Ernest Hemingway famously struggled with alcoholism and mental illness for decades before taking his own life in 1961.
Public DomainErnest Hemingway in Cuba in 1954 .
Ernest Hemingway was one of the most celebrated writers of the twentieth century . With his novel such asThe Sun Also RisesandThe Old Man and the Seastill studied in classrooms across America today , Hemingway ’s legacy continues to inspire generation of reader . But the arguing surrounding his death lives on as well .
On July 2 , 1961 , Ernest Hemingway died at his home in Ketchum , Idaho . The New York Timesreported that he incidentally shot himself , and Blaine County Sheriff Frank Hewitt ab initio say that no foul play was suspect .
Public DomainErnest Hemingway in Cuba in 1954.
But just two days prior , Hemingway had been released from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester , Minnesota , where he ’d been treat for depression and other mental health struggle . People soon began wondering whether the renowned author ’s last was really an accident .
Hemingway ’s wife , Mary , later admit to the pressure that he had indeed taken his own life-time . And in the decades follow his death , multiple members of his family died by felo-de-se as well — set off rumors of a deep “ Hemingway curse . ”
The Volatile Life Of Ernest Hemingway
Although Ernest Hemingway was a prolific source who won both the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize in Literature for his oeuvre , he led a aliveness full of catastrophe and oft skin with his genial health .
grant to theLos Angeles Times , Hemingway ’s female parent , Grace , was a controlling adult female who dressed him as a little girl when he was a kid . She want him to twin his sometime baby because she was disappointed she had n’t had similitude .
Earl Theisen / Getty ImagesErnest Hemingway published seven novels and six collection of little stories over the course of his noted calling .
Earl Theisen/Getty ImagesErnest Hemingway published seven novels and six collections of short stories over the course of his illustrious career.
Meanwhile , his begetter , Clarence , was frenzied - depressive and had the tendency to become wild . When Hemingway was 29 , Clarence died by suicide . According toBiography , the author charge his father ’s dying on his female parent .
Hemingway ’s third wife , Martha Gellhorn , once wrote , “ mystifying in Ernest , due to his female parent , going back to the undestroyable first memories of childhood , was suspicion and fear of woman . ” She claimed that it was because of Grace that Hemingway had takings with desertion and infidelity .
When Hemingway was injured while volunteering as an ambulance number one wood in Italy during World War I , he reportedly fell in love with his nurse and gyrate into a depression when she rejected him .
Archivio Cameraphoto Epoche/Getty ImagesErnest Hemingway struggled with alcoholism for decades, straining his marriages and friendships.
And when his union with his first wife , Hadley Richardson , stop in divorce because Hemingway was unfaithful , he carry his regret and anguish with him for the residue of his life sentence .
Hemingway had just tie his 2d wife , Pauline Pfeiffer , at the clock time of his Padre ’s destruction , and his struggle with genial illness and alcoholism apace begin to aggravate . The source wrote in a letter to Pfeiffer ’s mother about his father ’s self-annihilation , “ I ’ll probably go the same way . ”
regrettably , 33 long time later , he did .
Public DomainErnest Hemingway holding a shotgun in his Cuba home. Circa 1950s.
Ernest Hemingway’s Lifelong Struggle With Mental Illness
According to theIndependent , Ernest Hemingway tell a champion after his Father of the Church ’s death , “ My liveliness was more or less shot out from under me , and I was drinking much too much entirely through my own fault . ”
Despite several doctors telling him to stop drinking because he ’d develop liver damage as early as 1937 , when he was just 38 year old , Hemingway continued his unhealthy relationship with alcohol .
Archivio Cameraphoto Epoche / Getty ImagesErnest Hemingway struggled with alcoholism for decade , strain his married couple and friendship .
Public DomainErnest Hemingway holds one of his beloved cats, whose descendants can still be seen today at the author’s Key West, Florida home.
Hemingway also had a strange enchantment with decease , and he gravitated toward gory bodily process like fishing , hunt , and watching dogshit fight . He even told actress Ava Gardner in 1954 , “ I spend a hell of a pile of meter killing animals and fish so I wo n’t pop myself . ”
That same year , he survived two aeroplane crashes while hunt in Africa . He endure serious injuries in the second base , admit two cracked vertebrae , a fractured skull , and a ruptured liver . The event took a toll on both his strong-arm and mental health , and he continued to wassail copious amounts of alcohol while he was bedbound during his recovery .
As the author grew sr. , his friends and family members noticed that he began acting disorientate and paranoid . He trust the FBI was surveilling him — but he turned out to be right .
According toPBS , the FBI had been knock Hemingway ’s telephone and filing report on him since the forties , because they were suspicious about his natural process in Cuba .
Hemingway also began struggling to write . He tried to ferment on a memoir of his time in Paris , but he had a difficult clip doing so . And when he was asked to write a short piece for John F. Kennedy ’s inaugural , he cry and said , “ It just wo n’t come any more . ”
By former 1960 , Hemingway ’s mental health had deteriorated to the point that his quaternary wife , Mary , had him admitted to Mayo Clinic for treatment . She later toldThe New York Times , “ When he went to the Mayo Clinic in November of 1960 , his blood pressure was very high-pitched . But his real problem was a serious , very serious breakdown . He was so depressed I can not even say when he bug out to feel so depressed . ”
Hemingway was free in January 1961 , but when Mary found him holding a scattergun just three months later , he was at once readmitted .
The Death Of Ernest Hemingway And Its Controversial Aftermath
In April 1961 , Hemingway board a small plane to travel from his home base in Idaho to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota . According to PBS , when the airplane stopped in South Dakota to refuel , Hemingway reportedly tried to take the air straight into the propellor — but the original cut it off just in fourth dimension .
During his 2d two - calendar month stop at the clinic , Hemingway underwent at least 15 daily round of electroconvulsive shock therapy and was prescribed a new drug cry Librium . This cause the author to have short - term memory issues without providing much respite for his depression , but he was unload at the close of June anyway .
When he arrived back in Ketchum , Idaho , he spoke with his longtime friend and local motel owner Chuck Atkinson . After Hemingway ’s death , Atkinson toldThe New York Times , “ He seemed to be in secure spirit . We did n’t speak about anything in particular . ”
Public DomainErnest Hemingway holding a scattergun in his Cuba home . Circa 1950s .
Yet , the very next morning , just two day after returning home from the Mayo Clinic , Hemingway got out of bed around 7 a.m. , put on his favorite robe , found the Florida key to the gun console his married woman had tried to hide from him , took out a threefold - barrelled shotgun he used to run birds , and shot himself in the os frontale .
The gunshot come alive Mary , who rushed below and found Ernest Hemingway beat in the foyer . She called the police and assure them that the gun had unexpectedly gone off while Hemingway was scavenge it , and initial reports about his death frame it as a tragic accident .
However , there was controversial speculation that the source had died by suicide from the root . He had been a skilled hunting watch , so he know how to handle guns , and it was improbable he would have accidentally discharged one .
days subsequently , these distrust were confirmed when Mary toldThe New York Times , “ No , he shot himself . scud himself . Just that . And nothing else . ”
Inside The Devastating “Hemingway Curse”
In the decades following Ernest Hemingway ’s suicide , multiple other members of his syndicate call for their own lives , as well . accord toBiography , his sister Ursula designedly overdosed on oral contraceptive in 1966 , his brother Leicester shot himself in 1982 , and hisgranddaughter Margaux , a successful supermodel , took a calamitous dose of a sedative in 1996 .
Another granddaughter of Hemingway ’s , Margaux ’s sister Mariel , dub this string of mental illness and suicides the “ Hemingway cuss . ” And in more recent years , doctors and scientist have tried to pinpoint its exact suit .
Public DomainErnest Hemingway holds one of his beloved cats , whose descendent can still be check today at the source ’s Key West , Florida house .
In 2006 , psychiatrist Dr. Christopher D. Martin issue a study in thePsychiatryjournal state that Ernest Hemingway had a transmitted predisposition to mental illness from his parents as well as undetermined trauma and anger from his childhood .
Martin analyzed medical records , letter of the alphabet that Hemingway wrote over the years , and interviews by the writer and his loved one before and after his death and square off that he expose signs of “ bipolar disorder , alcohol dependency , traumatic brain injury , and belike border and self-loving personality traits . ”
In 2017 , as report byBiography , another psychiatrist named Andrew Farah argued that Hemingway ’s symptom resemble chronic traumatic brain disease ( CTE ) — the same disease that plagues many football players . The source have multiple nous injury throughout his life sentence , and Farah claimed that these could have contributed to his ego - destructive behavior .
And yet another hypothesis say that Hemingway suffered from hemochromatosis , a rare genetic disorderliness that can cause fatigue , memory loss , clinical depression , and diabetes — all of which Hemingway struggled with . His father and comrade had diabetes as well , and Leicester Hemingway even reportedly direct his own animation because he was face the possibility of losing his legs from the disease .
Regardless of the reasonableness behind Ernest Hemingway ’s self-destruction , the author ’s death was a withering loss to the literary community and to everyone who loved him . sports fan still leave bottles of alcohol on his tomb in Ketchum , Idaho , and his Florida home is one of the most popular tourist attraction in Key West . Through his exalt work of literature and the descendent of his dear polydactyl cats , the bequest of “ Papa ” hold up on to this Clarence Shepard Day Jr. .
After learn about the devastating death of Ernest Hemingway , go inside the tragical life ofGregory Hemingway , the author ’s transgender son . Then , take through these21 quote from Hemingway ’s renowned works .
