The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.

-Ernest Hemingway

In the Florida Keys, there are a lot of 6-toed cats, because Ernest Hemingway’s cat “got around” a lot.

As a young boy, Ernest Hemingway was dressed in girls’ clothing by his mother and referred to as ‘Ernestine’.

He once hit a critic who’d given one of his books a bad review.

Hemingway survived four car accidents and two plane crashes (on consecutive days).

He wanted to fight in World War I, but was denied due to his wretched eye sight. However, he convinced the military to make him an ambulance driver. Unfortunately, during the war he was wounded from mortar fire.

Hemingway’s memoir A Moveable Feast, about his life in Paris in the 1920s, was not published until 1964.

There’s a popular tale circulating about Hemingway betting fellow writers that he could write a short story in just six words. The story goes that Hemingway gave them: “For Sale: baby shoes. Never worn,” and he won the bet.

Ernest Hemingway once published a recipe for apple pie in his column. In fact, he had a lot of recipes for food, and some of them even ended up being museum pieces like his hamburger recipe below.

After World War II, he was accused of War Crimes by Geneva surrounding an event where Ernest lead a group of French Militia against the Nazis. He was not convicted.

During his 62 years, he married four times and divorced three times (Hadley Richardson, Pauline Pfeiffer, Martha Gellhorn, Mar Welsh Hemingway). Martha Gellhorn never liked being Hemingway’s third wife and required that interviewers not mention the man.

Hemingway was checked in to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota under the name Saviers, and the press believed he was being treated for hypertension.

His death was found to be self-inflicted, but the newspapers called it “accidental.” Five years later, Mary, his wife, publicly disclosed that the cause of death was suicide.

Ernest Hemingway grew paranoid and talked about FBI spying on him later in life. He was treated with electroshock. It was later revealed that he was in fact watched, and Edgar Hoover personally placed him under surveillance.

Ernest Hemingway used to machine gun sharks to stop them from eating his catch and that in 1938 he established a world record by catching seven marlins in one day.

Ernest Hemingway used to hunt German U-Boats in his fishing boat with direction-finding equipment, a machine gun and hand grenades.

https://youtu.be/6S4jarsCG7w

http://www.biography.com/people/ernest-hemingway-9334498