Re: hemingway

jordie chambers (jordiekc@rocketmail.com)
Fri, 04 Jun 1999 19:18:17 -0700 (PDT) 

Hemingway was a manic depressive, and, like many bipolars,
he lived an exciting roller coaster for a life.  He put
his body through alot of abuse and his mind suffered as
well, WWI, lost kids, divorces, etc.  Hemingway killed
himself for his own reasons, I'm sure, but manic
depression has a long list of self extinguished victims
under its title.  The reason why he had so much trouble
with the one sentence was said to be due to airplane
crashes in Africa where he suffered brain injuries.  Also,
he drank like a camel.  The suicide doesn't strike me as
far fetched at all.

---Tim O'Connor <tim@roughdraft.org> wrote:
>
> On Fri, Jun 04, 1999 at 09:51:40AM -0600, Patti Larrabee
wrote:
> 
> > Did any of you read the Hemingway short story in last
week's New 
> > Yorker?  There was also a piece by Lillian Ross
concerning her 
> > friendship with Mr. Hemingway.  She is sure he did not
commit 
> > suicide.  Any comments?
> 
> There has always been a (naive) contention in the
literary world that 
> Hemingway was cleaning his shotgun when he blew his head
off.  Some 
> people simply could not -- and cannot -- accept the
suicide angle.
> 
> On more than one occasion, Mary Hemingway found him
headed to the locked
> cabinet where the shotguns were stored, unloaded.  One
day she left the 
> cabinet unlocked, with the ammunition accessible (even
she admitted, 
> once, that she may have done it subconsciously, so that
Hemingway could 
> end his misery), and he went downstairs and opened the
cabinet and put 
> the shotgun to his head.  She was asleep; it woke her,
and she said it 
> sounded like a drawer being slammed shut. 
> 
> His final days were tragic (there is the story of his
attempt to write
> a one-sentence inscription in a book to be sent to
President Kennedy,
> and he worked on it all day, with no result) and it is
easy to imagine
> that his friends simply want to deny to themselves that
the suicide was
> a conscious action.
> 
> He may have been deeply depressed, but he was
experienced enough with
> guns that it seems incredibly unlikely that he would
load shells into a
> gun and then commence to clean it, accidentally
beheading himself in the
> process.
> 
> --tim o'connor
> 

_________________________________________________________
DO YOU YAHOO!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com