Ernest Hemingway's short story, "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," first published in 1933, is written in his characteristic concise and without decorations. The definition of “Style” is “the characteristics of language in a particular story and…the same characteristics in a writer's complete work” (Joah and Gwynn, “Style” 861). Short words and an abrupt tone are so characteristic of Hemingway's style that writers often parody them in "International Imitation Hemingway" contests (Gioa and Gwynn, "Style" 861). But Hemingway could only express the theme of this story—that there is nothing beyond the here and now of everyday existence, no God to embellish our lives—in an unembellished style of writing. The somewhat empty style of this story is not "Hemingway imitation"; is consistent with the story's theme of spiritual emptiness. Nearly thirty lines of “A Clean Well-Lighted Place” are pure dialogue with few clues, beyond what is being said, about who is speaking. In the rest of the story the percentage of words with more than two syllables is very low. Some biographers point out that Hemingway learned his writing rules working for the Kansas City Star, whose style book admonished reporters to "Use short sentences. Use short first paragraphs. Use vigorous English, not forgetting to strive for fluency." (qtd. in Desnoyers 2). Was the abrupt style of "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" caused only by the fact that Hemingway learned to write from a newspaper style book? He later said of those newspaper rules: "Those were the best rules I ever learned for the work of writing. I have never forgotten them. No man with any talent, who truly feels and writes about what he is trying to say, I can't write well... halfway down the paper... "One True Sentence." -376.Desnoyers, Megan Floyd. "Ernest Hemingway: A Storyteller's Legacy." Dana Gioia and RS Gwynn New York: Longman, 2002. Gioia, Dana and RS Gwynn. "Style." “TheHemingway Resource Center, August 20, 2003. keywest.htm>.