50 Fun Facts About The Old Man and the Sea

Who wrote The Old Man and the Sea?

Published in 1952, it was the last major work of fiction he released in his lifetime.

Off which country's coast is the story set?

Hemingway wrote it at his home outside Havana between December 1950 and February 1951.

How many days has Santiago gone without catching a fish when the story opens?

The streak makes him the worst form of unlucky in the eyes of the village.

Who is Manolin?

His parents have made him work on a luckier boat, but he still brings the old man food.

Which baseball star do Santiago and Manolin talk about?

He was also a fisherman's son, and his 1950 comeback week parallels Santiago's own.

What small fish does Santiago catch on the morning before the great fish takes his bait?

He eats it after sunrise the next day for strength while the marlin tows him.

Into which current does Santiago row far out to fish?

Hemingway himself had sailed the same waters for thousands of hours aboard the Pilar.

How big is the marlin compared with Santiago's skiff when he first sees it?

The fish tows the skiff farther out to sea through the night.

On which morning of the struggle does the marlin begin to circle and get harpooned?

Almost delirious, Santiago draws it in, kills it and lashes it to the boat.

What kind of shark is the first to attack the lashed marlin?

It takes a forty-pound bite; Santiago kills it but loses his harpoon.

What does Santiago make into a spear after losing his harpoon?

He kills three more sharks with it before the blade snaps, then resorts to a club.

What is left of the marlin when Santiago reaches shore?

On the third night the sharks come as a pack and strip it clean.

How long does a fisherman measure the marlin's skeleton to be?

A pair of tourists then mistake the skeleton for that of a shark.

What does Santiago dream about at the very end of the book?

He has dreamed of the sights of his youth throughout the story.

What Spanish word describes Santiago's extreme bad luck?

It is the worst form of unlucky, and why Manolin's parents move him to another boat.

How long did Hemingway take to write the novella?

He wrote up to a thousand words a day, twice his usual speed, between December 1950 and February 1951.

Roughly how many words long is the novella?

Hemingway kept the manuscript back for over a year before deciding it could stand alone.

The novella was originally conceived as an addendum to what larger project?

One part of that project appeared posthumously in 1970 as Islands in the Stream.

Which local guide first told Hemingway the tale of an old man and a giant fish in the 1930s?

Hemingway retold it in an Esquire essay, 'On the Blue Water: A Gulf Stream Letter'.

Which poorly received 1950 novel preceded The Old Man and the Sea?

Its bad reviews made the novella's warm reception feel like a return to form.

Which young Italian muse of Hemingway's drew the sketches used for the book's cover?

He had rejected Scribner's initial cover designs.

To whom did Hemingway finally dedicate the book?

He changed his mind on Memorial Day, thinking of friends he had lost.

Which magazine published the entire novella in a single issue on September 1, 1952?

It sold a record number of copies in two days; Scribner's book edition followed a week later.

How many copies did that magazine issue sell in two days?

Both the magazine and the book were heavily bootlegged because anticipation was so high.

Which old adversary of Hemingway wrote a highly positive review of the novella?

Word of mouth then reached such proportions that both editions were bootlegged.

Which award did the novella win on May 4, 1953?

It was Hemingway's first, after being passed over for A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls.

In which year did Hemingway win the Nobel Prize, with the novella the only work cited?

The Swedish Academy praised his 'mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea'.

Which art historian's review, ranking the book above Moby-Dick, was Hemingway's favourite?

Berenson also called it equal in many ways to the Homeric epics.

Which critic later called it Hemingway's 'most overrated work', a 'mock-serious fable'?

Cyril Connolly, by contrast, had called it the best story Hemingway ever wrote.

Which dictator, according to the CIA, counted the novella among his favourite books?

He reportedly saw himself, like Santiago, struggling against overwhelming odds with dignity.

The name Santiago is Spanish for which fisherman-apostle?

Hemingway wrote to a priest that 'the name is no accident'; the saint's shrine is at Compostela.

Complete Santiago's credo: 'A man can be destroyed but not ___.'

The idea runs through Hemingway's heroes from Jake Barnes to Robert Jordan.

On what dates does Bickford Sylvester argue the story takes place, based on the baseball talk?

That week DiMaggio, like Santiago, made a resurgence.

Who played Santiago in the 1958 film adaptation?

He was Oscar-nominated for the role; Hemingway heartily disliked the finished film.

Which Academy Award did the 1958 film win?

Dimitri Tiomkin composed it; James Wong Howe and Tracy were nominated but lost.

Which director was originally assigned to the 1958 film before John Sturges took over?

The budget swelled from $2 million to $5 million in search of usable fish footage.

Where was the record marlin footage used in the 1958 film shot?

Alfred C. Glassell Jr., who caught the world-record fish, acted as adviser.

What technique did Aleksandr Petrov use for his Oscar-winning 1999 animated short?

He and his son painted more than 29,000 frames over two years in Montreal.

Who played Santiago in the 1990 television film?

It received mixed reviews and three Creative Arts Emmy nominations.

Which first mate of the Pilar was often called the model for Santiago and lived to 104?

He died in 2002 without ever having read the book; Hemingway said Santiago was 'based on no one in particular'.

In which fishing village east of Havana did Hemingway keep the Pilar?

Its La Terraza restaurant became a famous haunt of the writer.

What was the name of Hemingway's home outside Havana, a museum since 1962?

The name means 'Lookout Farm'; he lived there from 1939 to 1960.

What is the name of Hemingway's writing technique of leaving most of a story unstated?

He traced it to omitting the real ending of his 1923 story 'Out of Season'.

Which species does Santiago battle, according to the fish's own encyclopaedia entry?

Hemingway fished for them off the Keys and the Bahamas as well as from the Pilar.

Where did the BBC's 2003 Big Read rank the novella among Britain's best-loved novels?

One critic noted in 1985 that it was still earning $100,000 a year in royalties.

In which magazine did Hemingway first retell the old-man-and-marlin tale in the 1930s?

The essay was called 'On the Blue Water: A Gulf Stream Letter'; the tale itself may date back to the Cuban author Ramón Meza in 1891.

Which of Hemingway's novels was published posthumously in 1970 as part of his planned 'sea trilogy'?

He completed it in December 1950 and, as his passion for Adriana Ivancich cooled, moved straight on to the novella.

Who was the book's intended dedicatee before Hemingway changed his mind on Memorial Day?

Thinking of friends he had lost, he switched the dedication to Scribner and Max Perkins, which Mary accepted.

For how many weeks did the novella stay on the New York Times bestseller list?

Advance sales in America and Britain reached 70,000 and it had been translated into nine languages by the start of 1953.

Which British critic called it 'the best story Hemingway has ever written'?

Time magazine called it a 'masterpiece' and Mark Schorer named Hemingway 'the greatest craftsman in the American novel in this century'.