Hemingway
Hemingway
Hemingway's Rough Drafts
[A list of rough draft stories.] For sale: This Gullible Baby's Shoes Baby Shoes For Sale By Owner Actually, there's no evidence Hemingway wrote Free Shoes, Provided You Overpower Baby For Sale: Weird Baby's Toe Shoes For Sale: Baby Shoes ✓ Prime eligible Though popularly attributed to Hemingway, the This Weird Trick Covers Baby Feet! For Sale: Baby Shoes, Just Hatched Sale: Seven-League Boots (Expedited Shipping) Complete this survey for free shoes! Shoes , by Ernest Hemingway [ citation needed ] This is my greatest short story. For sale: Baby shoes (-1) [cursed] <blink><marquee> Baby Shoes! </marquee></blink> For Sale: Baby-sized Saddle, Bobcat Hemingway Busted for Craigslist Shoe Scam

This comic is a reference to the six-word short story For sale: baby shoes, never worn , which has been commonly attributed to famous author Ernest Hemingway (the disputed authorship of the story is referenced several times in the comic).
The comic plays on the fact that the original story takes the form of a short advertisement that might have been seen in a newspaper, and makes up alternate versions that use various modern 'standards' that did not exist in Hemingway's time. In keeping with the original, each example remains six words long. The title text obeys this rule, too. Many of the drafts poke fun at the tragedy that the original story suggests. With the original ("For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn"), readers could infer that the baby who would have worn the shoes must have died. Randall tries to make the reader infer other, more absurd things instead.
The comic also alludes to Hemingway's practice of repeatedly re-working drafts of his novels before publication. For example, he is reported to have rewritten the final passage of A Farewell To Arms 39 times. Later editions of his works include these rough drafts, allowing the devoted reader to understand how the work developed.
The following are the various drafts offered in the comic.
The title text continues the reference to 325: A-Minus-Minus , but inverts the situation.  Rather than unexpectedly receiving a bobcat by package, this time the package contains a regular item instead of the expected bobcat. In keeping with the theme of the comic, the review is written in only six words.
Hemingway's Rough Drafts
[A list of rough draft stories.] For sale: This Gullible Baby's Shoes Baby Shoes For Sale By Owner Actually, there's no evidence Hemingway wrote Free Shoes, Provided You Overpower Baby For Sale: Weird Baby's Toe Shoes For Sale: Baby Shoes ✓ Prime eligible Though popularly attributed to Hemingway, the This Weird Trick Covers Baby Feet! For Sale: Baby Shoes, Just Hatched Sale: Seven-League Boots (Expedited Shipping) Complete this survey for free shoes! Shoes , by Ernest Hemingway [ citation needed ] This is my greatest short story. For sale: Baby shoes (-1) [cursed] <blink><marquee> Baby Shoes! </marquee></blink> For Sale: Baby-sized Saddle, Bobcat Hemingway Busted for Craigslist Shoe Scam
