[Bread-Baking Typewriter] Death Is Near... Like the Joke of Kilimanjaro's Eternal Snow

Hemingway Survives Plane Crashes While Traveling
Reads His Own Obituary Due to False Reports
After Experiencing an Ironic Situation, Wins Nobel Prize
Death Is Not a Joke, but a Close Truth

Ernest Hemingway (1899?1961) received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. In fact, 1954 was a year full of irony for him. In January of that year, Hemingway read his own obituary published in a newspaper while he was still very much alive.

From 1953, Hemingway traveled to Africa with his fourth wife, Mary Hemingway (born Mary Welsh). Hemingway narrowly escaped death twice in plane crashes. Once, the plane crashed, and another time, the plane exploded. Some newspapers at the time ran front-page articles reporting Hemingway's death in the plane crashes, but these turned out to be false reports. He miraculously survived both accidents. After experiencing the ironic situation of facing his own death while still alive, Hemingway reached the greatest moment of his life by receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature at the end of that year.

The protagonist "Harry" in Hemingway's short story "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" is reminiscent of Hemingway in many ways. Harry is a writer who faces death in Africa.

[Bread-Baking Typewriter] Death Is Near... Like the Joke of Kilimanjaro's Eternal Snow

While hunting in Africa, Harry scratches his right knee on a thorn. Without proper disinfection, bacteria invade the wound. His leg begins to rot, and the car's bearings overheat, leaving it immobile. He is trapped in the wilderness, facing inevitable death. Harry seems resigned, believing he cannot escape death. "There was almost no curiosity about the approaching thing. For many years he had been obsessed with it, but now it meant nothing in itself."

Growing indifferent to death, he even jokes with his companion Helen. "Cut off my leg. Maybe the pain will stop then. I doubt it, but if not, you could shoot me. You're good at shooting now, after all. I taught you."

"The Snows of Kilimanjaro" is a short story Hemingway wrote after his first trip to Africa in 1933. It was published in 1936. During that 1933 trip, Hemingway also suffered hardships, including an emergency evacuation due to a hernia.

Just as Harry in the novel was obsessed with death for many years, Hemingway also struggled with depression for a long time. Hemingway received a shotgun as a gift on his 10th birthday, and ultimately ended his own life with that shotgun on July 2, 1961.

Perhaps Hemingway lived a life with death always nearby, like a joke. Two world wars occurred during his lifetime. Hemingway was deployed to the Italian front as a Red Cross ambulance driver during World War I, where he was seriously wounded. Before becoming a writer, he was a journalist who covered battlefields as a war correspondent during World War II. Hemingway also reported on the Spanish Civil War (1936?1939).

We, the living, often treat death as a joke, but in reality, death is a truth always close to us. Perhaps death can be likened to the Snows of Kilimanjaro. The snow on Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak near the equator (3 degrees south latitude), is an undeniable truth, but the story of Kilimanjaro's eternal snow often sounds like a joke to those hearing it for the first time.

Hemingway left behind about 70 short stories throughout his life. "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" includes 12 stories, from Hemingway's early short story "Indian Camp" to his last short story "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber." "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber," also about hunting in Africa, was published alongside "The Snows of Kilimanjaro."

Macomber went hunting in Africa with his wife and was mocked by her for being cowardly. He set out on a dangerous hunt to prove his bravery but met his death.