In 1954, Ernest Hemingway survived two plane crashes in two days. He was presumed dead almost 24 hours later until he was spotted coming out of the jungle carrying bananas and a bottle of gin. One of the planes was burning on the runway. The door was stuck. So Hemingway headbutted it open. He never fully recovered from the concussion and it’s theorised this may have been the starting point for his cognitive decline.
Ernest Hemingway
During WW2, Ernest Hemingway led a….
During WW2, Ernest Hemingway led a small Militia in a village outside Paris, and this caused him to be brought up on formal charges for violating the Geneva Convention “because a correspondent is not supposed to lead troops, even if he does it well.”
Ernest Hemingway was recruited…
Ernest Hemingway was recruited as a spy for the KGB in 1941, code named “Argo”, but he never provided any valuable information and was abandoned by the Soviets by the end of the 1940’s.
Ernest Hemingway had often complained…
Ernest Hemingway had often complained the FBI was tracking him, but was dismissed by friends and family as paranoid. Years after his death released FBI files showed he had been on heavy surveillance, with the FBI following him and bugging his phones for nearly the final 20 years of his life.
Among the thousands of men…
Among the thousands of men on the Normandy beaches on D-Day there was one single woman. Martha Gellhorn, a rogue war correspondent who stowed away in the toilet of a hospital ship and also happened to be the third wife of Ernest Hemingway.
Ernest Hemingway hunted U Boats and Submarines…
Ernest Hemingway hunted U Boats and Submarines on his fishing boat with grenades and machine guns.
When faced with belligerence in bars, James
When faced with belligerence in bars, James Joyce would hide behind Ernest Hemingway, his drinking buddy, and shout, “Deal with him, Hemingway! Deal with him!”
Ernest Hemingway begged his wife not to send him for more electroshock…
Ernest Hemingway begged his wife not to send him for more electroshock treatments because he lost so much of his memory he couldn’t even remember his own name. He committed suicide the day after his 36th shock treatment.
Ernest Hemingway grew paranoid and talked about FBI…
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 Edgard Hoover personally placed him under surveillance.
Ernest Hemingway took a urinal from his favorite…
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.