Jack Hemingway | |
|---|---|
 Hemingway with his parents in 1926 | |
| Born | John Hadley Nicanor Hemingway (1923-10-10)October 10, 1923 Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Died | December 1, 2000(2000-12-01) (aged 77) New York City, U.S. |
| Resting place | Ketchum Cemetery Ketchum, Idaho, U.S. |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Education | |
| Occupation(s) | Angler, conservationist, writer |
| Known for | Oldest son ofErnest Hemingway |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 3, includingMargaux andMariel Hemingway |
| Parent(s) | Ernest Hemingway Hadley Richardson Hemingway |
| Relatives | Patrick Hemingway (paternal half-brother) Gloria Hemingway (paternal half-sister) |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch |  U.S. Army |
| Years of service | 1941–1945 |
| Rank |  Lieutenant |
| Unit | Military police,OSS |
| Battles / wars | World War II; North Africa,occupied France;prisoner of war |
John Hadley Nicanor Hemingway (October 10, 1923 – December 1, 2000) was the Canadian-American son of American novelistErnest Hemingway. He was aconservationist and wrote two books onfly fishing.
Jack Hemingway was born inToronto, Ontario, Canada, the only child of American writerErnest Hemingway and his first wifeHadley Richardson. He had two half-siblings,Patrick andGregory Hemingway, from Hemingway's marriage toPauline Pfeiffer.
Throughout his life, Jack was considered by many to bear a strong physical resemblance to his father,[1] but was more like his mother in temperament: "good-natured and even-tempered, and not particularly driven".[2] He was named for his mother, and for the Spanish matadorNicanor Villalta y Serrés, whom his father admired.[3]Gertrude Stein andAlice B. Toklas were his godparents.[4] Nicknamed Bumby as a toddler by his mother "because of his plump teddy-bear qualities",[5] he spent his early years in Paris and the Austrian Alps, and spoke French throughout his life.[4][6]
Hemingway attended the University of Montana and Dartmouth College, but never graduated, instead enlisting in the U.S. Army after theattack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.[6] Known for his sense of humor, in late 1943 atCamp Shanks near Orangeburg, New York, he overheard two older men (one of whom he recognized) in a bar arguing over who was the better writer, Ernest Hemingway orWilliam Faulkner. Jack interrupted, and said in his opinion, there was "a writer that was a better storyteller than either Hemingway or Faulkner –Maurice Walsh." One of the men said, "I am Maurice Walsh," to which Hemingway responded, "I'm Jack Hemingway ... pleased to meet you."[2]
Assigned overseas to France in 1944, he started as a military police officer commanding a special unit of black soldiers, and later obtained a transfer into theOffice of Strategic Services (OSS), the newly formed U.S. wartime intelligence agency that evolved into theCIA after the war.[2] As a French-speaking First Lieutenant with the OSS, he worked with theFrench Resistance.[6] Characteristic of his sense of daring, he parachuted intooccupied France with his fly rod, reel and flies,[2] and was almost captured by a German patrol while fishing after his first mission.[7] While on a leave in Algiers, he met with his father's third wife,Martha Gellhorn, whom Jack called his "favorite other mother", who was on her way to Italy to work as awar correspondent with the French Forces.[2]
In France in late October 1944, Hemingway was wounded and captured by the Germans[1] behind enemy lines in theVosges,[8] and was held as aPOW atMoosburg Prison Camp until April 1945.[9] While a POW, he lost 70 lb (32 kg), dropping from 210 to 140 lb (95 to 64 kg).[2] Upon his release, he was flown to Paris in time to join the crowds celebratingVE-Day on May 8, 1945, in theChamps Elysees so beloved by his parents,[2] and he was awarded theCroix de Guerre by the government of France for his wartime service.[10]
After the war, he was stationed briefly in West Berlin andFreiburg im Breisgau in Germany, and at Fort Bragg, North Carolina,[10] before leaving the army. After his discharge, and back in civilian life, he worked as a stockbroker, and then as a fishing supplies salesman.[6] In 1967, he retired and returned to live in Ketchum, Idaho, his father's last home and burial place. There he taught languages, pursued his passion for fly fishing, and wrote two autobiographical books.[1]
Hemingway married Byra Louise "Puck" Whittlesey on June 25, 1949, in Paris. Their wedding was attended byJulia Child andAlice B. Toklas.[4] The couple had three daughters: Joan Whittlesey "Muffet" Hemingway[a] (born 1950), Margot Louise Hemingway later known asMargaux Hemingway (1954–1996), andMariel Hadley Hemingway (born 1961).[9]
Puck died of cancer in 1988.[4] In 1989, Hemingway married Angela Holvey; they remained married until his death in 2000.[6]
In the 1990s, Margaux accused her father of molesting her as a child, an allegation he denied.[12] She later died of abarbiturate overdose in 1996 at age 42.[13] In a 2013 television documentary filmRunning from Crazy,[14] Mariel backed up her sister's allegation of being molested by Jack, stating that he sexually abused both of her two older sisters in childhood, and that she had been forced to watch him sexually abuse Margaux.[b][15][16]
Throughout his life, Jack Hemingway was an avid fly fisherman.[4] He fished "most of North America's great trout streams", and several of the world's best salmon rivers, such as theLærdalselvi River in Norway.[7]
A long-time resident of Idaho,[10] Hemingway lived in Ketchum, Idaho. From 1971 to 1977, he was a commissioner on the Idaho Fish and Game Commission. Idaho's trout stocks increased as a result of Hemingway's success in getting the state to adopt acatch and release fishing law.[6] His work withThe Nature Conservancy was instrumental in preservingSilver Creek near Sun Valley, Idaho as one of Idaho's premier trout streams.[17]
Jack Hemingway assisted his father's fourth wife and widow,Mary Welsh Hemingway, with final editing before publication ofA Moveable Feast (1964),[4] his father'smemoir of life in 1920s Paris, which was published three years after Ernest Hemingway's death.
Jack Hemingway also published an autobiography,Misadventures of a Fly Fisherman: My Life With and Without Papa, in 1986. A second autobiographical work,A Life Worth Living: The Adventures of a Passionate Sportsman, was released posthumously in 2002.
Jack Hemingway died on December 1, 2000, at age 77 from complications following heart surgery in New York City.[6] He had previously suffered a heart attack at around age 44.[18] In 2001, the state of Idaho designated an annual "Jack Hemingway Conservation Day" in his honor.[19] He is buried inIdaho at theKetchum Cemetery, next to his wife Puck, daughter Margaux, father Ernest, step-mother Mary and half-sisterGloria.
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