Image Source: © ROBERT CAPA © 2001 By Cornell Capa / Magnum Photos
The life of Ernest Hemingway is often portrayed as one romanticized adventure after another. From Hemingway’s exploits as a writer, sipping coffee in the café’s of Paris and London with the artistic elite of his day, driving ambulances in the first world war, and game hunting while on safari in Africa—any one of Hemingway’s moments are an adventure to which many have aspired.
Ernest Hemingway’s last notable feat, committing suicide, was far removed from his romanticized lifestyle that is so revered. A single shotgun report in 1961 had sounded Hemingway’s farewell. In death, he had achieved what fellow writer J.K. Rowling once emphatically proclaimed, “…to the well organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.”
Clarence Hemingway, an accomplished physician and father of Ernest Hemingway, embraced death with grand expedition. Depression and escape from physical ailments provided Clarence Hemingway the muster to dare the great adventure. His pursuit ended in 1928 at the barrel of a Civil War era pistol that once belonged to his own father.
Ursula Hemingway, the youngest sister of brother Ernest, was a celebrated artist in Honolulu who ultimately sought refuge also in the last great adventure. Her arduous bouts with cancer and depression came to a close in 1966 by drug overdose.
Plagued by diabetes like his father, the sixth and last progeny of Clarence Hemingway—Leicester Hemingway, chose death as the greatest adventure over a life absent of self-propelled motion. With the possibility of losing both of his legs looming on the horizon, Leicester aimed true with a .22 caliber pistol, ending his life in 1982.
Margaux Hemingway, granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway, was a fashion model and actress. In 1996, nearly thirty-five years to the day of her grandfather’s death, the actresses swan song brought full-circle the Hemingway spirit of adventure. In true celebrity fashion, Margaux Hemingway had chased the great adventure—having been spirited away by a drug overdose.
The Hemingway family lineage was wrought with emotional and physical travails. With five deaths, four generations of the Hemingway’s had solidified the act of suicide as a worthwhile family pursuit.
Conceivably to his organized mind, for Ernest Hemingway, death was but the next great adventure. Great in the sense that Hemingway appeared to not have any fear of death. Instead he embraced the finality of its release. To romanticize his lifestyle, to revere it, is to ignore the raw humanity that emboldened the man who in death became an American legend.
Do You KNOW Clarence? 