Clueless Don: I have to admit that I cannot vouch for the veracity of that Joe Louis anecdote; I was just repeating it more or less as I heard it - or as I think I remember having heard it - twenty-five or thirty years ago from someone who had just been reading some biography of Hemingway. However, from what I (think I) know of Hemingway, I think it quite likely he DID go around ticking off every major boxer of his time (and probably a lot of the minor ones too).

There doesn't seem to be any question about the Morley Callaghan incident, though (they were sparring; Callaghan was clobbering him; F. Scott Fitzgerald was supposed to be keeping time, but was so distraught he forgot - Hemingway accused Fitzgerald of letting the round go overtime because he was enjoying the sight of Hemingway taking a beating, and those two never spoke again ... Callaghan gives a blow-by-blow account in That Summer in Paris).

(As for Lad, a Dog - it was a source of much unhappiness in my childhood, in that it had me yearning over a period of years for my very own collie dog, which I was never allowed to have. Excuse me for a moment ... )