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Espiritus_Corvus's avatar

What ever happened to the pistol that Ernest Hemingway’s father used to shoot himself?

Asked by Espiritus_Corvus (17294points) April 20th, 2011

In 1897 Hemingway’s maternal grandfather, Ernest Hall, attempted suicide using a Civil War-era .32-cal. pistol and would have been successful if Hemingway’s father, Dr Clarence Hemingway, hadn’t recognized Ernest’s suicidal behavior and removed the bullets from the gun.

Clarence later used the same gun to shoot himself on Dec. 6, 1928. Hemingway. At the time, considered suicide the ultimate act of cowardice and refused to go to the funeral. Soon after the funeral, his mother, who Hemingway had had a contentious relationship since youth, sent him the pistol via parcel post to his home in Key West. Hemingway’s wife, Pauline Pfeiffer kind of freaked out and Hemingway explained that it was his mother’s act of revenge for not going to his father’s funeral.

I just thought this pistol had an interesting, although admittedly morbid, history as it is connected to a Nobel prize winning author, his disastrous relationship to his parents, especially his mother, which affected all his relationships with women, and was the instrument used in the first of eight suicides in the Hemingway family. I was just wondering what he did with it after he received it in Key West. Did he leave it in the house with Pauline after their divorce in 1940? Did it then go to his estranged youngest son, 20-year-old Gregory, when Pauline died in the house at Key West in 1951? Or did he carry it with him to Finca Vigia, his little farm on the coast just outside Havana? Did it then end up in the possession of his last wife, Mary Welch, in the house at Ketchum, Idaho where Hemingway himself committed suicide in 1961? Did it eventually end up at the Hemingway Institute museum in Oak Park, Illinois, or in private hands of a collector? Does anybody know anything about this pistol?

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3 Answers

BarnacleBill's avatar

Interesting question and story. There is a book about Hemingway’s Guns. I wonder if the authors would know the answer.

TexasDude's avatar

This is really interesting… and I may have a resource that can tell the answer, but I’ll have to find it.

What I really want to know is what happened to Winston Churchill’s C96 that his mom bought him.

Espiritus_Corvus's avatar

@BarnacleBill
Thanks. I’ll check it out at the library.
@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard
I don’t know about the C96, but Churchill’s mother was one interesting Victorian.

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