Surprising facts about Hemingway you probably didn’t know

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Although during his eventful life he was once reported dead while still alive, his actual death was not what it seemed originally.

Ernest Hemingway is a world-famous novelist and short-story writer, known for his economical and understated style which had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations.

He went on to write seven novels, six short-story collections, and two non-fiction pieces and his outstanding and many-faceted personality left a mark in history.

What do we know about him?

Working as a reporter in The Kansas City Star, he relied on the Star's style guide as a foundation for his writing: "Use short sentences. Use short first paragraphs. Use vigorous English. Be positive, not negative."

Was Hemingway happy about being Ernest?

Ernest Hemingway would say that he disliked his name, which he "associated with the naive, even foolish hero of Oscar Wilde's play "The Importance of Being Earnest".

World citizen

Hemingway's father taught him to hunt, fish, and camp in the woods and lakes of Northern Michigan as a young boy, early experiences in nature instilled a passion for outdoor adventure and living in remote or isolated areas.

Born on July 21st, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois, Ernest Hemingway didn’t take long to leave. He was merely 18 years old when enlisted with the World War I ambulance drivers.
Hemingway lived in Paris, Chicago, Toronto, fought in WWI in Italy, participated in Spanish Civil War, during WWII was present at the Normandy landings and the liberation of Paris. He met his fourth wife in London and survived two consequent plane crashes in Africa.

KGB agent

He worked closely with the Soviet KGB under the cover name “Argo.”
But Hemingway turned out to be of little use to the Soviets. He failed to give them any political information and was never “verified in practical work”.

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War criminal?

Ernest Hemingway was charged with war crimes under the Geneva Convention when he took command and led of a group of French militia into battle against the Nazis, but wasn’t convicted.

A harsh man

He was also known to use a machine gun on sharks to stop them eating his catch, and in 1938 he established a world record by catching seven marlin in one day.

Reported dead while alive.

After two successive airplane crashes Hemingway and his wife Mary were surprised to read their own obituaries. Reporters covered the story of their death while the couple were recuperating.

Hemingway had four wives and a six-toed cat.

The story of Ernest Hemingway and his six-toed cats began with Snow White, a white polydactyl kitten that Hemingway received in the 1930s. The kitten was a gift from a sea captain named Stanley Dexter. Sailors favored polydactyl cats, believing they were good luck. Their extra toes enhanced their abilities as mousers and provided better balance on rough seas. They are often called “mitten cats.”

His death was not accidental…

During his life, Hemingway survived exposure to anthrax, malaria, skin cancer, and pneumonia. He lived through diabetes, two plane crashes, a ruptured kidney, hepatitis, a ruptured spleen, a fractured skull, a crushed vertebra, and the only thing he could not stop was himself.

Despite The New York Times on July 3, 1961 title “Hemingway Dead of Shotgun Wound; Wife Says He Was Cleaning Weapon”, most agree that the writer committed suicide. For example, his son Greg categorizes father's death as "semi-voluntary," an act born of lifelong defiance and momentary delusion.

Ernest Hemingway committed suicide at the age of sixty-one.

There have been five suicides in the Hemingway family over four generations:
His supermodel granddaughter Margaux committed suicide about the same day 35 years later.
Hemingway’s father shot himself to death at the age of 57. This fact had certainly influenced the writer and was reflected in his works.

Hemingway's siblings Ursula, Leicester are also in this list.
Another Hemingway’s granddaughter, Lorian wrestled with suicide, but in this case with a happy ending.

The Hemingway lookalike society

There’s an Ernest Hemingway lookalike society that holds yearly contests since 1981.

Hemingway was renowned for novels like The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Old Man and the Sea, which won the 1953 Pulitzer. In 1954, Hemingway won the Nobel Prize.

More curious facts about Ernest Hemingway:

1. He played cello “Worse than anyone on earth.” But he later admitted the music lessons were useful to his writing.
2. Small-time thief. Ernest once took a urinal home from his favorite bar and moved it into his home, arguing that he had “pissed away” so much of his money into the urinal that he owned it.
3. Friend in Need. F. Scott Fitzgerald once asked Hemingway in a cafe toilet to look at naughty bits of the former and was assured of their “normal” size.
4. A pretty popular cocktail has his name. It's known as Hemingway’s daikiri.

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