In the following essay, the authors outline Hemingway's knowledge of big game hunting and how he applied those principals to develop the plot of "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber. "

While "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" has long been acclaimed as one of Hemingway's most successful artistic achievements, criticism about the actual shooting of Macomber has focused primarily on whether or not it was an accident, and the implications of this for the understanding of the story and characters, especially Wilson and Mrs. Macomber. Emphasis on this question has diverted attention from the technical merits of the sequence of events Hemingway devised for Macomber's death. This sequence not only exhibits the vivid realism, sensory evocation and viewpoint manipulation characteristic of the rest of the story, but also depends heavily for Its success on Hemingway's practicing his credo of "writing what I know about," in...