Editing A Farewell to Arms (section)

==Background and publication history==
The novel was partly based on Hemingway's own experiences serving in the [[Italian Campaign (World War I)|Italian campaign]]s during the First World War. The inspiration for Catherine Barkley was [[Agnes von Kurowsky]], a nurse who cared for Hemingway in a hospital in Milan after he had been wounded. He had planned to marry her, but she spurned his love when he returned to America.<ref name="Villard">Villard, Henry Serrano & Nagel, James. ''Hemingway in Love and War: The Lost Diary of Agnes von Kurowsky: Her letters, and Correspondence of Ernest Hemingway'' ({{ISBN|1-55553-057-5}} H/B, {{ISBN|0-340-68898-X}} P/B).</ref> [[Kathleen Eaton Cannell|Kitty Cannell]], a Paris-based fashion correspondent, became Helen Ferguson. The unnamed priest was based on Don Giuseppe Bianchi, the priest of the 69th and 70th regiments of the Brigata Ancona. Although the sources for Rinaldi are unknown, the character had already appeared in ''[[In Our Time (short story collection)|In Our Time]]''.

Much of the plot was written in correspondence with Frederic J.&nbsp;Agate. Agate, Hemingway's friend, had a collection of letters to his wife from his time in Italy, which were later used as inspiration.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://rbsc.princeton.edu/collections/frederic-j-agate-papers |title=Frederic J. Agate Papers |website=Princeton University Library |language=en |access-date=July 22, 2018}}</ref>

Michael Reynolds, however, writes that Hemingway was not involved in the battles described. Because his previous novel, ''[[The Sun Also Rises]]'', had been written as a ''[[roman à clef]]'', readers assumed ''A Farewell to Arms'' to be autobiographical.<ref name="Reynolds 2000, 31"/>
''A Farewell to Arms'' was begun during his time at Willis M.&nbsp;Spear's guest ranch in Wyoming's Bighorns.<ref>[http://www.spearowigwam.com/history/ Spear-o-Wigwam history].</ref> Some pieces of the novel were written in [[Piggott, Arkansas|Piggott]], Arkansas, at [[Pfeiffer House and Carriage House|the home]] of his then-wife Pauline Pfeiffer,<ref name="astate">{{cite web |url=http://hemingway.astate.edu/ |title=Hemingway-Pfeiffer Home Page |work=Arkansas State University |access-date=January 30, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070216232544/http://hemingway.astate.edu/ |archive-date=February 16, 2007 |url-status=live}}</ref> and in [[Mission Hills, Kansas|Mission Hills]], Kansas, while she was awaiting delivery of their baby.<ref>[http://www.kansascity.com/hemingway/story/217585.html "A Writer's Haunts: Where He Worked and Where He Lived"].</ref> Pauline underwent a [[caesarean section]] as Hemingway was writing the scene about Catherine Barkley's childbirth.<ref name="Meyers pp216-217">Meyers (1985), 216–217.</ref>

Hemingway struggled with the ending. By his count, he wrote 39 versions of it "before [he] was satisfied".<ref name=NYT>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/05/books/a-farewell-to-arms-with-hemingways-alternate-endings.html |title=To Use and Use Not |author=Julie Bosman |date=July 4, 2012 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> However, a 2012 edition of the book included no fewer than 47 alternate endings.<ref name=NYT/>

The novel was first serialized in ''[[Scribner's Magazine]]'' in the May 1929 to October 1929 issues. The book was published in September 1929 with a [[first edition]] print-run of approximately 31,000 copies.<ref>Oliver (1999), 91.</ref> The success of ''A Farewell to Arms'' made Hemingway financially independent.<ref>Meyers, Jeffrey. ''Hemingway: A Biography''. Da Capo Press, 1999, p.&nbsp;219.</ref>

''The Hemingway Library Edition'' was released in July 2012, with a dust jacket facsimile of the first edition. The newly published edition presents an appendix with the many alternate endings Hemingway wrote for the novel in addition to pieces from early draft manuscripts.<ref>Boseman, Julie. (July 4, 2012). [https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/05/books/a-farewell-to-arms-with-hemingways-alternate-endings.html?_r=1 "To Use and Use Not"]. ''The New York Times''. Retrieved July 9, 2012.</ref>

The [[John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum]] Hemingway collection has two handwritten pages with possible titles for the book. Most of the titles come from ''[[The Oxford Book of English Verse]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hemingway |first=Ernest |title=A Farewell To Arms |year=1929 |publisher=William Heinemann |location=London |isbn=9780434022489 |page=xix  |edition=Special |editor=Hemingway, Seán}}</ref> One of the possible titles Hemingway considered was ''In Another Country and Besides''. This comes from ''[[The Jew of Malta]]'' by [[Christopher Marlowe]]. The poem ''[[Portrait of a Lady (poem)|Portrait of a Lady]]'' by [[T.&nbsp;S. Eliot]] also starts off by quoting this Marlowe work: "Thou hast committed&nbsp;/ Fornication: but that was in another country,&nbsp;/ And besides, the wench is dead." Hemingway's library included both works by Eliot and Marlowe.<ref>{{cite book |last=Brasch |first=James D. |title=Hemingway's Library: A Composite Record |year=1981 |publisher=Garland Pub. |location=New York and London |isbn=0-8240-9499-9 |url=http://www.jfklibrary.org/~/media/assets/Archives/Documents/Ernest%20Hemingway/Ernest%20Hemingway%20PDFs/Hemingways%20Library.pdf |edition=Electronic Edition John F. Kennedy Library, 2000 |author2=Sigman, Joseph |access-date=September 21, 2013}}</ref>

===Censorship {{what|date=March 2025}}===
There are at least two copies of the first edition into which Hemingway had re-inserted the censored text{{clarify|date=August 2021}} by hand to provide a corrected text. One of these copies was presented to [[Maurice Coindreau]], the other to [[James Joyce]].<ref name="Hemingway, Ernest 1929">Hemingway, Ernest. ''A Farewell to Arms'' (New York: Scribner, 1929). James Joyce Collection, the Poetry Collection (State University of New York at Buffalo), item J69.23.8 TC141 H45 F37 1929.</ref> Hemingway's corrected text was finally inserted into one edition of the novel,<ref>{{cite web |title=A Farewell to Arms re-released, in the form Ernest Hemingway intended |url=https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU2501/S00085/a-farewell-to-arms-re-released-in-the-form-ernest-hemingway-intended.htm |website=Scoop |date=2025-01-04 |accessdate=2025-03-02 |language=en}}</ref> and there are some audiobook versions that are uncensored.{{citation needed|date=May 2021}}

''A Farewell to Arms'' was [[Book censorship in the Republic of Ireland|banned]] in the [[Irish Free State]].<ref name="hss">[[Hannah Sheehy Skeffington]], "Censorship in Eire". ''[[Saturday Review (U.S. magazine)|The Saturday Review]]'', March 18, 1939, p.&nbsp;14.</ref>

Also, the novel could not be published in Italy until 1948 because the [[Kingdom of Italy under Fascism (1922–1943)|Fascist regime]] considered it detrimental to the honor of the [[Italian Armed Forces|Armed Forces]], both in its description of the [[Battle of Caporetto]] and because of a certain [[Antimilitarism|anti-militarism]] implied in the work. More than one biographer has suggested that, at the base of the censorship of the Fascist regime in the novel, there had also been a personal antipathy between the writer and [[Benito Mussolini]]. Hemingway had interviewed him in 1923, shortly after he had seized power, and in Hemingway's article in the ''Toronto Star'' he poured scorn on Mussolini, calling him "the biggest bluff in Europe". But, apart from the official reactions, it is known that Mussolini did not like the article at all: Hemingway described Mussolini as trying to impress the media by pretending to be deeply absorbed in reading, while in reality he was holding a French–English dictionary upside down.<ref>[[Fernanda Pivano]], ''Hemingway'', Rusconi, Milan 1985. {{ISBN|9788818701654}}.</ref> The Italian translation had in fact already been prepared illegally in 1943 by [[Fernanda Pivano]], leading to her arrest in [[Turin]].