On this date 61 years ago at 7:30am in 1961, Ernest Hemingway woke up and decided to end his life. Living in Ketcham, Idaho with his fourth wife Mary after leaving Cuba for the last time in July 1960. Having lived a life of adventure, heavy drinking and plane crashes that lead to head injuries he was on the verge of a breakdown. While writing an article for Life magazine he was having a hard time arranging his thoughts and cutting down his copy and needed to bring A.E.Hotchner in to organize his thoughts. After Hotchner said Hem was “unusually hesitant, disorganized and confused, and suffering badly from failing eyesight”. Hemingway became depressed and paranoid thinking he was always being watched and would not leave the house.
Mary decided they needed to go to Idaho where his doctor would meet them. Doctor George Saviers felt the author needed to be admitted to the Mayo Clinic where he was given electroshock therapy 15 times in December 1960. Released in January 1961 he returned to Ketchum Idaho, a shell of who the larger than life man used to be.
Months later in April, Mary “found Hemingway holding a shotgun” one morning, this resulted in a return to the Mayo clinic and more electroshock. Back home in Ketchum on June 30, it would be only 36 hours later that he grabbed a shotgun and shot himself in the front entry of his house. Mary was home when it happened and would say his death was accidental while cleaning his gun.
A memorial built in Sun Valley and his own words were used to remember him. "Best of all he loved the fall. The leaves yellow on the cottonwoods. Leaves floating on the trout streams. And above the hills the high blue windless skies. Now he will be a part of them forever”. For a man that was larger than life, it is his early years in Paris that most know today and not the sad end. The author that embraced life in a way that would be told in the many pages of his books, losing that talent later in life may have been too much for him.
If you are in Paris this fall and want to walk in his footsteps with me reach out and book a tour.
