The writer protagonist in Hemingway's short story "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" is Harry. He is a disillusioned author on safari in Africa, where an infected leg wound leaves him facing death while he reflects on his life and unwritten work.
Harry's injury begins as a scratch from a thorn while he and Helen are trying to photograph waterbuck. Because he does not treat it promptly and later uses an ineffective antiseptic, the wound develops into gangrene. Stranded at a camp after a vehicle breakdown, he quarrels with Helen and mentally revisits memories of war, travel, love, and artistic failure.
The story was first published in Esquire in August 1936. Its famous opening describes Mount Kilimanjaro and a frozen leopard near the summit, an image that frames Harry's thoughts about ambition and death. Readers should distinguish the short story from the 1952 film adaptation: the film names the character Harry Street and alters parts of the plot and ending, while Hemingway's original story simply presents him as Harry.