What is the epitaph on
the Hemingway Memorial?
Hemingway was asked to write
a short eulogy for one of his friends, Gene Van Guilder, who was accidently shot while duck hunting. The epitaph on the memorial reads:
Best of all he loved the fall
The leaves yellow on the cottonwoods
Leaves floating on the trout streams
And above the hills
The high blue windless skies
Now he will be a part of them forever
Ernest Hemingway - Idaho - 1939
View a photo of the Ernest Hemingway memorial.
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What was Hemingway's
exact day of death? I've noticed inaccuracies in the biographies, some state July 1, others state July 2. Was Mary's reporting of the incident accurate?
Mary had originally told reporters and the likes that her husband had been accidentally shot while cleaning one of his
guns. The bold headline on the front page of the July 3, 1961 edition of The New York Times read, "Hemingway Dead of Shotgun Wound; Wife Says He Was Cleaning Weapon."
As for the exact day and time Hemingway committed suicide, it was Sunday morning, July 2, 1961. Jeffrey Meyers and Kenneth Lynn establish the time as "around seven o'clock on Sunday morning." Carlos Baker notes: "Dr. Scott Earle was summoned at 7:40 a.m. to certify the death."
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Ernest Hemingway is buried in
Ketchum Cemetery in Ketchum, Idaho. View photos of his gravesite.
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Where can I view a copy of
Hemingway's last will and testament?
Ernest Hemingway wrote his will in his own hand on September 17, 1955. He
wrote it in blue ink on a single piece of his Finca Vigía, San Francisco de Paula, Cuba stationery. He used both sides of the stationery. The will was
witnessed by George Brown, René Villarreal and Lola Richards. George Brown was Hemingway's close friend and boxing coach. René Villarreal and Lola Richards
worked for Hemingway in his Cuban home.
Since wills are public domain documents, Timeless Hemingway is presenting Hemingway's Last Will and Testament below in text format. You may also view the actual front side and back side of Hemingway's will. I wish to thank Arlene Harris of the firm, Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays & Handler, LLP for helping me to obtain the necessary photocopies.
Please note: even with excessive computer magnification, it was extremely difficult to transcribe Hemingway's will. Anyone knowing of errors in the text provided below is urged to contact Timeless Hemingway with the necessary corrections.
[Front Side]
FINCA VIGIA, SAN FRANCISCO DE PAULA, CUBA
Last Will and Testament
I, Ernest Miller Hemingway a resident of Finca Vigia San Francisco de Paula, Cuba do hereby make, publish and declare this instrument as my last Will and Testament in manner following, that is to say:
1. I hereby cancel, annul, and revoke all wills and codicils by me at any time heretofore made;
2. I hereby give, devise and bequeath to my beloved wife Mary now residing in Finca Vigia, San Francisco de Paula, Cuba all my estate and all of the property of which I may die siezed and possessed and to which I may be entitled at the time of my decease, of whatever kind and nature, and wheresoever I may be situated; be it real, personal, literary or mixed, absolutely;
3. I hereby nominate, constitute and appoint my beloved wife executrix and request that she be permitted to serve without bonds or security thereon.
4. I have intentionally omitted to provide for my children now living or for any that may be born after this will has been executed as I repose complete confidence in my beloved wife Mary to provide for them according to written instructions I have given her.
In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal to this my last Will and Testament at Finca Vigia San Francisco de Paula -- Cuba this seventeenth day of September 1955.
Ernest Miller Hemingway
[Back Side]
Signed, sealed, published and declared to be his last Will and Testament in the presence of all of us at one time, and the same time we, at his request and in his presence and in the presence of each other, have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses, and do attest to the sound and dispensing mind of said Testator and to the performance of the aforesaid acto of execution at Finca Vigia San Francisco de Paula this seventeenth of September 1955.
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How wealthy was Hemingway at the time of his death?
According to a February 22, 1964 New York Times article titled, "Hemingway Estate $1.4 Million;
Widow is His Lone Beneficiary", Hemingway left "a gross estate of $1,410,310." After taxes, legal fees, funeral expenses, and other miscellaneous debts, "the adjusted gross estate was listed as $1,289,336." Of this money, Mary Hemingway was expected to receive approximately one million dollars.
Mary did admirable things with the money left to her. At the time of her death, she bequeathed $100,000 to the World Wildlife, Inc. (Washington, D.C.), the Audobon Society of New York, the Legal Defense Fund of the NAACP, and the Hospital for Joint Diseases & Medical Center Orthopedic Institute (New York).
She also established the Ernest Hemingway Foundation in 1979 and in her will left $200,000 to be "invested and maintained for the express and sole purpose of awarding annually … a prize to the writer of a published book of fiction in English." This prize is the PEN/Hemingway Award for the best first book of fiction and is still awarded today.
A few other notes of interest regarding Ernest Hemingway's estate:
1) Hemingway had an impressive stock portfolio at the time of his death with holdings in 36 companies including Eastman Kodak, General Motors, Bethlehem Steel, The American Telephone and Telegraph Company, and Gimbels.
2) In estimating the future earnings of Hemingway's literary work, Charles Scribner Jr. wrote: "the sales of a deceased author, even one of the world renown, decline markedly in the years following his death." There has been little decline in Hemingway's case. In 1983, The New York Times reported that U.S. sales of Hemingway's books "total almost 750,000 copies annually, up by about 25 percent in the last few years." Today, that number is well beyond the one million mark.
