"The Gambler, the Nun, and the Radio" is a short story by

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...

published in his 1933 collection of short stories ''

Winner Take Nothing ''Winner Take Nothing'' is a 1933 collection of short stories by Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway's third and final collection of stories, it was published four years after '' A Farewell to Arms'' (1929), and a year after his non-fiction book about bu ...

''. The original title of the story was "Give Us a Prescription, Doctor". "The Gambler, the Nun, and the Radio" later appeared in Hemingway's 1961 short story collection '' The Snows of Kilimanjaro''. The story takes place in a hospital run by a

convent A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...

. The story focuses around a Mexican

gambler Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three elem ...

named Cayetano, who was shot in a small town in

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

, a

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

who aspires to be a saint and prays for everything or anything, and a writer named Mr. Frazer, who is ill, and constantly listens to the radio. To ease Cayetano's perceived loneliness, the nun asks the police "to send some Mexicans up to see poor Cayentano." The police send three Mexican musicians who are friends of the person who shot Cayetano. One of the three musicians tells Frazer: "Religion is the opium of the poor." The musician then says that he has never tried opium because "It seems it is very bad. One commences and cannot stop. It is a vice." Frazer then asks if all people need an opium to keep them from suffering too much. The nun had prayer, the doctors had humor, Cayetano had gambling and now the music of the three, and Frazer had his radio. The story was dramatized for television in a one-hour adaptation shown in 1960. The television version starred

Eleanor Parker Eleanor Jean Parker (June 26, 1922 – December 9, 2013) was an American actress. She was nominated for three Academy Awards for her roles in the films ''Caged'' (1950), ''Detective Story'' (1951), and ''Interrupted Melody'' (1955), the first ...

Richard Conte Nicholas Peter Conte (March 24, 1910 – April 15, 1975), known professionally as Richard Conte, was an American actor. He appeared in more than 100 films from the 1940s through 1970s, including '' I'll Cry Tomorrow'', ''Ocean's 11'', and ''Th ...

, and

Charles Bickford Charles Ambrose Bickford (January 1, 1891 – November 9, 1967) was an American actor known for supporting roles. He was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for '' The Song of Bernadette'' (1943), '' The F ...

. It was co-directed by Albert Marre, who directed the original stage production of '' Man of La Mancha''.

References

External links

* Short stories by Ernest Hemingway 1933 short stories {{1930s-story-stub