In memory of Hemingway, a fellow pipe smoker

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brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
9,603
14,668
Didn't want to let July pass without remembering the tragic passing of legendary author and fellow pipe smoker, Ernest Hemingway, who took his own life on July 2, 1961:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/8614094/Ernest-Hemingway-driven-to-suicide-over-FBI-surveillance.html
Ernest Hemingway 'driven to suicide over FBI surveillance'
AE Hotchner said he believed the FBI's monitoring of the Nobel Prize-winning author, over suspicions of his links to Cuba, "substantially contributed to his anguish and his suicide" 50 years ago.
Hotchner wrote in The New York Times that he had "regretfully misjudged" his friend's fears of federal investigators, which were dismissed as paranoid delusions for years after his death.
In 1983 the FBI released a 127-page file it had kept on Hemingway since the 1940s, confirming he was watched by agents working for J. Edgar Hoover, who took a personal interest in his case.
Hotchner described being met off a train by Hemingway in Ketchum, Idaho, in November 1960, for a pheasant shoot with their friend Duke MacMullen.
Hemingway, struggling to complete his last work, complained "the feds" had "tailed us all the way" and that agents were poring over his accounts in a local bank that they passed on their journey.
"It's the worst hell," Hemingway said. "The goddamnedest hell. They've bugged everything. That's why we're using Duke's car. Mine's bugged. Everything's bugged. Can't use the phone. Mail intercepted."
Later that month he was committed for psychiatric care at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, where he received electric shock treatment. He attempted suicide several times before being released.
A few days after returning home to Ketchum, he shot himself in the head with his favourite shotgun aged 61.
"In the years since, I have tried to reconcile Ernest's fear of the FBI, which I regretfully misjudged, with the reality of the FBI file," wrote Hotchner, the author of 'Papa Hemingway'.
"I now believe he truly sensed the surveillance, and that it substantially contributed to his anguish and his suicide," he said.

 
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gwynclan

Can't Leave
Jan 18, 2012
357
0
Reading Islands in the stream again. I never new FBI was after him!

Rest in peace.

 

barkar

Lifer
Apr 17, 2012
1,104
1
He was an interesting man that is for sure....damn shame when people get pushed past their limits.

 

dervis

Lifer
Jan 30, 2012
1,597
1
Hazel Green AL
Huge fan of all his work. Spent a few vacations in Key West really just to see his house there, and some of the bars he hung out in. At one point in time even had a Hemingway cat. One of my heros, may he rest in peace.

 
Jul 15, 2011
2,363
31
One of my absolute favorite quotes of all time comes from Hemingway, and it is as follows:
"Critics are people who watch a battle from a high place then come down and shoot the survivors."
Truer words were never spoken. May he rest in peace.

 

jpberg

Lifer
Aug 30, 2011
2,904
6,541
If I could only read one mortal author for the rest of my life, his name would be on the short list. That being said, he was a real piece of work (to put it kindly), and more than a bit of a nutter. His death was the last of a lifetime's worth of self centered actions.

 

guitarguy86

Part of the Furniture Now
Jul 6, 2012
703
0
Wow. I never knew that the FBI was after him, nor do I recall hearing that he took his own life. Then again, the only reading on him aside from "The Sun Also Rises" was a couple of hours on the net about his love for alcohol. Either way, I wish he was still alive. :/

 

ssjones

Moderator
Staff member
May 11, 2011
18,317
11,072
Maryland
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My friends grandfather was an FBI agent in for 20 years in the Hoover days. He did some work on the Hemingway case and told us he hated that kind of nonsense. He eventually fell out with Hoover on this kind of stupidity and left the FBI to become Chief of Police for the City of Baltimore. Pre-Miranda days. Boy he had some stories. We begged him to write down and/or record them. Sadly Alzheimers took him before that could be done. Lost to time now.

 

reichenbach

Part of the Furniture Now
Jan 5, 2012
552
2
West Park, NY
Allegedly, when Hemingway had to leave Cuba, he grabbed a few necessaries and left the rest of his belongings thinking that he would be back. Well, he never did come back and the Cuban government (allegedly) has preserved this house as a museum. That would be the one to go to except for that pesky embargo
It's a shame that the FBI hounded him to his death and they probably even had a hand in concocting the story about his suicide being due to his inability to cope with his waning talents.
He was a great talent and remains one of my favorites.
Brian, thank you for marking the occasion of his passing.

 

barkar

Lifer
Apr 17, 2012
1,104
1
Cuba is a very popular vacation spot for Canadians. Some day I would like to see that museum.

 

brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
9,603
14,668
One of my absolute favorite quotes of all time comes from Hemingway, and it is as follows:
"Critics are people who watch a battle from a high place then come down and shoot the survivors."
Truer words were never spoken. May he rest in peace.
Indeed.
My friends grandfather was an FBI agent in for 20 years in the Hoover days. He did some work on the Hemingway case and told us he hated that kind of nonsense. He eventually fell out with Hoover on this kind of stupidity and left the FBI to become Chief of Police for the City of Baltimore. Pre-Miranda days. Boy he had some stories. We begged him to write down and/or record them. Sadly Alzheimers took him before that could be done. Lost to time now.
Great story Al...thank you for relating that.
It's a shame that the FBI hounded him to his death and they probably even had a hand in concocting the story about his suicide being due to his inability to cope with his waning talents.
Yes...and in a way, what is as bad or even worse, is the fact that he received no support from his friends, but was instead labeled as paranoid and delusional...and was subjected to electro shock "therapy". Imagine if he had been believed and supported...very likely he would not have killed himself.
Denial is also a mental illness...but because it is so common and widespread it is not recognized as such.

 

mluyckx

Lifer
Dec 5, 2011
1,958
3
Texas
You know, I don't doubt Hemingway smoked a pipe as did many men of the same period. But I can't recall ever seeing a picture of Hemingway with a pipe. I just pulled my Hemingway books of my shelves to see if any of them had a picture of him with a pipe on the cover. Nada....
Anyone have a pic of him with a pipe ?

 

brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
9,603
14,668
00000016.jpg
Hemingway with pipe
Anyone have a pic of him with a pipe ?
Famous Pipe Smokers, Ernest Hemingway page:
http://josephcrusejohnson.blogspot.com/search?q=hemingway

 

mluyckx

Lifer
Dec 5, 2011
1,958
3
Texas
"Mrs. Hemingway lit a cigarette and handed me the pack. I passed it along to him, but he said he didn't smoke. Smoking ruined his sense of smell, a sense he found completely indispensable for hunting. 'Cigarettes smell so awful to you when you have a nose that can truly smell,' he said, and laughed, hunching his shoulders and raising the back of his fist to his face, as though he expected somebody to hit him."
Lillian Ross, "Portrait of Hemingway", Avon, 1968
Interesting..

 

mluyckx

Lifer
Dec 5, 2011
1,958
3
Texas
Brian, I've seen that picture before, but I for one wouldn't bet my life on it that that is a pipe in his hand...

 

brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
9,603
14,668
Brian, I've seen that picture before, but I for one wouldn't bet my life on it that that is a pipe in his hand...
I wouldn't bet my life on it either.

 

brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
9,603
14,668
If I manage to find a better pic, I'll let ya know Mick...but here's another reference, albeit just a list:
This is a list of prominent people (in fields other than tobacco production or sales) who smoke(d) a pipe for enjoyment. This characterization is based on the person smoking a pipe for a long enough period in their lives that others noted their pipe-smoking or photographed them smoking a pipe. Actors who smoked pipes for roles are not included, unless they also smoked them privately.
http://fujipub.com/ooops/famous.html

 

mluyckx

Lifer
Dec 5, 2011
1,958
3
Texas
You know.. this just got me a google hunt as well :rofl:
I found that list as well and some other smoking websites that list Hemingway as a pipe smoker or cigar smoker, depending on what the website is advocating, but I just can't seem to find

1) A picture of him with a pipe or a cigar for that matter

2) Anything in writing saying he did or did not. Except those unsubstantiated websites and the quote I just posted from an old book on my bookshelf, which only talks about cigarettes.
I also found one quote out there which said that even though Arturo Fuente named a cigar after him, Hemingway himself did not smoke.
I sent an email to the owner of that list to see if he has any more information to substantiate the claim.
The mystery deepens ;-)

 
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