Monday, April 1, 2013

Hemingway: a life looking for trouble


Some highlights of Hemingway's adventurous life (from Wikipedia):

-Early in 1918 Hemingway responded to a Red Cross recruitment effort in Kansas City and signed on to become an ambulance driver in Italy. He left New York in May, and arrived in Paris as the city was under bombardment from German artillery. By June he was at the Italian Front. On his first day in Milan he was sent to the scene of a munitions factory explosion where rescuers retrieved the shredded remains of female workers.

-On July 8 he was seriously wounded by mortar fire, having just returned from the canteen bringing chocolate and cigarettes for the men at the front line. Despite his wounds, Hemingway carried an Italian soldier to safety, for which he received the Italian Silver Medal of Bravery.

-He covered the Greco-Turkish War, where he witnessed the burning of Smyrna.

-In 1933 Hemingway went on safari to East Africa. The 10-week trip provided material for "Green Hills of Africa", as well as for the short stories "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" and "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber". He visited Mombasa, Nairobi, and Machakos in Kenya, then moved on to Tanganyika. During these travels Hemingway contracted amoebic dysentery that caused a prolapsed intestine, and he was evacuated by plane to Nairobi.

-In 1937 Hemingway agreed to report on the Spanish Civil War for the North American Newspaper Alliance.

-From June to December 1944 Hemingway was in Europe. At the D-Day landing, he was kept on a landing craft because military officials considered him "precious cargo". Late in July he attached himself to "the 22nd Infantry Regiment as it drove toward Paris", and Hemingway became de facto leader to a small band of village militia in Rambouillet outside of Paris.

-On August 25 he was present at the liberation of Paris.

-In 1947 Hemingway was awarded a Bronze Star for his bravery during World War II.

-In 1954, while in Africa, Hemingway was almost fatally injured in two successive plane crashes.

-He was told to stop drinking to mitigate liver damage, advice he initially followed but then disregarded.

-In the early morning hours of July 2, 1961, Hemingway "quite deliberately" shot himself with his favorite shotgun.[142] He unlocked the basement storeroom where his guns were kept, went upstairs to the front entrance foyer of their Ketchum home, and "pushed two shells into the twelve-gauge Boss shotgun ...put the end of the barrel into his mouth, pulled the trigger and blew out his brains.




One of the rare moments of relaxation.