Professional Documents
Culture Documents
By Deborah Treisman
Jue 1, 2020
Astory in this week’s issue, “Pursuit as Happiness,” will be included
in a new edition of Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea”
to be published by Scribner later this year. Can you explain why it
was never published and how it was discovered (or rediscovered)?
How much of the story do you think was invented? Was it based on
a particular experience Hemingway had—of hooking a giant marlin
and losing it?
The story is set in 1933, but you believe it was written years later.
Do you know whether it dates to before “The Old Man and the Sea,”
which Hemingway wrote in the early fifties, or if it could be
considered in some way notes for the novella?
There are elements of the story that make it clear that Hemingway is
writing it years later. I find it hard to pin down and would date its
creation somewhere between 1936 and 1956, when he was working on
the film of “The Old Man and the Sea.” I don’t see it in any way as notes
for the novella, but I do think that it makes a strong companion piece,
since it is also about setting out to catch a very large marlin, and it
shows in different ways how difficult that undertaking is, even with
modern fishing equipment, a motor boat, and several experienced
fishermen.
The title was chosen by your uncle Patrick Hemingway. Where did
it come from?