
Due: midnight, Saturday, November 1.
David Lehman, a contributing editor of the Scholar, is a poet, critic, and the general editor of The Best American Poetry annual anthology and author of the book One Hundred Autobiographies. He currently writes our Talking Pictures column.
Hemingway's six-word story was, “For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn
For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn
"For sale: baby shoes, never worn." is a six-word story, popularly attributed to Ernest Hemingway, although the link to him is unlikely. Versions of the story date back to the early 1900s, and it was being reproduced and expanded upon within a few years of its initial publication.
It was said that Ernest Hemingway once made a bet that he could write the world's shortest story. It would be a tearjerker of a tale only six words long. His six-word story was, “For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn.”
Ernest Hemingway was once challenged to write the world's shortest novel. His contribution? Six words: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." Some people wouldn't consider that substantive enough to be a novel.
One of the shortest stories, often attributed to Ernest Hemingway, is only six words long: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." These six words convey a poignant and emotional story with a sense of loss and tragedy.
The Epic of Gilgamesh, while not the oldest written piece of literature, is regarded as the oldest tale in the world. It's a poem from ancient Mesopotamia and has roots in older Sumerian stories and poems that are related to the reign of Gilgamesh, which was over 4,000 years ago!
Hemingway based the story on his World War I affair with Agnes von Kurowsky, a nurse he met in Milan while recuperating in the hospital from leg injuries sustained at the Italian front.
Legend has it that Ernest Hemingway won a bet by writing the six-word story “For sale: baby shoes.Never worn.” Hoping to cash in on that story's success, Hemingway wrote some six-word sequels. For sale: baby shoes. Really big.
Ernest Hemingway wrote for 5 or 6 hours every morning as did Kurt Vonnegut. Writers everywhere either talk about word counts or hours at their desk. And they all limit their writing somehow. Several of the most respected writers advise the rest of us to stop when we know what will happen next.
The shortest novel to win the prize was Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea in 1953 (140 pages in its first edition), and the longest was Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song in 1980 (1,056 pages). In fact, Mailer's book is the only winner with more than 1,000 pages in its first hardcover edition.
Flash fiction. Flash fiction is generally used as an umbrella term that refers to super short fiction of 1,000 words or less, but still provides a compelling story with a plot (beginning, middle, and end), character development, and usually a twist or surprise ending.
Ernest Hemingway—perhaps at Harry's Bar, perhaps at Luchow's—once bet a bunch of fellows he could make them cry with a short story six words long. If he won the bet each guy would have to fork over 10 bucks. Hemingway's six-word story was, “For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn.” He won the bet.
A piece of fiction shorter than 1,000 words is considered a “short short story” or “flash fiction,” and anything less than 300 words is rightfully called “microfiction.”
A piece of fiction shorter than 1,000 words is considered a “short short story” or “flash fiction,” and anything less than 300 words is rightfully called “microfiction.”
Hemingway is said to have written the saddest, shortest story of all time: “For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn.” Well, this may be the saddest, simplest grave I've ever seen.
A la recherche du temps perdu by Marcel Proust contains an estimated 9,609,000 characters (each letter counts as one character. Spaces are also counted, as one character each).
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Introduction: My name is Golda Nolan II, I am a thoughtful, clever, cute, jolly, brave, powerful, splendid person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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