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Illustrated portrait of Ernest Hemingway

Short-story guide

Ernest Hemingway Short Stories

Last reviewed Ernest Hemingway's profile

Where to start

Begin with “Indian Camp,” “Big Two-Hearted River,” “The Killers” and “Hills Like White Elephants.” Then read “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” followed by the two great African stories: “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” and “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.”

This guide lists the standard collections and the broader published record. It does not pretend that a high-school story, a manuscript fragment arranged after Hemingway's death and a story he chose for a lifetime collection have the same editorial status.

Eight Hemingway stories to read first

This is a route through the range of the stories, not a ranking. It moves from Nick Adams and the early method to relationships, solitude, Africa and the older writer looking back at his own choices.

1

“Indian Camp”

The young Nick Adams accompanies his doctor father through a night that changes what he understands about birth, pain and death.

In In Our Time
2

“Big Two-Hearted River”

A veteran camps alone in Michigan. The war is never named, but the careful routine shows what recovery costs.

In In Our Time
3

“The Killers”

Two gunmen wait in a lunchroom for a former boxer, while Nick Adams learns that warning someone may not save him.

In Men Without Women
4

“Hills Like White Elephants”

A couple argues at a railway station without directly naming the decision dividing them—the clearest introduction to Hemingway's use of omission.

In Men Without Women
5

“A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”

Two waiters discuss an old customer who does not want to leave their café. A short, direct story about loneliness and the need for refuge.

In Winner Take Nothing
8

“Fathers and Sons”

An older Nick Adams drives with his son and remembers his own father, bringing the Nick Adams sequence into adulthood.

In Winner Take Nothing

The short-story collections

Read the first four in publication order to watch the form develop. The later volumes reorganize or expand that material and must be read with their posthumous editorial history in view.

Cover of Three Stories and Ten Poems by Ernest Hemingway

1923

Three Stories and Ten Poems

The small Paris debut: three early stories beside ten poems. It introduced “Up in Michigan,” “Out of Season” and “My Old Man.”

Cover of In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway

1925

In Our Time

The breakthrough collection. Nick Adams stories and other narratives alternate with very short scenes of war, crime and the bullring.

Cover of Men Without Women by Ernest Hemingway

1927

Men Without Women

Fourteen stories, including “The Killers,” “Hills Like White Elephants,” “In Another Country” and “Fifty Grand.”

Cover of Winner Take Nothing by Ernest Hemingway

1933

Winner Take Nothing

The darker third collection, including “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” “A Day's Wait,” “The Sea Change” and “Fathers and Sons.”

Cover of The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories by Ernest Hemingway

1938

The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories

The lifetime summit: the earlier collections plus four major additions, bound with Hemingway's only full-length play.

Cover of The Nick Adams Stories by Ernest Hemingway

1972

The Nick Adams Stories

A posthumous rearrangement that places the Nick Adams material into a life sequence and adds manuscript pieces not published in Hemingway's lifetime.

Cover of The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway by Ernest Hemingway

1987

The Complete Short Stories: The Finca Vigía Edition

The standard American omnibus: the canonical stories, later lifetime publications and seven pieces first published from the archive.

Complete published short-fiction catalogue, A to Z

The list contains 91 separately catalogued titles and titled manuscript pieces: 65 first published during Hemingway's lifetime and 26 first published afterward. The total is broader than the contents of any one American collection because it includes juvenilia, recovered work, excised passages and fiction later incorporated into novels.

  1. An African Story

    An excerpt shaped from The Garden of Eden.

    First published: 1986Posthumous

  2. After the Storm

    First published: 1932In his lifetime

  3. An Alpine Idyll

    First published: 1927In his lifetime

  4. The Ash Heel's Tendon

    An early story first printed in a study of Hemingway's youth.

    First published: 1985Posthumous

  5. Banal Story

    First published: 1926In his lifetime

  6. The Battler

    First published: 1925In his lifetime

  7. Big Two-Hearted River, Parts I and II

    First published: 1925In his lifetime

  8. Black Ass at the Crossroads

    First published: 1987Posthumous

  9. The Butterfly and the Tank

    First published: 1938In his lifetime

  10. A Canary for One

    First published: 1927In his lifetime

  11. The Capital of the World

    First published: 1936In his lifetime

  12. Cat in the Rain

    First published: 1925In his lifetime

  13. Chapter 7: ‘Nick sat against the wall…’

    The only numbered in our time chapter also treated as a Nick Adams story.

    First published: 1924In his lifetime

  14. Chapter 10: ‘Love’

    Reworked as “A Very Short Story.”

    First published: 1924In his lifetime

  15. Che Ti Dice La Patria?

    First published: 1927In his lifetime

  16. A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

    First published: 1933In his lifetime

  17. Cross-Country Snow

    First published: 1925In his lifetime

  18. Crossing the Mississippi

    First published: 1972Posthumous

  19. Crossroads—An Anthology

    An early story recovered from the archive.

    First published: 1985Posthumous

  20. The Current

    An early story recovered from the archive.

    First published: 1985Posthumous

  21. A Day's Wait

    First published: 1933In his lifetime

  22. The Denunciation

    First published: 1938In his lifetime

  23. A Divine Gesture

    An early story not collected in the standard lifetime volumes.

    First published: 1922In his lifetime

  24. The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife

    First published: 1924In his lifetime

  25. The End of Something

    First published: 1925In his lifetime

  26. The Faithful Bull

    First published: 1951In his lifetime

  27. Fathers and Sons

    First published: 1933In his lifetime

  28. Fifty Grand

    First published: 1927In his lifetime

  29. The Gambler, the Nun, and the Radio

    First published: 1933In his lifetime

  30. Get a Seeing-Eyed Dog

    First published: 1957In his lifetime

  31. God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen

    First published: 1933In his lifetime

  32. The Good Lion

    First published: 1951In his lifetime

  33. Great News from the Mainland

    First published: 1987Posthumous

  34. Hills Like White Elephants

    First published: 1927In his lifetime

  35. Homage to Switzerland

    First published: 1933In his lifetime

  36. I Guess Everything Reminds You of Something

    First published: 1987Posthumous

  37. In Another Country

    First published: 1927In his lifetime

  38. Indian Camp

    First published: 1924In his lifetime

  39. Indian Country and the White Army

    First published: 2019Posthumous

  40. The Indians Moved Away

    First published: 1972Posthumous

  41. Judgment of Manitou

    A high-school story.

    First published: 1916In his lifetime

  42. The Killers

    First published: 1927In his lifetime

  43. Landscape with Figures

    First published: 1987Posthumous

  44. The Last Good Country

    Part of an unfinished Nick Adams novella.

    First published: 1972Posthumous

  45. The Light of the World

    First published: 1933In his lifetime

  46. A Man of the World

    First published: 1957In his lifetime

  47. A Matter of Colour

    A high-school story.

    First published: 1916In his lifetime

  48. The Mercenaries

    An early story recovered from the archive.

    First published: 1985Posthumous

  49. The Monument

    First published: 2019Posthumous

  50. The Mother of a Queen

    First published: 1933In his lifetime

  51. Mr. and Mrs. Elliot

    First published: 1924In his lifetime

  52. My Old Man

    First published: 1923In his lifetime

  53. A Natural History of the Dead

    Also incorporated into Death in the Afternoon.

    First published: 1932In his lifetime

  54. Night Before Battle

    First published: 1939In his lifetime

  55. Night Before Landing

    First published: 1972Posthumous

  56. Nobody Ever Dies

    First published: 1939In his lifetime

  57. Now I Lay Me

    First published: 1927In his lifetime

  58. Old Man at the Bridge

    First published: 1938In his lifetime

  59. On the Quai at Smyrna

    First published: 1930In his lifetime

  60. On Writing

    An excised portion of “Big Two-Hearted River.”

    First published: 1972Posthumous

  61. One Reader Writes

    First published: 1933In his lifetime

  62. One Trip Across

    Later became part of To Have and Have Not.

    First published: 1934In his lifetime

  63. Out of Season

    First published: 1923In his lifetime

  64. Paris 1922

    First printed in Carlos Baker's biography.

    First published: 1969Posthumous

  65. The Porter

    First published: 1987Posthumous

  66. Portrait of the Idealist in Love

    An early story recovered from the archive.

    First published: 1985Posthumous

  67. A Pursuit Race

    First published: 1927In his lifetime

  68. The Revolutionist

    First published: 1924In his lifetime

  69. A Room on the Garden Side

    First published: 2018Posthumous

  70. The Sea Change

    First published: 1931In his lifetime

  71. Sepi Jingan

    A high-school story.

    First published: 1916In his lifetime

  72. The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber

    First published: 1936In his lifetime

  73. A Simple Enquiry

    First published: 1927In his lifetime

  74. The Snows of Kilimanjaro

    First published: 1936In his lifetime

  75. Soldier's Home

    First published: 1925In his lifetime

  76. The Strange Country

    First published: 1987Posthumous

  77. Summer People

    First published: 1972Posthumous

  78. Ten Indians

    First published: 1927In his lifetime

  79. The Three-Day Blow

    First published: 1925In his lifetime

  80. Three Shots

    Excised opening pages of the “Indian Camp” manuscript.

    First published: 1972Posthumous

  81. Today Is Friday

    A short dramatic piece.

    First published: 1926In his lifetime

  82. The Tradesman's Return

    Later became part of To Have and Have Not.

    First published: 1936In his lifetime

  83. A Train Trip

    First published: 1987Posthumous

  84. The Undefeated

    First published: 1925In his lifetime

  85. Under the Ridge

    First published: 1939In his lifetime

  86. Untitled Milan Story

    First published: 2017Posthumous

  87. Up in Michigan

    First published: 1923In his lifetime

  88. A Very Short Story

    First published: 1924In his lifetime

  89. A Way You'll Never Be

    First published: 1933In his lifetime

  90. Wedding Day

    First published: 1972Posthumous

  91. Wine of Wyoming

    First published: 1930In his lifetime

How this catalogue was checked

The catalogue follows the JFK Presidential Library's Hemingway short-stories bibliography, compiled in 2025 by Dr. Hilary Justice from established bibliographies and primary sources. That resource records composition, first publication and first collection while identifying posthumous editorial work.

The collection structure was checked against Scribner's description of The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Finca Vigía Edition and the Hemingway Society's standard abbreviations for Hemingway's works. Where the sources count differently, this page explains why instead of forcing a single number.

JFK Library bibliography Scribner edition Hemingway Society works list

Common questions

What are Ernest Hemingway's best short stories?

A strong first group is “Indian Camp,” “Big Two-Hearted River,” “The Killers,” “Hills Like White Elephants,” “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” and “Fathers and Sons.” Together they cover the Nick Adams stories, war, relationships, violence, Africa and Hemingway's late self-criticism.

How many short stories did Ernest Hemingway write?

There is no single uncontested number. Scribner markets the Finca Vigía edition as sixty stories, while the JFK Library's broader bibliography also includes school work, posthumously arranged pieces, excised manuscript sections and stories later incorporated into novels. This guide labels those categories instead of treating every item as equivalent.

Which Hemingway short-story collection should I read first?

Start with In Our Time for the early Nick Adams stories and the experimental interchapters. Choose Men Without Women next for “The Killers” and “Hills Like White Elephants.” If you want one large volume, use The Complete Short Stories: The Finca Vigía Edition, while remembering that some material was published after Hemingway's death.

Who is Nick Adams?

Nick Adams is a recurring fictional character who appears at different ages across Hemingway's stories. The sequence draws on parts of Hemingway's Michigan childhood, wartime experience and adulthood, but Nick is not a literal autobiography of the author.

Are all of Hemingway's short stories available to read here?

No. This page is a reading guide and bibliographic catalogue, not a reproduction of the stories. Individual Atlas pages will add publication history and commentary over time, but the story texts remain subject to their applicable rights.

The Friday Letter

Follow the Hemingway shelf.

We will link new story pages here as their publication histories and close readings are completed.

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