Ernest Hemingway

On this day in 1929 his "A Farewell to Arms" was published - the title taken from a 16th century poem by George Peele, in which Peele expresses regret to Queen Elizabeth I, that he is too old to bear arms for her. The arms dropped were those of Italian soldiers who gladly dropped them in the retreat from Caporietto in 1917. F. Scott Fitzgerald, asked to read the manuscript, sent Hemingway nine pages of suggest revisions, with a note saying "Our poor old friendship probably won't survive this but there you are----" At the bottom of the last page Hemingway wrote, "Kiss my ass."