Ernest Hemingway FAQ: Section 4
 What were Hemingway's religious views?
 Hemingway had a very strict religious upbringing, but as he grew older and certainly more
rebellious, he seemed to want to disassociate himself with the Christian convictions of his family. His second wife Pauline was a devout Catholic and in order to marry
her, Hemingway had to convert to Catholicism, but whether he took this conversion and everything associated with it seriously is suspect.
As a writer, he believed you had to stay away from the subjects of religion and politics. However, references (symbolic & direct) to religion are frequent in his work:
Brett Ashley's strange remark to Jake Barnes towards the end of The Sun Also Rises, Catherine Barkley's relinquishing of her Saint Anthony medal to Frederic Henry in A Farewell to Arms,
Robert Jordan questioning who has it easier as he lies near death in For Whom the Bell Tolls, Santiago admitting he is not religious, but still saying Our Fathers and Holy Marys in The Old Man and the Sea.
It's interesting to note that when Hemingway died, he did not qualify for the traditional "Catholic Church" funeral service due to the fact that he had had three divorces. In retrospect, this is probably the way he would have wanted it.
For more on Hemingway and religion, see "Hemingway's Religious Odyssey: The Oak Park Years" by Larry Grimes in Ernest Hemingway: The Oak Park Legacy.
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What does an authentic Hemingway
autograph look like and how can I determine its authenticity?
Determining the authenticity of a Hemingway autograph is difficult because of the vast number
of forgeries in existence. However, there are some resources that can be of help. Start by viewing a scan
of Hemingway's Last Will and Testament. Since this document was obtained from the official court records, we can be 99.9% certain that the signature that appears
is Hemingway's authentic signature. The next step is to read The Collectible Ernest Hemingway
by James Lowe for additional information.
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Was Hemingway an intellectual?
Even though Ernest Hemingway carried an
anti-intellectual chip on his shoulder for most of his life, he was very much an intellectual, a "closet intellectual" if you will. He was a voracious reader,
fluent in Spanish, and had an incredible gift for profound insight. Hemingway, of course, never attended college. This may explain why he received such pleasure
in playfully mocking his Ivy League educated friends. He had considerable distaste for the world of academia, particularly for the overzealous critics and
scholars, who made a living out of analyzing every comma and period of his work. Hemingway once told his son Jack that if he could secretly attend one of the courses
being taught on him, he would in all likelihood earn a failing mark. A "closet intellectual" indeed!
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Did Hemingway's drinking ever affect his writing?
Some have blamed Hemingway's writer's block on the excessive drinking he
engaged in during the latter years of his life. A more likely culprit, however, may be the electroshock treatments he received at the Mayo Clinic in late 1960 and early 1961. These treatments severely impaired
Hemingway's memory and took from him the concentration necessary to write.
The legend of Hemingway the drinker should never be mixed (so to speak) with Hemingway the writer. When Hemingway was writing he was as sober as a priest on
Sunday and he wrote with as much clarity as any writer could. At the Finca, he did have a portable bar within arm's reach when relaxing and reading, but not when writing. What James Lundquist
once said of Sinclair Lewis can most certainly be applied to Ernest Hemingway: "He was a writer who drank, not, as so many have believed, a drunk who wrote."
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How do Hemingway and Henry James differ as writers?
Besides the obvious differences in their writing styles, Hemingway and Henry James also differ in their
approaches to writing. If writing is an "art" to Henry James, it is a "process" to Ernest Hemingway. Writing, as Hemingway described it, is "mechanical work," at times pleasurable and rewarding, at
other times, lending itself to an "awful responsibility." For Hemingway, writing was more a job than an art. As a job, he knew it had to be done well and if done well enough, it would be remembered.
Hemingway was conscious of his style but to a lesser degree than James. He was less technical in his defense of his style. His attacks on critics and his contemporaries were more of a personal nature.
Hemingway would never utter the remark, "I write this way because …" If he did favor the critics with an explanation, its ambiguous tone always resembled that of his novels and short stories.
Henry James did try to enlighten others as to his stylistic intentions, almost too much so, almost to the point that his explanation became a defense of his own art, and more importantly for
James (considering his designated role as spokesman for the integrity of the modern novel), a defense of the art of writing novels. Hemingway believed that great literature need not be explained.
"There is a mystery in all great writing," he remarked, and no matter how many different renditions of explanation are offered into the mix, "that mystery does not dis-sect out."
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How has Hemingway been commercialized?
In 1992, the Hemingway sons established Hemingway, Ltd. for the purpose of licensing
their father's name and image. From this venture has come a vast selection of products.
Ernest Hemingway has his own line of clothing (yes, pajamas too), furniture, hunting gear, fishing tackle, pens (he wrote in pencil), and how could one forget the adorable teddy bear
(manufactured by Boyds Bears) dressed in a hunting vest and hat and christened with the name, "Hemingway K. Grizzman." There is also a house design in Hemingway's name,
and would you believe, a wallpaper in the so-called style of Hemingway. Other items that have been scheduled for possible release include pillows, desk sets, African masks,
and picture frames. As Scott Donaldson notes in Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald: The Rise and Fall of a Literary Friendship: "According to Marla A. Metzner, president of Fashion Licensing of America, thirteen separate manufacturers have opted to
use Hemingway's name and image in connection with their products."
Moving onto the bookshelves: when it comes to biographies, Hemingway truly is "the undisputed champion." More than a dozen biographies have been written about him. Add to that, the dozen
or so memoirs authored by close friends and relatives. The legacy that Hemingway himself would likely be most proud of is the fact that the majority of his work is still in print.
Worldwide sales of his books show that he remains a powerful literary force. Despite the vast commercialization of his name and image, Hemingway is remembered as a
writer first and foremost. The photo of a hairy forearmed middle aged man pounding away at the keys of his typewriter working on his 1940 masterpiece, For Whom the Bell Tolls is still fresh in the minds of many.
Though someday that photo may be replaced by another. Perhaps it already has.
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How do we explain Hemingway's many marriages?
A few of Hemingway's contemporaries had theories as to why the great author was so prone to
walking down the aisle. F. Scott Fitzgerald felt that Hemingway needed a new woman for every big book and William Faulkner perceptively noted: "Hemingway's mistake was that he thought he had to marry all of them."
Hemingway married four times and divorced three times. According to A. E. Hotchner, Hemingway supposedly was considering a fourth divorce. In a new preface to Papa Hemingway,
Hotchner reports that Hemingway once told him: "I wish I could leave her, I really do, but I'm too old now to afford a fourth divorce and the hell Mary would put me through."
By most accounts, Hemingway was not the easiest man to keep house with. He also had a tendency of falling out of love once married or acting in a manner, which left his spouse
with no other choice but to fall out of love with him. Towards the end of his life, what Hemingway needed more than a live-in wife was a live-in nurse, and unfortunately for Mary,
she had to fill this roll. And fill it she did. Hemingway biographer Jeffrey Meyers has noted that Mary "could take an infinite amount of abuse." I am not entirely sure if this quality in
Mary is one we should admire or pity. I tend to lean towards the latter feeling. She was literally determined to be the final Mrs. Hemingway. Mary got her wish, but at
what a price. For a further discussion of Hemingway's relationship with his wives, see Bernice Kert's The Hemingway Women.
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How did Hemingway view F. Scott Fitzgerald?
The relationship between Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of the more interesting literary
relationships and has been the subject of several books: Scott and Ernest: The Authority of Failure and the Authority of Success (Matthew J. Bruccoli, 1978), Fitzgerald and Hemingway: A Dangerous Friendship (Matthew J. Bruccoli, 1994), and
Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald: The Rise and Fall of a Literary Friendship (Scott Donaldson, 2001). Hemingway provides his own take on the relationship in his 1964 book, A Moveable Feast, in a sketch appropriately titled, "Scott Fitzgerald."
Hemingway and Fitzgerald first met in the Dingo Bar in Paris in 1925. At the time of this meeting, Fitzgerald was the more recognized and successful writer. His 1920 novel, This Side of Paradise had been a great success. His pieces
regularly appeared in the widely read Saturday Evening Post, and two weeks before his meeting with Hemingway, readers were introduced to The Great Gatsby (today, a literary classic). Hemingway, too, was
publishing during this time, but in lesser known magazines and with less ambitious presses. Despite Hemingway's relative obscurity, Fitzgerald had sent a favorable letter to his editor Maxwell Perkins at Scribner's. In it, he wrote:
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"This is to tell you about a young man named Ernest Hemmingway, who lives in Paris, (an American) writes for the transatlantic Review & has a brilliant future.
Ezra Pount published a a collection of his short pieces in Paris, at some place like the Egotist Press. I havn't it hear now but its remarkable & I'd look him up
right away. He's the real thing."
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Fitzgerald, a notorious misspeller, doubled the "m" in Hemingway's last name. This misspelling has survived to the present day.
The early Hemingway respected the early Fitzgerald. This is probably best illustrated in the fact that he was willing to accept Fitzgerald's editorial advice. Fitzgerald, renowned for his editorial astuteness (but poor spelling ironically), suggested to his friend that the original opening of
The Sun Also Rises be omitted because of its "elephantine facetiousness." Hemingway swallowed his authorial pride and took Fitzgerald's advice, but in a June 1926 letter to Max Perkins, he somewhat took credit for suggesting
the necessary cuts, stating twice that Fitzgerald "agrees," while it was actually he who agreed with Fitzgerald.
After Hemingway achieved monumental fame with the publication of A Farewell to Arms (1929), his relationship with Fitzgerald changed. In their letters, Hemingway now took on the role of advisor and Fitzgerald the advisee. Fitzgerald developed a
certain idolatry for his confidant and though Hemingway enjoyed having his ego stroked, with Fitzgerald, the compliments soon became tiresome. Hemingway often attacked
Fitzgerald claiming that he was more preoccupied with producing a good critical reception than a good piece of writing. He also believed that Fitzgerald's mentally
unstable wife, Zelda, was ruining his talent as a writer. It was a talent that expired on December 21, 1940, when F. Scott Fitzgerald died of a heart attack at the age of 44.
In 1950, Hemingway wrote frankly of Fitzgerald in a letter to Arthur Mizener. He was respectful and sympathetic of his dead friend in a way only Ernest Hemingway could be.
A more critical and unforgiving portrayal of Fitzgerald would appear fourteen years later in A Moveable Feast.
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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.
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How does Hemingway size up in today's auction market?
One need only to look at the May 19, 2000 Christie's auction ("Printed Books and Manuscripts
including Americana and Recently Discovered Manuscripts by Ernest Hemingway") to answer this question. 17 lots of rare Hemingway material amassed almost $571,000.
Items included first drafts, galley proofs, letters, and manuscript portions. An autographed handwritten draft of "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" sold for $248,000. According to Alane Salierno Mason, a senior editor at
W. W. Norton & Company, "the 'Macomber' manuscript fetched the highest price ever attained in a sale of an American short story, and one of the highest for any American literary manuscript."
Typically, autographed first edition Hemingway books can fetch thousands of dollars. What increases value is any detail unique to the work. Take a first edition of Hemingway's 1940 classic For Whom the Bell Tolls,
for example, which was marked with the following inscription in the author's hand: "For Martha Belle and Hall with love from Ernest." The first name of Hemingway's third wife was Martha. During his lifetime, Hemingway corresponded with
a Belle H. Loomis and a Belle Watson Melville. Hall could have been any number of people or a nickname for a close friend. The fact that Hemingway may have inscribed this book to three separate people is extremely unique and greatly increases the auction value of the work.
Hemingway letters can also bring substantial money. A June 15, 1961 letter Hemingway wrote nine-year-old Frederick Saviers, the ill son of Dr. George Saviers (Hemingway's doctor)
sold for $25,300 in a 1999 auction. Christie's claimed that the letter was Ernest Hemingway's last dated piece of writing.
So is Hemingway stock a sound investment? According to Mark Allen Baker, an authority on autograph collecting, indeed it is: "To be honest I'm astonished
at the market for Hemingway-related material. I spent many years collecting first edition books and prices for Hemingway material are going through the roof. You can't find
pre-1940 material. I'm not shocked so much at the prices as I am the unavailability of earlier editions prior to 1940."
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