In an interview in The Paris Review in 1958 Ernest Hemingway made an admission that has inspired frustrated novelists ever since: The final words of “A Farewell to Arms,” his wartime masterpiece, were rewritten “39 times before I was satisfied.”
Those endings have become part of literary lore, but they have never been published together in their entirety, according to his longtime publisher, Scribner.
A new edition of “A Farewell to Arms,” which was originally published in 1929, will be released next week, including all the alternate endings, along with early drafts of other passages in the book.
The new edition is the result of an agreement between Hemingway’s estate and Scribner, now an imprint of Simon & Schuster.
It is also an attempt to redirect some of the attention paid in recent years to Hemingway’s swashbuckling, hard-drinking image — through fictional depictions in the best-selling novel “The Paris Wife” and the Woody Allen film “Midnight in Paris,” for instance — back to his sizable body of work.
“I think people who are interested in writing and trying to write themselves will find it interesting to look at a great work and have some insight to how it was done,” Seán Hemingway, a grandson of Ernest Hemingway who is also a curator of Greek and Roman art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, said in an interview. “But he is a writer who has captured the imagination of the American public, and these editions are interesting because they really focus on his work. Ultimately that’s his lasting contribution.”
The new edition concludes that the 39 endings that Hemingway referred to are really more like 47. They have been preserved in the Ernest Hemingway Collection at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston since 1979, where Seán Hemingway studied them carefully. (Bernard S. Oldsey, a Hemingway scholar, listed 41 endings in his book “Hemingway’s Hidden Craft,” but Seán Hemingway found 47 variations in manuscripts preserved at the Kennedy Library.)
The alternate endings are labeled and gathered in an appendix in the new edition, a 330-page book whose cover bears the novel’s original artwork, an illustration of a reclining man and woman, both topless.
For close readers of Hemingway the endings are a fascinating glimpse into how the novel could have concluded on a different note, sometimes more blunt and sometimes more optimistic. And since modern authors tend to produce their work on computers, the new edition also serves as an artifact of a bygone craft, with handwritten notes and long passages crossed out, giving readers a sense of an author’s process. (When asked in the 1958 Paris Review interview with George Plimpton what had stumped him, Hemingway said, “Getting the words right.”)
The endings range from a short sentence or two to several paragraphs.
In No. 1, “The Nada Ending,” Hemingway wrote, “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.”
The “Live-Baby Ending,” listed as No. 7, concludes, “There is no end except death and birth is the only beginning.”
And in No. 34, the “Fitzgerald ending,” suggested by Hemingway’s friend F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway wrote that the world “breaks everyone,” and those “it does not break it kills.”
“It kills the very good and very gentle and the very brave impartially,” he wrote. “If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.”
Hemingway also left behind a list of alternate titles, which are reprinted in the new edition. They include “Love in War,” “World Enough and Time,” “Every Night and All” and “Of Wounds and Other Causes.” One title, “The Enchantment,” was crossed out by Hemingway.
Patrick Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway’s only surviving son, said in an interview from his home in Montana that when Scribner suggested the raw material be published, he agreed.
“They do give insight to how Hemingway was thinking,” said Patrick Hemingway, who is 84. “But it is absolutely true that no matter how much you analyze a classic bit of writing, you can never really figure out what makes talent work.”
Susan Moldow, the publisher of Scribner, said that while Hemingway is a perennial strong seller, especially for schools and libraries, “the estate is constantly wanting to present the work afresh.”
“This is one of the most important authors in American history,” she said. “And fortunately or unfortunately you need to keep refreshing or people lose interest.”
After reading the various endings, Ms. Moldow added, she didn’t question the author’s decision; the actual ending — cool and passionless after an epic tale of war and love, with the protagonist leaving a hospital in the rain — has stood the test of time.
“Ultimately,” she said, “I think we have to be glad that he went with the ending that he went with.”

1958年，歐內斯特·海明威(Ernest Hemingway)在《巴黎評論》(Paris Review)訪談中坦言，他那部講述戰爭年代的傑作《永別了，武器》（A Farewell to Arms）的結尾，他重寫了39遍才算滿意。對於寫作中受挫的小說家來說，這句話至今仍是一種啟迪。
那些結尾已成文壇佳話，但按照長期出版海明威作品的斯克瑞伯納出版社（Scribner）的說法，它們從未被放在一起完整地出版。
斯克瑞伯納出版社將於下周推出初版於1929年的《永別了，武器》的新版，其中會收錄這些不同的結尾，以及書中其他一些段落定稿前的修改稿。
這一新版是海明威遺產基金會和斯克瑞伯納雙方協議的結果。斯克瑞伯納目前隸屬於西蒙與舒斯特出版集團（Simon & Schuster）。
此舉也是力圖扭轉近年來暢銷小說《巴黎妻子》（The Paris Wife）、伍迪·艾倫（Woody Allen）的電影《午夜巴黎》（Midnight in Paris）等虛構作品將海明威塑造成的那種虛張聲勢、酗酒莽漢的形象，讓人們對海明威的注意力放回到他數量可觀的作品上。
歐內斯特·海明威的孫子、紐約大都會博物館希臘與羅馬藝術部負責人肖恩·海明威（Seán Hemingway）在採訪中說：“我想，對寫作有興趣、剛開始寫作的人都會興緻勃勃地看一部傑作，看看它是怎樣寫成的。他也是一位俘獲了美國公眾想像力 的作家，這些不同版本令人感興趣，因為它們集中展現的是他的工作。這終究是他永恆的貢獻。”
這個收入海明威所說的那39種結尾的新版，實際上收了47種結尾。自1979年以來，這些資料被保存於波士頓的約翰·F.肯尼迪總統圖書館 （John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum）中的歐內斯特·海明威藏區，肖恩·海明威在那裡做過仔細研究。（海明威研究專家伯納德·S.歐德塞[Bernard S.Oldsey]在他的著作《海明威的秘技》[Hemingway’s Hidden Carft]一書中曾列舉41種結尾，但肖恩·海明威在肯尼迪圖書館收藏的書稿中發現了47種。）
這些不同的結尾被編上名稱，作為附錄收入這個330頁的新版中。該書封面沿用了初版封面上的畫作——一對赤裸着上身、相互倚靠的男女。
對於熱愛海明威作品的讀者來說，這些結尾就像驚鴻一瞥，讓人陶醉地看到這部小說也可能以另一種基調結束，有的更直率，有的更樂觀。由於當代作家大都 使用電腦寫作，這個新版《永別了，武器》也像是一種手工製品，展現了一種業已失傳的手藝，上面有手寫的注釋、筆記和劃掉的長段落，讓讀者感覺像在看作家寫 作的過程。（1958年《巴黎評論》那次訪談中，採訪者喬治·普林頓[George Plimton]問海明威什麼是他的挑戰，他說，“用對詞。”）
這些結尾，短則一兩個短句，長則好幾個段落。
在一號“虛無結尾”中，海明威寫道：“那就是這個故事的全部。凱瑟琳死了，你會死，我也會死，那就是我能向你保證的一切。”
在七號“活嬰結尾”中，他最後寫道：“除了死亡，沒有終結。誕生只是開始。”
而34號結尾叫“菲茨傑拉德結尾”，是因為靈感來自海明威的朋友F.司各特·菲茨傑拉德(F. Scott Fitzgerald)提的建議。海明威寫道：這個世界“擊倒了每個人”，有些人“即使沒有被擊倒，也會死”。
“它不偏不倚地殺死善良的人，溫和的人，勇敢的人，即使你一概不是，請相信它也會殺死你，只是沒那麼匆忙而已。”
海明威還留下了一系列可供選擇的書名。新版中也收了這些書名，其中有《戰爭中的愛情》（Love in War），《世界夠了，時間也夠了》（World Enough and Time），《創傷與其他事業》（Of Wounds and Other Causes），還有一個被海明威自己劃掉的標題《魅力》（The Enchantment）。
海明威唯一還在世的兒子帕特里克·海明威(Patrick Hemingway)在蒙大拿州的家裡接受採訪時說，聽說斯克瑞伯納出版社提議出版這些原始材料，他就同意了。
84歲的帕特里克說：“它們確實讓人可以看到海明威是怎麼思考的。但無論你怎樣分析一部經典作品的寫作，有一點是絕對無疑的：你始終弄不明白他是如何施展才華的。”
斯克瑞伯納出版人蘇珊·莫爾多（Susan Moldow）說，雖然海明威作品的銷量經久不衰，尤其受學校和圖書館歡迎，“遺產基金會仍然想讓他的作品保持新鮮感”。
她說：“這是美國歷史上最重要的作家之一，無論幸或不幸，你都要保持出新，不然人們就失去了興趣。”
莫爾多還說，她讀了不同的結尾，認為作者最終的決定，也就是實際的那個結尾無可挑剔：一場戰爭與愛的史詩故事之後，主人公在雨中離開醫院。這個結尾冷靜而不動聲色，經受住了時間的考驗。
她說：“總而言之，我們還是得為他選擇了這個符合他風格的結尾而感到高興。”