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Issues with Quotes > Wrong quote attribution

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message 1: by Najaf (new)

Najaf (najiko) | 3 comments Hello!

There is a quote attributed to Ernest Hemingway - among the most popular quotes on the website: “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”

The attribution is wrong. There is no evidence connecting this quote to Ernest Hemingway.

In its current form this quote belongs to Red Smith. Here is a copy: http://www.goodreads.com/author/quote...

Source: http://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/09/...

With kind regards,
Najaf


message 2: by Banjomike (new)

Banjomike | 5166 comments Najaf wrote: "Hello!

There is a quote attributed to Ernest Hemingway - among the most popular quotes on the website: “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”
The attribution is wrong. There is no evidence connecting this quote to Ernest Hemingway.

In its current form this quote belongs to Red Smith. Here is a copy: http://www.goodreads.com/author/quote...

Source: http://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/09/...

With kind regards,
Najaf "


The QI page you link to does 'confirm' that Hemingway said/wrote the version of the quote that Goodreads has for him. The Red Smith version is sufficiently different for both versions to stay.


message 3: by Najaf (new)

Najaf (najiko) | 3 comments Dear Banjomike,

Please re-reqad the QI page. In conclusion it says that even though William C Knott attributed this quote to Hemingway "There is no substantive evidence connecting the saying to famous literary figures such as Thomas Wolfe and Ernest Hemingway."

Regards,


message 4: by Banjomike (last edited Jul 22, 2013 08:54AM) (new)

Banjomike | 5166 comments Najaf wrote: "Dear Banjomike,

Please re-reqad the QI page. In conclusion it says that even though William C Knott attributed this quote to Hemingway "There is no substantive evidence connecting the saying to famous literary figures such as Thomas Wolfe and Ernest Hemingway."

Regards, "



I was referring to these two references on that page:

Special thanks to Tom Fuller for locating and verifying the 1973 Hemingway attribution.

Update of response: On December 9, 2012. A 1973 citation ascribing the saying to Hemingway has been added.

The QuoteInvestigator page is referring to a slightly different quote to the Hemingway quote on Goodreads which I still think is sufficiently different to stand by itself.

Original:
Writing Is Easy; You Just Open a Vein and Bleed

Hemingway:
There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/2032-...


message 5: by Najaf (new)

Najaf (najiko) | 3 comments Well, he is making a point, that even though it was attributed to him, there is no evidence that he ever said or wrote it.

Quoting QI:

In conclusion, the 1949 citation justifies crediting Red Smith with the sardonic quotation published in Winchell’s column. Yet, Paul Gallico’s earnest quotation in 1946 takes chronological precedence, and he apparently gave the saying its modern metaphorical form.

The status of the later variants mentioning drops of blood on the forehead is not clear. Perhaps Smith pronounced more than one version, but there is no direct evidence of this, only indirect attributions. There is no substantive evidence connecting the saying to famous literary figures such as Thomas Wolfe and Ernest Hemingway.


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