The *truth* about the shortest saddest story ever written

Did Hemingway really write the shortest saddest story ever told with just SIX words? In this video essay, we explore the origins of this enigmatic story
➡️To get into writing your own flash fiction, I recommend this book: amzn.to/3V1pVsK
➡️🔥The script for this video is available now: www.patreon.com/JohnBurton859...
➡️🔥Join me on Patreon where you can become part of my reading club, get early access to my content, and support me as a small creator of (hopefully) interesting and thought-provoking material: patreon.com/JohnBurton859?utm...
➡️My favourite Hemingway book: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/009991010...
➡️My last video was on five mindbending books you can read in a day to get out of a slump: • To bounce out of a slu...
Since this video was published, I have learned that Peter Miller has passed away. He was a respected and productive literary agent, responsible for representing thousands of publications.
It’s testament to our fascination with the creative process, our need for certainty, and our taste for sorrowful stories - but the true story of baby shoes is even more interesting. In this video I explore the authorship of Baby Shoes to clear up the misinformation surrounding it. I explore the attribution of the shortest saddest story, and explore why Hemingway was associated with it.
This video features a clip from Never Worn, Papa- Hemingway in Cuba • "Never Worn" - Papa: H...
I’m also keen to promote this short film based on the Baby Shoes story:
Abrupt Ending, by Simeon Lumgair vimeo.com/simeonlumgair/abrup...
I’m indebted to Quote Investigator’s article on baby shoes: quoteinvestigator.com/2013/01...
Shout out to the brilliant Pudding Lane Productions of De Montfort University who created a 3D animation of London before the Great Fire, a clip of which is featured in this video. Their work can be seen here: • Pudding Lane Productio...
ABOUT JOHN BURTON:
My on-screen debut was in a 1994 Channel 4 documentary about my work in language teaching, and I later acted in a documentary about Victorian England, narrated by Gregory Peck. I was born and raised in the suburbs of London, before going to an all-boys school and then living for a couple of years in Montreal where I learned to speak French. When I returned to the UK I began a career teaching English, which eventually took me to Seville for a few years. I learned Spanish, I painted, took pictures, wrote poetry, learned to be a barber, and did my doctorate in literary studies while living in rural west Wales. I am now based near Bristol.
#literature #books #hemingway #babyshoes #documentaries #Hemingway baby shoes, #booktube #ernesthemingway #flashfiction

[@njaneardude]

Well done! Enjoyed your story telling 🙂

[@Dr.Johnreads]

Thanks! ☺️

[@lakewalker11]

“When the legend becomes fact, print the legends.”

[@TiNBoY63]

I think this really shows how much people feel the need to attach a famous person's name to a piece of art, as though it gives it more value or prestige. Although personally, I think it is far better knowing that no "great man" wrote it. But rather a comparatively unknown name who themselves had the genius to come up with the story. Or even the story's development from the great depression to it's misquoting today, with possibly not one single person having written the story, but the story having been slowly developed into what it is known as today by multiple people across generations.

[@Dr.Johnreads]

I agree! It probably did have its genesis in classified ads, and then developed through a few iterations before a big name was attached. You’re quite right about our need for certainty, and for this reason I’ve seen several quotes misattributed to Shakespeare. Perhaps I’ll do a video on some of these in the future.

[@TiNBoY63]

@@Dr.Johnreads That would be awesome to see! I haven’t read as much Shakespeare as I should unfortunately. Maybe a video from you will give me some inspiration lol!

[@XanderShiller]

​@@TiNBoY63 The Godfather (or the Lion King..same story)

[@walkertongdee]

Is that story true? Well, it's true it's a story...

[@AlexmaxPL]

What's the clip at 5:18 from? Great video by the way.

[@Dr.Johnreads]

Thanks! The clip is from a brilliant project by some students at De Montfort University who rendered London pre-Great Fire as part of the Crytek Off The Map project.