Ernest Hemingway wasn’t just an immensely talented author, he was also an icon of 20th-century
bullishness and masculinity, a surprisingly sensitive soul, and one of the most beautiful,
awful, and intriguing figures in literary history.
Hemingway's life may not have been the longest, but it was filled with drama, driven by ambition
and streaked with blood.
“I believe that love that is true and real creates a respite from death.
All cowardice comes from not loving or not loving well, which is the same thing."
Wounds from childhood and war
Hemingway's mother was gripped by a desperation to have twin children.
In order to feed her fantasies, she often dressed the young Ernest up in clothes identical
to his sister’s, referring to them both as her “sweet Dutch dollies.”
Just why little Ernestine, as his mother often referred to him, became so obsessed with masculinity
is surely no surprise.
The outbreak of conflict in Europe during 1914 marked the beginning of Hemingway's first
war.
He first volunteered in France for the Red Cross, before becoming an ambulance driver
for U.S. forces after their entry into the war in 1917.
In July 1918, Hemingway was struck by shrapnel from an Austrian mortar shell while serving
in Italy.
His experience in Italy would lay the foundations of the plot for his novel A Farewell to Arms,
arguably one of his finest works.
The golden age of Paris
It’s difficult to think of Hemingway without seeing Paris.
He was one of the elite group of writers, artists, musicians, and thinkers who lived
in the city during its golden age, a period masterfully captured in Hemingway's final
book, A Moveable Feast.
Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley Richardson, soon befriended a number of local personalities,
such as Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, Pablo Picasso, and James Joyce.
"You’re too self-effacing, it's not manly.
If you're a writer, declare yourself the best writer!
But you're not, as long I'm around, unless you wanna put the gloves on and settle it."
But, in 1927, Hemingway's marriage came to an end when Hadley discovered his affair with
a fashion reporter named Pauline Pfeiffer.
They divorced, and Hemingway married Pfeiffer later that year.
In 1928, Ernest and Pauline Hemingway moved to Key West, Florida.
Papa Hemingway and his mutant cats
The Hemingway Home is one of Florida's most well-known sights and tourist destinations.
It was Pauline's Uncle Gus who purchased for them their now-legendary house on Whitehead
Street.
The extraordinarily beautiful house, which was also extraordinarily expensive, is still
filled with the Hemingways' own personal touches.
These include trophies from foreign expeditions, a writing studio, and a unique breed of six-toed
mutant tomcats descended from Hemingway's own pets.
The fight against fascism
In 1937, Hemingway traveled to Spain to report on the Spanish Civil War, a devastating conflict
between governmental Republicans and Franco's fascists, for the North American Newspaper
Alliance.
Naturally, he couldn’t resist getting involved.
Hemingway paid to send ambulances to Spain, produced and narrated a pro-Republican documentary,
and is even thought to have fought behind fascist lines.
The war put a strain on Hemingway's marriage with Pauline, who was a devout Catholic and
a fascist sympathiser.
He soon fell in love with the woman who would become his next wife: Martha Gellhorn.
After a painful and dramatic split with Pauline, Hemingway and Martha married and bought a
home together, just outside Havana.
"Oh thank you.
Cheers!
I guess…"
A madcap war
For Hemingway, the Second World War was a little more colorful than the First.
He first approached Cuba’s U.S. Ambassador and offered to set up a spy network to monitor
Nazi sympathizers on the island.
His team of undercover operatives included waiters, fishermen, prostitutes, aristocrats,
and priests.
Hemingway then requested a supply of bazookas, hand grenades, machine guns, and radio equipment
from the embassy, all with the intention of using his fishing boat to hunt German submarines
in the Caribbean.
Hemingway and his "Rough Riders" never quite managed to sink a U-boat, however, and Martha
Gellhorn considered the enterprise no more than an excuse for Hemingway and his pals
to waste fuel and go drinking.
"Not a bad way to start the day, huh?”
Hemingway finally topped it all when he "liberated" the bar of the Paris Ritz, days after the
Germans had already left, by showing up with a jeep and a machine gun, demanding entry,
and racking up a tab for 51 dry Martinis.
The Nobel Prize
Having divorced Martha during World War II, Hemingway returned to Cuba to live with his
latest wife, Mary.
In 1954, he received literature's highest honor: the Nobel Prize.
According to The New York Times, he was granted the prize for "his powerful, style-forming
mastery of the art of modern narration, as most recently evinced in The Old Man and the
Sea."
Six years later, Hemingway and Mary left Cuba, and moved to Idaho.
His last days
The 1960s saw Hemingway endure a steep decline in both his physical and mental health.
Eventually, he checked in to the Mayo Clinic in order to receive electroshock therapy for
his growing paranoia and anxiety.
But it didn't help.
Despite further "treatment" at the clinic, Hemingway's suicidal tendencies worsened considerably,
and, on July 2nd, 1961, Hemingway shot himself with his favorite shotgun.
At the time of his death, Hemingway had published seven novels, married four women, fought in
three wars, and survived two plane crashes.
He was buried in Ketchum, Idaho, but his legacy as a man whose life was larger, and stranger,
than the fiction he wrote has lived on for years afterward.
Here's to you, Papa.