Mary Welsh
- Born: April 5, 1908 in Walker, Minnesota
- Died: November 27, 1986 in New York City
- Met EH in a London restaurant in 1944, introduced by Irwin Shaw
- Married EH on March 14, 1946
According to A. E. Hotchner, Hemingway supposedly considered divorcing fourth wife Mary Welsh. Hotchner reports in a new preface to Papa Hemingway, 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."
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." She was literally determined to be the final Mrs. Hemingway.
Hemingway made Mary his lone beneficiary and after he died, she is said to have received 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 each of the following organizations:
- World Wildlife, Inc. (Washington, D.C.)
- Audobon Society of New York
- Legal Defense Fund of the NAACP
- 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.
