The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories

The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories is an anthology of writings by Ernest Hemingway published by Scribner's on October 14, 1938.^[1] It contains Hemingway's only full-length play, The Fifth Column; all the stories from the earlier collections Three Stories and Ten Poems, In Our Time, Men Without Women and Winner Take Nothing; and four previously uncollected stories.

The first British edition (Jonathan Cape, June 1939) followed the U.S. format, but in September 1944 Cape reissued the stories alone as The First Forty-Nine Stories, without The Fifth Column, and with a reworked preface by Hemingway. This became the standard version in the UK and its publishing territories.^[2]

The Fifth Column is set during the Spanish Civil War. Its main character, Philip Rawlings, is an American-born secret agent for the Second Spanish Republic. The play was poorly received upon publication and has been overshadowed by many of the short stories in the anthology.^[3]

The play was slated for production in 1938, but setbacks with the Broadway producers delayed production.^[4] In 1940, a version of the play was produced on Broadway by the Theater Guild. This production was heavily edited by Benjamin Glazer with significant revisions to the script.^[5] Hemingway disliked these changes and attempted to have his name removed from the production.^[4] This production ran for 87 performances. The play wasn't professionally produced with Hemingway's original script until 2008 when Mint Theater Company staged the play.^[6][5]

The book includes Hemingway's previously collected stories, starting with the early "Up in Michigan" (1921),^[7][8] along with his most recent magazine stories, collected here for the first time: "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber", "The Snows of Kilimanjaro", "The Capital of the World" and "Old Man at the Bridge".