Why Hemingway shot himself or how the system breaks people. The Sun Also Rises: The Story of the Life and Death of Ernest Hemingway Ernest Hemingway shot himself

The world-famous writer, author of the story "The Old Man and the Sea", the novels "Farewell to the Arms!", "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and others, Ernest Hemingway shot himself with a gun on July 2, 1961 at the age of. 61 years old Hemingway always led an active lifestyle, took part in military operations in Italy, traveled, worked actively, was married four times. But in recent years he suffered from depression, it seemed to him that he was constantly being watched. As it turned out, the FBI services really followed the writer.

Any "must read this" book ranking lists the works of Ernest Hemingway. For example, the cult novels "The Old Man and the Sea" or "For Whom the Bell Tolls" are always in the top. These are thoughtful and entertaining works that provide answers to life's questions to any reader.

In Soviet times, Hemingway's works were the most translated of all foreign writers. The American writer conquered the whole world and was awarded the Nobel Prize. But his personal life until the last day was filled with tragedy. What is the cause of the death of Ernest Hemingway, and what interesting facts from his biography are known, about this later.

Date and cause of death

In the early morning of Thursday, July 2, 1961, trying not to disturb his sleeping wife Mary, Hemingway left the bedroom and, without taking off his pajamas, went to the office. There, the writer took out his favorite 2-barreled gun from the gun cabinet, loaded it and shot himself in the head. He was 61 years old.

After the suicide, wife Mary Welsh officially stated through the media: “Mr. Hemingway accidentally shot himself while cleaning his gun this morning at 7:30. No time has been set for the memorial service, as it will be private.” Hiding the truth, the wife intended to save the honor of her deceased husband. Public obituaries from the Vatican, the White House and the Kremlin followed the next day, as if after the death of a world-class statesman.

A few years before the suicide, Hemingway behaved strangely, so relatives and friends considered him mentally ill. He saw FBI surveillance everywhere. On this basis, the writer landed in the Mayo psychiatric hospital with a diagnosis of depression with paranoid psychosis. Here he was prescribed a forced double course of electroconvulsive therapy of 13 sessions, which seriously impaired the memory and motor skills of the patient's fingers.

*Declassified FBI documents in the late 70s became a sensation. It turned out that the writer was really followed. The detectives recorded the object's movements, tapped the home phone, and planted bugs in the psychiatric ward. The supervision was justified by the following: the writer worked for 20 years in Cuba, where the communist ideology was born for more than 50 years, which Hemingway could spread in the States.

Rice. 1 Hemingway with a hunting rifle

fatal weapon

33 years before his suicide, his father, driven by his quarrelsome wife to suicide due to financial difficulties, shot himself with the same gun. After the death of his father, his mother switched to harassing her eldest son Ernest. She filled up with correspondence his mailbox in Paris, where the 28-year-old writer lived and worked.

Most of the letters were immediately sent to the oven unread. One day, his mother sent Ernest pictures and his father's gun. After receiving a strange package and thinking Hemingway said: "I'll probably go the same way." These words turned out to be prophetic.

Charles Atkinson, friend of Ernest Hemingway and owner of the Ketchum Motel, destroyed the fatal gun by cutting it into small pieces and scattering them around. After 20 years, the author of the book "Hemingway's Weapons" Roger Senger with the collector Michel De Chevru found fragments of a 2-barrel and determined the exact brand of the weapon. It turned out to be a W&C shotgun. Scott & Son. Thus, the myths about the Winchester mod 21 and Bernardelli shotguns were dispelled.

Where is the writer buried?

The body of Ernest Hemingway was buried on July 6, 1961 in a cemetery in a valley at the foot of the Rokis mountain range, which is 2 miles from the city of Ketchum, Idaho, USA, on the border with Canada. A couple of years before the suicide, the Hemingway family bought 6 plots on this necropolis. Of the 12 relatives, only 6 people were able to get to the burial ceremony on time. Many friends and acquaintances arrived from afar. There were reporters everywhere with cameras.

At 10:30 the funeral ceremony began at the cemetery. Next to the coffin stood Mary's wife and three sons from previous marriages. The priest, Father Robert Wildman, read the Prayer to the Virgin Mary and the Lord's Prayer three times. The boy serving the priest fainted from a large crowd of people, and he was taken away.

Hemingway's burial site was organized next to his hunting friend Taylor Williams, who during his lifetime was nicknamed "Bear Track". He passed away two years earlier. After the civil memorial service, the coffin was covered with a bronze lid and lowered into the grave. Those present, according to tradition, threw a handful of earth. In turn, the Cuban side several times sent a request for permission to rebury the writer on its territory.

Rice. 2 Hemingway's house in Ketchum. State of Idaho, USA.

Brief biography of Hemingway

In one of the intelligent American families in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, on July 21, 1899, a boy was born, who was named Ernest Miller Hemingway. His father, Clarence Edmond, practiced medicine. And her mother, Grace Hall, was a high-level opera soloist.

Childhood and youth

The mother was originally a strange woman and until the age of 4 she dressed Ernest in girlish dresses and braided bows for him. Matriarchy reigned in the family. To her husband's questions, Grace waywardly answered about her long-standing desire to give birth to a girl. The situation returned to normal when subsequent children appeared in the family.

From childhood, Ernest was trained by his father to hunt and fish. In his free time, the boy completely immersed himself in the world of literature, ignoring games with peers. Already at school age, several articles published in a local publication came out from under his pen. At the age of 16, the young man wrote the first story dedicated to the hunt "Sepi Zhingan".

Along with this, the boy wished to develop physically and began to attend a boxing club. But soon he had to leave the ring, as a sparring partner seriously injured him. Ernest was temporarily blind and deaf on the left side. This defect did not allow Hemingway to serve in the army, where he really wanted to get into. Subsequently, he managed to get a job as a driver in the medical battalion. In 1918 he was wounded in Italy and was commissioned.

After demobilization, Ernest decided to settle in Canada. Here the skills of the writer came in handy and a vacancy was easily found in the Toronto Star newspaper. After 3 years, the young writer moved to Paris and began his career as a writer. His mentor was the 47-year-old American writer Gertrude Stein, who lives in France. Ernest took over quality experience from her.

Popularity

Hemingway first became truly popular in 1926 with the release of The Sun Also Rises. In the next 20 years, the writer donates to the society the works “The Winner Gets Nothing”, “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” and “For Whom the Bell Tolls”. In 1949 he moved to live in Cuba. After 3 years, the literary masterpiece "The Old Man and the Sea" comes out from under the pen. Hemingway won the Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes for this novel.

*The writer hated signing autographs, and wrote to an obsessive fan after 3 months of harassment: "Victor Hill, a real son of a bitch who can't take no for an answer!"

Rice. 3 Ernest Hemingway and Fidel Castro

Friends, acquaintances

Ernest Hemingway was a man and preferred to make friends with people like himself, such as the writer Thornton Wilder, mentor Gertrude Stein, neighbors Taylor Williams and Charles Atkinson. He liked to boast in the stories of his romantic adventures. But, all his friends called him "puritan", because he did not like intrusions with questions in his personal life and immediately blushed.

He interviewed Mussolini in 1922 and joked about him, calling the leader of the Italian fascists the greatest charlatan. He did not see eye to eye with him and was forced to leave Cuba after a party member came to power, losing his real estate.

Personal life

The writer has been married 4 times. With his first wife, Elizabeth Hadley Richardson, they had a son, John. They soon divorced because Ernest hit on her friend Paulina Pfeiffer and married her. The marriage produced sons Patrick and Gregory. The marriage was unhappy and short-lived.

For the 3rd time, the writer married the journalist Martha Gellhorn, but could not withstand her dominant pressure and divorced in 1945. Finally, Hemingway found the woman of his dreams - Mary Welch, to whom he became engaged for the 4th time. She was accommodating and endured all his romantic adventures. Actresses Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich are attributed to the number of his mistresses.

Rice. 4 Ernest Hemingway and Mary Welch

The life of such a writer is dotted with various interesting facts. Some of them are funny, others are sad. Here are some of the most reliable information:

• Hemingway did not hide his hatred for his mother and ran away from home for the first time at the age of 15;
• in the First World War (1914-1918) the writer received 2 medals for courage on the Italian front;
• Ernest survived 5 accidents and 7 different disasters;
• Hemingway won the argument of writers for brevity of thought, coming up with a touching story of 6 words: “Children's shoes are for sale. Unworn.";
• once Ernest shot a photo of Mary's ex-wife in a hotel with a gun, as a result of which 4 floors were flooded. A large sum had to be paid for the repair;
• in 1933, a fraudster disguised as Hemingway traveled around the United States, signed autographs and raised money for the publication of new books. Many defrauded contributors filed lawsuits, damaging the writer's reputation;
• Stanley Dexter gave Hemingway a kitten with 6 toes. The pet was named "Snowball". After the death of the writer, 57 six-toed cats and cats, heirs of an unusual dynasty, lived in his house;
• younger brother Lester Hemingway became a writer and shot himself in 1982;
• Margo's granddaughter Louise Hemingway became a model and committed suicide in 1996.

Many psychologists and biographers were convinced that the power of thought of Ernest Hemingway received a vivid expression after numerous injuries in road accidents and wounds at the front. To some critics, such as Arthur Meisener, the writer answered with scathing letters.

Video."Ernest Hemingway" is an interesting documentary film from the series "Geniuses and Villains"

Ernest Hemingway: the fatal inevitability of suicide

The journalist Bernard-Henri Levy (13) was very eloquent. When he, dressed in a black suit and white shirt, raised his voice, no one dared to interrupt him. A critic wrote of him: “He has complete power over his listeners. Without stopping, breathing pauses and any hesitation, he scatters his wit, squanders it, squanders it - wit literally bursts him from the inside ... The goal he pursues is the victory of the educated majority; the remedy for this is rhetorical assassination.” A charmingly sly philosopher and Frenchman, he was used to capturing the attention of people so much that they believed any of his statements - even if they were very modestly justified.

But so far it has been different. Levi asked, insisted, sought an answer - but the wall of silence that had grown up around him did not yield to his efforts and did not disappear.

He visited the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, whose list of patients included many celebrities: John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, George Harrison, Billy Graham and Bono, lead singer of U2. But Levi was interested in the writer Ernest Hemingway, who was treated in this institution twice, and the second time shortly before his suicide.

In Mayo, no one seems to have heard of him. Portraits of famous patients and their doctors were hung on the walls. But for some reason, there was no place for paintings depicting Hemingway and his then doctor Howard Rome.

Levy quoted the clinic's press secretary as Mary, Hemingway's last wife, speaking of "terrible mistakes" made by his doctors. The answer was only a look of bewilderment. Levy asked if Dr. Rome had cooperated with the FBI and whether it was his task to get the objectionable writer out of the game. It turned out that documents capable of shedding light on this are not available.

Why was Hemingway's stay in Rochester so shamefully hushed up? It is likely that the FBI hired a doctor to look after a patient who did not hide his socialist views and was a bosom friend of Fidel Castro. Perhaps another, more plausible explanation: the Mayo Clinic still does not like to remember what their doctors did to the writer.

Ernest Hemingway felt quite early how closely medicine, depression and death were closely connected. His father, a respected physician, shot himself in 1928. In May 1944, as a correspondent for an American magazine, Hemingway traveled to London to oversee the opening of a "second front" from there. He settled in one of the most luxurious hotels in London and spent every night from dusk to dawn at parties. During one of these drinking parties, he met Dr. Peter Gorer - a well-known specialist in tumor diseases - told the doctor about his suspicions about skin cancer, which, for unknown reasons, attributed to himself during the transatlantic voyage. Gorer only ridiculed him (and his happiness that Hemingway did not break loose, which usually happened to him in such situations). The medic offered to take the writer back to the hotel. They did not drive even a kilometer, as the car crashed into a steel tank with water. Hemingway hit his face on the windshield. When he was taken to the hospital covered in blood, everyone assumed that he was already dead. The next morning, the newspapers wrote about the "tragic death" of the famous writer. But the doctors sewed up about sixty wounds on his face and brought him back to life. This was not the only time the press reported Hemingway's death prematurely.

The second time he "died" nine years later in Africa, when he survived two plane crashes in a row. Newspapers announced his death after the first disaster, from which he emerged relatively unscathed. But after the second, he was so bad that the doctors wondered how he managed to survive. He had brain damage associated with temporary blindness of the left eye and deafness of the left ear, contusion of the spine with paresis of the muscles of the lower abdomen and rupture of the liver, kidneys and spleen. In addition, severe skin inflammation began, which also covered the wounds of his disfigured face. A month later, the situation became even worse: during a forest fire, he received second-degree burns. All these events so exhausted the writer that he could not come to Stockholm for the Nobel Prize.

What caused the next events? Severe injuries, traumatic brain injury or hereditary tendency to depression? In any case, Hemingway's mental and physical decline began with the misfortunes described. Every day after breakfast he drank a glass of vodka, and in the evening his sphere of interest shifted towards cocktails and whiskey. His body became fuller and heavier. By the age of fifty, he suffered from high blood pressure, excessive cholesterol levels in the blood, and an itchy skin rash that drove him crazy. During a sea voyage from France to America, he became so ill that he had to go to the ship's doctor, who prescribed vitamin B injections, cortisone cream, and blood pressure medication. But the patient did not get better from the use of such a wide range of drugs.

Later, in Cuban Havana, Hemingway was treated by Dr. Rafael Ballestero. Since that time, the miracles of the pharmaceutical industry have finally taken their place in the life of the writer. His own current state could not but disturb Hemingway, who professed male heroism and the lifestyle of true machos. To re-give his swollen body a masculine outline, he was given injections of testosterone and other anabolics. In addition, he was prescribed Ritalin to combat hyperactivity, and potent barbiturates for normal sleep. Let's not forget a special medicine to reduce the amount of cholesterol plaques. Until now, no one can objectively evaluate the combined effect of these drugs, much less predict the result of their interaction with alcohol, which Hemingway consumed in large quantities before and after treatment.

Thanks to Dr. Ballestero, the era of reserpine began in Hemingway's life. This alkaloid was borrowed from Ayurvedic practice, and its effect cannot be called sparing. It acts directly on the brain and sympathetic nervous system, which is why it is prescribed for high blood pressure or schizophrenia. Ballestero used reserpine to make it easier for his patient to give up alcohol, a property that was then attributed to the drug. Fatal mistake! Reserpine not only did not lead to the rejection of alcohol, but also intensified the developed depression. Reserpine did not fit Hemingway, who was withdrawing deeper into himself. “We can argue that this medical error was one of the decisive factors that led to his suicide,” explains American pharmacologist and researcher on the life of Hemingway Alex Cardoni.

There were also clear signs of manic depression. Periods of euphoria, during which Hemingway became an unbridled merry fellow, flowed into the deepest melancholy, and these two states increasingly replaced each other. On his sixtieth birthday, he non-stop uncorked bottles of champagne in rows and shot corks at guests, knocking cigarettes out of their mouths. He joked, danced and drank with such vigor as if it were his last day. Or so it seemed to his World War II comrade Buck Lanham. The fighting general put his hand on his old friend's shoulder and patted his hair. But the writer shuddered, as if someone had hit him, shouted: “No one can touch my hair!” and wept like a little child.

Increasingly, crazy ideas came into his head: the writer seemed to see tax inspectors and FBI officers everywhere. In addition, he believed that he would soon go blind. His body, too, noticeably weakened: he was emaciated, his chest was hollow, his shoulders seemed to bend over her, his hands seemed to belong to a deep old man. When two professors from Montana State University came to invite him to a literary evening, they were horrified: “He moved, feeling everything in front of him, like an old man. His decrepitude made a strong impression on us. He spoke in abrupt phrases and hardly uttered even a couple of coherent phrases.

Hemingway's wife Mary and his elderly family doctor, George Savier, knew they had to act. They suggested that the patient go to the hospital. On November 30, 1960, a large, white-bearded man named George Savier showed up at the reception desk at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. To keep his hospitalization a secret, Hemingway went there under the name of his own doctor.

His internal organs, including a diseased liver, were dealt with by the therapist Hugh Batt, and the psyche by Dr. Howard Rome. Rome did an extremely useful thing: opened the patient's eyes to the fact that his depression is directly related to the consumption of reserpine and Ritalin - and the mixture of these two substances was a truly fatal chemical cocktail. However, there was no strict control over Hemingway's consumption of drugs. Instead, an electric shock was added to them. The writer, wounded during the war and his other disasters, was tightly tied to the operating table, the temples were rubbed with gel for better conductivity and electrodes were brought to them. Then the current was applied. The rubber gag in his mouth was supposed to prevent him from biting off his own tongue. All this happened several times a week.

Such methods of treatment at first glance resemble torture - but you should refrain from hasty conclusions. After all, electroshock therapy (as the correct medical term sounds) is also very successful in modern medicine, as it affects the areas of the brain responsible for the development of depression. But then, in the sixties, no one had sufficient experience in this kind of treatment, and in the case of Hemingway, the electric shock did not justify itself. He continued to have bouts of delirium, and in addition there were memory lapses. He told one of the visitors: “These shock therapists do not understand anything about writing. Why mutilate my brain, destroy my memory, in which all my capital? Then he added ironically: “The treatment was brilliant, but the patient is dead. Bad story."

Rome and other doctors, on the contrary, were sure that the treatment had worked. On January 22, they released Hemingway from the clinic. His wife Mary experienced a mixture of joy and hopelessness. She was afraid that she herself would soon not be able to "distinguish fiction from reality." Not a single doctor could guess how deeply Hemingway had led his wife into the abyss of moral degradation. And in our days, the fact is often neglected that along with the mentally ill, his life partner usually suffers.

On April 23, 1961, Mary found her husband with a hunting rifle and two cartridges, and found a letter addressed to her in a gun safe. She distracted Ernest with conversation long enough until Dr. Savier came and brought the dangerous situation to naught. Two days later, Hemingway went to Rochester for the second time. During an intermediate landing, he got off the plane, and then ran onto the runway in front of the accelerating car. The pilot barely had time to slow down.

The Mayo Clinic continued electroshock therapy. One day, during a break between procedures, Rome and Hemingway spoke quite openly about suicide. The patient made it clear to the doctor that there was no chance of preventing his suicide: “I don’t need any gun: I can use a piece of glass or hang myself with my own belt.” However, Hemingway promised not to take his own life in the clinic. Rome nodded in satisfaction and they shook hands.

Hemingway was discharged on May 26. Seeing Mary arriving, he smiled, "like a Cheshire cat." His wife, who had lived with him for seventeen years, knew that she no longer had the strength to keep him under control. A few weeks later, in the early hours of July 2, 1961, Hemingway fired a double shot from a hunting rifle into his head. Only in the afternoon, his wife called the police and told the law enforcement officers who arrived that her husband had accidentally shot himself while cleaning a gun. She stuck to this version for five years. In 1966, she finally admitted that it was suicide: “For a long time I refused to admit it. I think it was a kind of self-defense."