Leicester Hemingway | |
---|---|
Born |
Oak Park, Illinois, U.S. |
April 1, 1915
Died | September 13, 1982 | (aged 67)
Occupation | Writer |
Children | 4 |
Relatives |
Grace Hall Hemingway (mother) Ernest Hemingway (brother) |
Leicester Clarence Hemingway (April 1, 1915, in Oak Park, Illinois – September 13, 1982) was an American writer. He was the younger brother of writer Ernest Hemingway and wrote six books, including a first novel entitled The Sound of the Trumpet (1953), based on Leicester's experiences in France and Germany during World War II.
In 1961, Leicester published My Brother, Ernest Hemingway, a biography. The work was well-received and brought Leicester both recognition as a writer in his own right and significant financial rewards. With the capital from the work, Hemingway created the micronation of New Atlantis on a barge off the coast of Jamaica, intended to serve as a marine research headquarters. The project was cut short when New Atlantis was destroyed in a 1966 tropical storm.
Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois, to Clarence Edmonds Hemingway, a physician, and Grace Hall Hemingway a musician. He was the youngest of six siblings: Marcelline (1898), Ernest (1899), Ursula (1902), Madelaine (1904), and Carol (1911).
He had two marriages; the first gave him two sons, the second two daughters.
In 1982, Hemingway committed suicide with a gunshot to the head, after having suffered several years from Type II diabetes, which necessitated numerous operations.
Hemingway founded his micronation of New Atlantis on an 8 foot by 30 foot barge he had towed 12 nautical miles out from Jamaica, in July 1964. He utilized the 1856 Guano Islands Act to claim half of the barge as a new nation and half for the United States. Hemingway also "wrote" a constitution, which was a copy of the U.S. Constitution with the words "New Atlantis" substituted for "United States". New Atlantis' purpose was to generate money for oceanographic research by selling coins and stamps. In 1966, the micronation was ravaged by a storm and then ransacked by fishermen.