In a 1958 interview with The Paris Review, George Plimpton asked Ernest Hemingway about the hardest part of writing the ending to A Farewell to Arms. “Getting the words right,” Papa answered. He wasn’t kidding. This week, Scribner will publish a new edition of the 1929 novel, complete with the 47 endings Hemingway didn’t use. Among them are the so-called “Nada Ending” (“That is all there is to the story. Catherine died and you will die and I will die and that is all I can promise you.”) and the one F. Scott Fitzgerald suggested (“[The world] does not break it kills. It kills the very good and very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.") In the end, [SPOILER ALERT for high schoolers!] Hemingway settled for something that sounds, well, Hemingway-esque: “After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain.”
