For sale: baby shoes, never worn

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A 6-word "novel" regarding a pair of baby shoes is considered an extreme example of flash fiction.

"For sale: baby shoes, never worn." is the entirety of what has been described as a six-word
novel, making it an extreme example of what is called flash fiction or sudden fiction. Although it is
often attributed to Ernest Hemingway, the link to him is unsubstantiated and similar stories predate
him.[1][2]

Contents
[hide]

1Setting
2History
3Legacy
4See also
5References

Setting[edit]
The claim of Hemingway's authorship originates in an unsubstantiated anecdote about a wager
between him and other writers. In a 1992 letter to Canadian humorist John Robert Colombo, science
fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke recounts it thus: While lunching with friends at a restaurant (variously
identified as Luchow'sor The Algonquin), Hemingway bets the table ten dollars each that he can craft
an entire story in six words. After the pot is assembled, Hemingway writes "For sale: baby shoes,
never worn" on a napkin, passes this around the table, and collects his winnings.[1]

History[edit]
This May 16, 1910 article from The Spokane Press recounts an earlier advertisement which struck the author
as particularly tragic.

The May 16, 1910, edition of The Spokane Press had an article titled "Tragedy of Baby's Death is
Revealed in Sale of Clothes." At that time, Hemingway would only have been aged ten, and years
away from beginning his writing career.[1]
In 1917, William R. Kane published a piece in a periodical called The Editor where he outlined the
basic idea of a grief-stricken woman who had lost her baby and even suggested the title of Little
Shoes, Never Worn.[2] In his version of the story, the shoes are being given away rather than sold.
He suggests that this would provide some measure of solace for the seller, as it would mean that
another baby would at least benefit directly.[3]
By 1921, the story was already being parodied: the July issue of Judge that year published a version
that used a baby carriageinstead of shoes; there, however, the narrator described contacting the
seller to offer condolences, only to be told that the sale was due to the birth of twins rather than of a
single child.[1]
The earliest known connection to Hemingway was in 1991, thirty years after the authors
death.[1] This attribution was in a book by Peter Miller called Get Published! Get Produced!: A Literary
Agents Tips on How to Sell Your Writing. He said he was told the story by a "well-established
newspaper syndicator" in 1974.[4] In 1992, John Robert Colombo printed a letter from Arthur C.
Clarke that repeated the story, complete with Hemingway having won $10 each from fellow writers.[1]
This connection to Hemingway was reinforced by a one-man play called Papa by John deGroot,
which debuted in 1996. Set during a Life magazine photo session in 1959, deGroot has the
character utter the phrase as a means of illustrating Hemingways brevity.[1] In Playbill, deGroot
defended his portrayal of Hemingway by saying, "Everything in the play is based on events as
described by Ernest Hemingway, or those who knew him well. Whether or not these things actually
happened is something well never know truly. But Hemingway and many others claimed they did."[5]

Legacy[edit]
The general concept of trying to tell a story with the absolute minimum of words became known by
the general term of flash fiction. The six-word limit in particular has spawned the concept of Six-
Word Memoirs,[6] including a collection published in book form in 2008 by Smith Magazine, and two
sequels published in 2009.

See also[edit]
 Literature portal

References[edit]
1. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g Garson OToole (January 28, 2013). "For Sale,
Baby Shoes, Never Worn". quoteinvestigator.com. Retrieved 19
April 2013.
2. ^ Jump up to:a b Haglund, David (Jan 31, 2013). "Did Hemingway
Really Write His Famous Six-Word Story?". Slate. Retrieved 14
April 2013.
3. Jump up^ Kane, William R. (February 24, 1917). "untitled". The
Editor: The Journal of Information for Literary Workers, Volume 45,
number 4. pp. 175176. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
4. Jump up^ Miller, Peter (Mar 1, 1991). Get Published! Get Produced!:
A Literary Agents Tips on How to Sell Your Writing. SP Books. p. 27.
5. Jump up^ Mikkelson, David; Mikkelson, Barbara (29 October
2008). "Baby Shoes". Snopes.com. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
6. Jump up^ "Six-Word Memoirs Can Say It All". CBS News. February
11, 2009. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
Categories:
Short stories
Ernest Hemingway
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