SELECTED EDITS FROM ERNEST HEMINGWAY’S TYPESCRIPT OF THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA

Selected edits written in Ernest Hemingway’s hand from his typescript of Yhe Old Man and the Sea. The typescript is Item 90 of the Ernest Hemingway Collection at the John F. Kennedy Fresidential Library and Museum in Boston. The handwritten additions are italici>ed below. The page numbers refer to the typescript.

1. Fage 1: In the 1rst forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty days without a 1sh the boy’s parents had told him that the old man was nom definitely and finally, salao, which is the worst form of unlucky, and the boy had gone at theiv ovdevs in another boat which caught three good 1sh the 1rst week. (See 1g. 12.]
2. Fage 8: “That’s easy. I can always borrow two dollars and a half.”

   “I thinb pevhaps I can too. But I tvy not to bovvom. Tivst you bovvom, then you beg.”

   “Keep warm old man,” the boy said. “Remember we are in September.”

3. Fage 12: “The great Sisler’s father was never poor and he, the fathev, was playing in the big leagues when he was my age.”

&. Fage 12: “Baseball I think,” the boy said. “Tell me about the great John J. McGraw.” He said Jota fov J.

S. Fage 20: “Each line, as thick around as a big pencil, was looped onto a green-sapped stick so that any pull or touch on the bait would make the stick dip and all of the lines were connected each line had tmo fovty fathom

coils in vesevue mhich could be made fast to the othev spave coils so that, if it were necessary, a 1sh could take out over three hundred fathoms of line.

G. Fage 2G: The tuna shone silver in the sun and after he had dropped back into the water another and another rose and then they were jumping in all directions, churning the water and leaping in all directions. long jumps aftev the bait. Yhey meve civcling it and dviuing it.

1. Fage 27: I picked up only a straggler fvom the albacove that meve feeding.
2. Fage 29: Yhis fav out Out here, he must be huge in this month, he thought.

3. Fage 31: Now he was ready. He had thvee fovty fathom coils of line in vesevue beside in nom as mell as the coil he mas using.

4. Fage 33: He must have his mouth shut tight on the wire. I wish I could see him. I mish I could see him only once to bnom mhat I haue against me.
5. Fage 33: I can do nothing with him and he can do nothing to mith me, he thought. 7ot as long as he beeps this up.
6. Fage 3&: I wonder how the baseball came out in the grand leagues today, he thought. It mould be mondevful to do this mith a vadio. Yhen he thought, thinb of it almays. (In the 1nal publication is added here: “Think of what you are doing.”] You must do nothing stupid.
7. Fage 3&: Remember, no matter how little you want to, that you must eat him in the morning. Remembev he said to himself.

1&. Fage 3S: When the old man had gaIed her and clubbed her, holding the bill vapiev bill mith its sand papev edge and clubbing her acvoss the top of hev head until her colour turned to a colour almost like the backing of mirrors, and then, with the boy’s aid hoisted her aboard; the male 1sh had stayed by the side of the boat. Then, while he was the old man mas cleaving the lines and preparing the harpoon, the male 1sh jumped high into the air beside the boat to see where the female was and then went down deep, his lavender wings, that were his pectoral 1ns, spread mide and all his wide lavender stripes showing. He mas beautiful, the old man vemembeved and he had stayed.

1S. Fage 3G: My choice was to go there to 1nd him beyond all people. Beyond all people in the movld. Now we are joined together and have been since

noon.

1G. Fage 37: But you haven’t got the boy, he thought. You have only yourself and you had better work back to the last line now, in the dark, ov not in the davb, and cut it away and hook up the two reserve coils.

1. Fage &0: There was yellow weed on the line but the old man knew that only made an added drag and he was pleased. It mas the yellom gulf meed that had made so much phosphovescence in the night.

   “Fish,” he said. “I love you and respect you very much. But I will kill you dead before this day ends.”

   Let us hope so, he thought.

2. Fage &8: The clouds were building up now for the trade wind and he looked ahead and saw a Right of wild ducks etching themselves against the sby ouev the matev, then blurring, then etching again and he knew no man was ever alone on the sea.
3. Fage &9: If there is a hurricane you always see the signs of it in the sky for days ahead if you are at sea. They do not see it ashore because they do not know what to look for, he thought. The land must make a diIerence too in the shape of the clouds. But we have no hurricane coming now.
4. Fage S3: “If the 1sh decides to stay another night I will need to eat again and the water is low in the bottle.”
5. Fage SS: The sun and his steady movement of his 1ngers had uncramped his left hand nom completely and he began to shift more of the strain to it and he shrugged the muscles of his back to shift the hurt of the cord a little.
6. Fage S7: Blood came out from under the 1nger nails of both their his and the negvo’s hands and they looked each other in the eye and at their hands and forearms and the betters bettors went in and out of the room and sat on high chairs against the wall and watched. Yhe malls meve painted bvight blue and meve of mood and the lamps thvem theiv shadoms against them. Yhe negvo’s shadom mas huge and it moued on the mall as the bveeze moued the lamps.
7. Fage G&: Now go back and eat pvepave the dolphin. It is too dangerous to rig

the oars as a drag if you must sleep.

2&. Fage GS: The dolphin was cold and a lepevous grey white now in the starlight and the old man skinned one side of him while he held his right foot on the

1shes’ head.

2S. Fage G7: He lay forward cramping himself against the line with all of his body, putting all his meight onto his vight hand, and he was asleep.

2G. Fage G9: Then the line came in no longer mould not come in any move and

he held it until he saw the drops jumping from it in the sun. Then it started out and the old man knelt down and let it go grudgeingly back into the dark water.

“He is makeing the far part of his circle now,” he said. I must hold all I can, he thought. The strain will shorten his circle each time. Ferhaps in an hour I will see him. 7om I must conuince him and then I must bill him.

1. Fage 70: Just then he felt a sudden banging and jerking on the line he held with his two hands. It mas shavp and havd feeling and heauy.

   He is hitting the wire leader with his spear, he thought. That was bound to come. He had to do that. It may make him jump though and I would rather he stayed circling now. A few Yhe jumps are meve necessary for him to take air. But after that each one can widen the opening of the hook wound and he can thvom the hoob.

2. Fage 71: I’m tireder than I have ever been, he thought and now the trade wind is riseing. But that will be good to take him in with. I need that badly.
3. Fage 72: But it was a fair weather bree>e and he would need had to haue it to

   get home.

4. Fage 7&: He felt faint again now but he held on the great 1sh all the stvain that he could. I moved him, he thought. Maybe this time I can get him over. Full, hands, he thought. Hold up, legs. Last for me, head. Last fov me. You neuev ment. This time I’ll pull him over.
5. Fage 7S: You are killing me, 1sh, the old man thought. But you have a right to. Never have I seen a greater, or more beautiful, nor calmer or more noble thing than you, brother. Come on and kill me. I do not cave mho bills mho.
6. Fage 7G: He took all his pain and what was left of his strength and his long gone pride and he put it against the 1shes agony and the 1sh came over onto his side and swam gently on his side his bill almost touching the planking of the skiI and started to pass the boat long, deep, wide, silver and barred with purple and interminable in the water.
7. Fage 77: Then he fell into the water with a crash that sent spray over the old man and ouev all of the skiI.

The old man felt faint and sick and he could not see mell.

3&. Fage 90: Besides, he thought. Everything kills everything else in some way. Tishing bills me exactly as it beeps me aliue. Yhe boy beeps me aliue, he thought. I must not deceiue myself too much.

3S. Fage 91: Then he took up the oar with the knife lashed to it. He lifted it as lightly as he could because his hands rebelled at the pain. Then he opened and closed them on it lightly to loosen them. He closed them fivmly so they mould tabe the pain nom and so they would not Rinch and watched the sharks come. He could see their wide, Rattened, shovel-pointed heads now and their white tipped wide pectoral 1ns. They were nasty hateful sharks, bad smelling, scavengers as well as killers, and when they were hungry they would bite at an oar or the rudder of a boat.

3G. Fage 92: When he saw the shark he leaned over the side and punched at him. He hit only meat and the hide was set hard and he barely got the knife in. Yhe blom huvt not only his hands but his shouldev too.

1. Fage 93: “No?” the old man said and he drove the blade between the vertebrae and the brain. It was an easy shot now and he felt the cavtilage seuev.
2. Fage 93: The old man wiped the blade of his knife and laid down the oar. Then he found the sheet and the sail filled and he brought the skiI onto her course.
3. Fage 9G: The old man settled himself to steer. He did not even watch the big shark sinking slowly in the water shoming fivst life size, then small, then tiny. Yhat almays fascinated the old man. But he did not euen match it nom. (See 1g. 13.]

&0. Fage 98: The two sharks closed together and as he saw the one nearest him open his jaws and sink them into the siluev side of the 1sh he raised the club high and brought it down heavy and slamming onto the top of the shark’s broad head.

&1. Fages 103–10&: He jerked the tiller from the rudder and beat and chopped with it; holding it in both hands and driveing it down against all evil and

again. But they were up to the bow now and driveing in again and again and one aftev the othev and togethev tearing oI the pieces of meat that showed glowing below the sea as they turned to come again once move. until the cavcass mas clean.

&2. Fage 10&: He felt it go in and knowing it was sharp he drove it in again. The shark let go and rolled away. Yhat mas the last shavb of the pacb that came. Yheve mas nothing move fov them to eat.

The old man could hardly breathe now and he felt a strange taste in his mouth. It was coppery and sweet and he was afraid of it for a moment. But theve mas not much of it.

He spat into the ocean and said, “Eat that Galanos. And make a dream you’ve killed a man.”

He knew he was beaten now finally and mithout vemedy and he went

back to the stern and found the jagged end of the tiller would 1t in the slot of the rudder well enough for him to steer.

&3. Fage 10S: The wind is our friend anyway, he thought. Then he added, Sometimes. And the great sea with our friends and our enemies. And bed, he thought. Bed is my friend. Why did I never love bed when I had her? You did, he thought. But then you loved too many beds. But beds were all the same and the sea is a greater whore than all. Just bed, he thought.

&&. Fage 112: “What’s that?” she asked a waiter and pointed to the long

backbone of the great 1sh that was now just garbage waiting to go out with the tide.