Hemingway's guns

[Steve McCarty]

I am on a quest to own guns like those that Ernest Hemingway owned. I bought the new book about the old boy and his guns and it started me off. It was relatively easy to pick up a old, well worn, Model 12 and the Model 62 Winchester .22. I've got a Superposed like his. The Griffin and Howe 03 Springfield is going to be spendy (as we say in Oregon), but they are available. I've got a Mannlicher Schoenaur (sp?) carbine. The Colt Woodsman will be easy.

I cannot find any data that reports that Hem owned a Parker. Anybody out there know if he did?

I am going to make an exception with the Model 21. For the money I just don't like them, and anyway Hem gave those to his wives.

Not sure what I'm going to do about the 577 double rifle. I've always wanted to own one of those boomers, but I think, if I can find the scratch, I'll buy any double rifle in some kind of caliber that I can shoot comfortably, like a .303 and call it good.

BTW: I am already well over Papa's age when he blew his brains out, so I doubt I'll complete my task, but any reason to buy another gun is worth the effort. He killed himself with a W.C. Scott 12 gauge. I see those from time to time.

Please don't PM me with guns that you have for sale. I'm ammo minus in the $ dept today. I'm saving up.

[Drew Hause]

No record of a Parker
http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/20113472

"When you have loved three things all your life, from the earliest you can remember, to fish, to shoot and, later, to read; and when, all your life the necessity to write has been your master, YOU LEARN TO REMEMBER and, when you think back you remember more fishing and shooting and reading than anything else and that is a pleasure."

Sad and prescient words.
Hemingway likely had bipolar disorder, and his father and two siblings committed suicide. In the fall of 1960 he was being treated for alcoholic liver disease and hypertension (some antihypertensives can cause depression) and had his first round of Electroconvulsive Therapy at the Mayo Clinic. Following a suicide attempt in the spring of 1961, he had more treatments at the Menninger Clinic.
With his body destroyed by alcohol, and his memories erased by the ECT, he committed suicide July 2, 1961.

For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) "The world is a fine place and worth fighting for and I hate very much to leave it."

[Steve McCarty]

Slightly off kilter geniuses interest me. (Are they all?) W.C. Fields, Groucho Marx, Dorothy Parker, Twain, T.R. and of course Hemingway. I ponder, that if we had met, if I would have liked the guy. Not sure; don't think so. Bob Ruark wrote that he ran into Hem in one of his favorite watering holes in Cuba. Papa was in a secluded rear table, behind some potten plants, working on editing. Ruark said he appeared to be deep in thought and he as so intimidated by the man's presence that he feared to go back and say hello.

Some wag wrote that all real men either want to be like Hemingway, or to be liked by him. He had demons...including demon rum which he imbibed copious like. Biographies of the man are compelling. It would have been exciting to attend a bull fight with him. He considered himself expert on such matters. Today we'd probably fix him up and he would have lived another decade or so.

[Steve McCarty]

Thanks, Drew, for the Hem attachment. During the past year several interesting books have been published about Hemingway: One is a redo of A Moveable Feast, much different from the one edited by Mary Hem after the man's death. Paris Wife a novel based upon Hadley, his first, and as he later said, best wife. There is also a bio of Valeria Hemingway who was Hem's secretary at the end of his life and who eventually married Gregory (Gigi) Hemingway. They met at Ernest's funeral.

Ernest's quixotic personality was inherited by Gigi. He became a relatively successful MD. He was a cross dressor and suffered from that ailment from his earliest days and it got worse. Hem disowned him. He married Valerie, Hem's loyal secretary. They had several children. Then Gigi had a sex changer operation and they divorced. Gigi died in a women's prison and sad, confused and broken man...er women. She went by Gloria. Of course Ernest's beautiful and talented granddaugher was bipolar and she too committed suicide. Many within the Hemingway family, both before Hem and after, have suffered from mental maladies.

I find the man fascinating. It would have been fun searching for errant U-boats with the guy in the Carrib. Might get in some fishing too.

[ed good]

anybody see the recent woody allen flick "midnight in paris"? hemingway and some of his contemporaries are in it...delightful little movie to watch with a lady friend.

[Bill Murphy]

Boss.

[Steve McCarty]

Originally Posted by ed good

anybody see the recent woody allen flick "midnight in paris"? hemingway and some of his contemporaries are in it...delightful little movie to watch with a lady friend.

I watched Midnight in Paris twice. I'm sure that Woody Allen wrote the lines for the HEM character. I wonder what Hem would have thought about how he was portrayed.

A few things however. Gertrude Stein, and Alice B. Toklas lived in a studio apartment. In the movie it looks like a penthouse. I would have liked to hear more dialogue from her about writing other than, "Keep at it", or some such drivel.

Hem and Stein liked eachother for a while and he loved going over to her place. Some interesting people dropped by. Fitzgerald and Zelda, John Dospasos (sp?), Joyce, Picasso, Pissario (?) [sure wish I could spell], several artists of renoun. Even Calder I think. Papa bought one of his paintings and kept it for the rest of his life. Hem considered himself a great art critic. Don't know if he actually was however.

Hem dropped by Stein's apartment and over heard she and Alice doing what comes unnaturally; and they knew and he knew and both were so embarrassed that Hem and Stein never did get along after that.

Stein was a fan of the laconic, and she must have influenced HEM's writing style. I think Stein is/was over rated. Apparently Alice was the more interesting of the two.

[Dean Romig]

Didn't Alice B. Toklas make cookies or somethin'?

[OH Osthaus]

Originally Posted by Dean Romig

Didn't Alice B. Toklas make cookies or somethin'?

yeah or sumpthun

[Grantham Forester]

Originally Posted by Rick Losey

yeah or sumpthun

Alice B. Toklas and Pauline Pfeiffer's sister Jinny were both Lesbians, back at the time when homosexuality was a dark dirty secret. There is a theory that one reason for Hemingway's youngest son, Gregory (aka- GiGi) turned out so "mixed up' about his sexual orientation is the great amount of time he spent in the care of Jinny Pfeiffer, while his mother and father were away on jaunts. Unlike Pauline's super wealthy uncle Gustavus Pfeiffer, who favored Ernest and Pauline with funds to: Take their first trip to Africa-- order the Wheeler fishing boat named the Pilar, purchased several new cars and also bought the house in Key West on Whitehead street for them, Jinny hated Ernest and did apparently try to be a divisive force in their troubled marriage. The best read on this is Bernice Kert's novel "The Hemingway Women", she did her research very well indeed.