https://nationalpost.com/entertainment/books/ernest-hemingway-depression-anger-plagued-him-until-it-was-time-for-him-to-die
An unmovable beast: How depression and anger plagued Ernest Hemingway until the moment 'it was time for him to die'
'He loved everything up to a certain point, and then nothing was good anymore'
Author of the article:
Robert Fulford
Published Aug 02, 2016 • 4 minute read
Article content
The most famous writer of the 20th century, Ernest Hemingway, had such an eventful life that he created enough myths to keep his story alive well into this century and possibly beyond.
For instance, his renown as a two-fisted drinker led 36 years ago to the creation of an annual Hemingway look-alike competition at Sloppy Joe’s Bar in Key West, FL. This year Sloppy Joe’s showed up on the news because a man actually named Hemingway won, over 119 other shaggy-bearded entrants. Dave Hemingway said he’s unrelated to the author, but shares the same interests: fishing, drinking, women and having a good time.
He and most patrons of Sloppy Joe’s probably take a light-hearted view of Ernest Hemingway’s drinking. According to legend, he was a happy drinker who had a good time with liquor. But in the same week Dave Hemingway was declared best-in-show, Mariel Hemingway was in Miami to give a speech on depression.
She’s the actress who played Woody Allen’s teenage girlfriend in Manhattan, but has become better known in mental health circles as a woman dealing with seven suicides in her family, including her grandfather Ernest, her great-grandfather Ed and her sister Margaux. At age 54, Mariel spends much of her time as a mental health advocate. Last year she wrote her memoirs, Out Came the Sun: Overcoming the Legacy of Mental Illness, Addiction, and Suicide in My Family.
She too has suffered from depression. “I grew up watching a family that was completely amazing and creative but also destructive and self-medicating. All of them, they were addicts.” She was anxious not to emulate her depressed and alcoholic parents. “I’ve chanted,” she said recently. “I’ve done primal scream. I’ve tried to find all the different avenues to create balance.”













