Ernest Hemingway
Sophia Cavanaugh
20 Facts (part one)
His daily word count was tracked on a slab of cardboard on his wall
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 took a urinal from his favorite bar and moved it into his Key West home, arguing that he had “pissed away” so much of his money into the urinal that he owned it
As a war correspondent during WWII, Ernest Hemingway took off his non-combatant insignia and posed as a colonel in order to lead a group of French militia into battle against the Nazis
The mother of Ernest Hemingway often dressed young Ernest and his older sister in matching pink flowery dresses (and similar outfits) to fulfill her obsessive desire to instead be mother to a pair of twin girls.
Ernest once examined F. Scott Fitzgerald’s… gentleman parts in a cafe bathroom and informed him it was “of normal size.”
He had a six-toed cat.
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 killed himself with his favorite shotgun, purchased from Abercrombie & Fitch.
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.
20 facts (part 2)
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.
The longest sentence Hemingway ever wrote—in Green Hills of Africa—consisted of 424 words.
While living in Paris Ernest Hemingway met many exciting people including writers such as Gertrude Stein, James Joyce and Ezra Pound, he also met Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro and Juan Gris he also covered stories such as the Greek Revolution.
Throughout his life he seemed to ridiculously accident prone, between car crashes and plane crashes there were many times he escaped death. It is thought to a degree that some of his substantial drinking was due to residual pain from so many mishaps.
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).
In Florida’s Key West, there’s an annual Ernest Hemingway Lookalike Contest.
Hemingway’s sister and brother, and also his father committed suicide as well
Hemingway wrote one play called The Fifth Column and it is set during the Spanish Civil War
- Hemingway was awarded a Bronze Star for his bravery under-fire in World War II when he was a war correspondent.