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A six-word story regarding a pair of baby shoes is considered an extreme example of flash fiction.This May 16, 1910 article from The Spokane Press recounts an earlier advertisement that struck the author as particularly tragic.
"For sale: baby shoes, never worn." is a six-word story, one of the most famous examples of flash fiction. Versions of the story date back to the early 1900s, and it was being reproduced and expanded upon within a few years of its initial publication.[1][2]
The story is popularly misattributed to Ernest Hemingway; this is implausible, as versions of the story first appeared in 1906, when Hemingway was 7 years old, and it was first attributed to him in 1991, 30 years after his death;[1][3] see § Claim for details.
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