This is the story of Valerie Hemingway. She was born in Ireland in 1940 and was virtually abandoned by her parents who could not cope with children, financially and otherwise, at the age of 3 or so to a strict boarding school.

Later, as a teen, she was employed as a sort of traveling secretary by Ernest Hemingway, during the last couple of years of his life, traveling in Europe and living in Cuba with the author and his wife.

While the author showed some romantic interest in her, nothing was ever consummated. After his death, she worked on organizing his unpublished work.

In 1966, Valerie married Ernest Hemingway's troubled youngest son, Gregory, a cross-dressing, transexual with some psychotic tendencies.

She had an illegetimate son with author Brendan Behan and 3 children with Gregory Hemingway.

Gregory Hemingway had a sad life, never living up to the dreams he had of surpassing his father. He ended up dying of a heart attack in a woman's jail. During the times he tried for a normal life (few and far between) he was actually an admired doctor in small communities out west.

anyone interested in a new perspective on Hemingway in his most confused years - toward the end.

how she doesn't deal straightforwardly with the source of income for the family. It is Pfeiffer money (not Heminway money) that supported Gregory and Patrick Hemingway as they are heirs to the Pfizer fortune as in Pfizer Pharmaceuticals. Why not be up front with that since it is a lot of money that it took to support 4 kids and Gregory not working much as a doctor.

Hemingway disinherited (sort of) his kids because he knew they had Pauline's family's money. Hadley and Bumby (Jack) had the rights in perpetuity to A Sun Also Rises.

is not straight about the money situation and that led me to doubt her veracity. Otherwise, it is a pretty good story.

she tells about Hemingway's last years in a way that is sadly believable.

The man had a lot of people mooching off of him all throughout his successful life, including some of his family.

But it is Pfeifer moola that backs up two of his children. I wish she would have been honest about that. Why some people want to ignore the Pfeiffer part of the picture is beyond me. They had more money then they knew what to do with.

Ernest became rich, but Pfeiffers were in another category of wealthy.

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Created Jun 06, 2014 at 10:55am • Submit your own review...