Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
The 1947 movie version of the story, The Macomber Affair, tried to put a romantic spin on the story, you know Hollywood. The movie also makes it clear that Margot shot Macomber intentionally. Scandal left and right. (Source.)
In an interview with The Paris Review, Hemingway explained that "The Short Happy Life" was inspired by a one-month hunting trip in Africa – the same trip that inspired one if his most famous stories, "The Snows of Kilimanjaro." Talk about fruitful. (Source.)
The Nobel Prize Committee awarded Hemingway their grand prize in 1954 in their words, "for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea, and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style." Yep, sounds about right. (Source.)
In October 1924, Hemingway wrote an obituary for Joseph Conrad (of Heart of Darkness fame) in which he explained "that if it could be shown that by grinding T. S. Eliot down to a fine powder, and by sprinkling the powder upon Conrad's grave, then Conrad would immediately jump out of his grave and commence to write, then he, Hemingway, would leave for London immediately with a sausage grinder in his luggage." Can't say we've read an obituary like that before… (Source.)