Hemingway and
Mormonism
“Ain’t this Mormon country wonderful!” Cooper
said. “They know how to live.”
“I’m practically one myself,” Ernest said. “Had four
wives, didn’t I?” He took a sip of wine. “To tell the truth,
if I were reborn and I had a choice, I’d be a Mormon.”
Hotchner, A. E. Papa Hemingway; a Personal Memoir,. New York: Random House,
1966. Print.
“I was aware of the quote in Hotchner’s book but had
always assumed it was said tongue in cheek. I don’t
want to disappoint you, but I presumably do not
believe that Mormonism was a matter of serious
concern to my father.
As a matter of interest it seems that the
Hemingways in northern Utah and SE Idaho have a
common ancestor with my father’s. He left his family
in Connecticut, remarried and converted to
Mormonism and went to Utah.”
Hemingway, Jack. Letter to Author. 5 Nov 1988.
“Ernest Hemingway was very
sympathetic towards Mormons,
and had several Mormon friends.
(He had many Mormon relatives—
mainly in Utah and Idaho—back in
the 19th century.) You might write
to his former sister-in-law on
genealogy: Mrs. Patricia
Hemingway.”
Scribner, Charles. Letter to Author. 30 Sept 1988
“Unfortunately I have no information for you
about Ernest and the Mormons. We have a
cousin who is Mormon, but he doesn’t remember
ever seeing Ernest. The only other Hemingway
that was Mormon that I can recall, out of some
538 Hemingway families, was Luther Lachoneus
& he lived 1840-1930. He was not in our line of
Hemingways though.
You would probably get more from Ernest’s
Mormon friends. His sons, Jack or Patrick might
know who they were.”
Hemingway, Patricia. Letter to Author. 17 Oct 1988.
Hemingway Biographers
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George Wickes (University of Oregon)
Melvin J. Friedman (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)
Phillip Young (Penn State)
Linda Wagner-Martin (University of North Carolina/President Hemingway Society)
Mark Spilka (Brown University)
Earl Rovit (City College of New York)
Jackson J. Benson (SDSU)
Will Underwood (Kent)
Matthew Bruccoli (University of South Carolina)
Edward Stanton (University of Kentucky)
John Raeburn (University of Iowa)
Rena Sanderson (Boise State)
Jeffrey Meyers (University of Colorado)
Bernice Kert (author The Hemingway Women)
Marsha Bellavance (author Hemingway in Sun Valley)
“I don’t think you’ll find enough information for
a research paper on Hemingway and
Mormonism. His contact with Mormons was
virtually nil, though he lived near them in Idaho.
You completely miss his joking tone, when
quoted by Hotchner. He’s drinking when he says
he’d like to be a Mormon and he says that
because it would allow him to be a polygamist!”
Meyers, Jeffery. Letter to Author. Oct 25 1988.
“No, I never heard of anything about Hemingway & the
Mormons. But even if your quote appeared in Hotchner that
doesn’t mean he never said it—conceivably to Cooper. More
likely if the line is his, Hotch copied it from a letter or
something. But that would still be EH’s line.
My main feeling is that if the remark is his, he was
kidding. He had some admiration for Catholicism for a while,
but aside from that. . . . I would take it as sarcasm rather than
tongue in cheek. An alcoholic Mormon who started drinking in
his teens? Who believed in drinking!
I would agree with Meyers, whom I know—except for
what Charlie Scribner told you. Overall I’d believe him. But
where is the evidence? . . . But I really think if EH said or wrote
it he probably though it would seem sufficiently ridiculous in
itself.”
Young, Phillip. Letter to Author. March 6, 1989.
“It would be good to know the context of the quote.
Good chance that Hemingway made the comment
to Gary Cooper at one of the parties that took place
in Sun Valley and Ketchum. By the time Hemingway
partied with Gary Cooper, he was married to his
third wife Martha Gellhorn, and I would guess that
the remark was an indirect reference to the
Mormon practice of polygamy.”
Sanderson, Rena. Letter to Author. Jan 24, 2005.
“In fact, I can’t remember a single reference to
Mormons or Mormonism in his writings. Charles
Scribner’s word certainly carries more weight
than A.E. Hotchner’s , and I’d be inclined to agree
with Jeffrey Meyers that the Hotchner quotation
is not to betaken seriously. Hotcher is not the
most reliable source, and he seems sometimes to
have taken literally things that were not meant to
be.”
Wickes, George. Letter to Author. March 8, 1989
“I’m afraid I can’t help you, because I don’t
recall Hemingway saying anything one way
or another about Mormonism, including
the quotation in Hotchner, although I must
have read it (30 or more years ago) without
it making any impression. He probably did
have Mormon acquaintances in the West,
but that would hardly be unusual.”
Raeburn, John. Letter to Author. March 9, 2005.
“He was a great man—a deep
thinker, he spent a lot of time
pondering and thinking, I wouldn’t
be surprised if he did not think about
the Mormons. There was one time
when I refused a cup of coffee, he
[EH] said to me, ‘oh so you’re one of
the good Mormons aren’t you.’ . . .
He respected people who lived their
belief, he didn’t have any time for a
person who did not live their belief.”
Hansen, Art. Personal Interview.
Hemingway’s religious views
V: “Did EH ever mention anything about
Mormonism?”
A: “No, not that I remember, we did share
a few things hat are just between myself
and him--We really did not talk much, he
was spiritual and had a strong belief in
God-he did not doubt that there was a life
after this—he did his thing and then he
left.”
Hansen, Art. Personal Interview.
“In general, he was pretty
consistently skeptical about
organized religion except,
possibly, for a vague sympathy
with Roman Catholicism when he
was in Italy during the WWI and
lasting into his 20s, after which it
evaporated, as far as I know.”
Raeburn, John. Letter to Author. March 9, 2005.
“If Hemingway could believe in any
church, it was the Catholic, as he affirmed
several times in his correspondence. He
said that it was the only church he could
take seriously. However, he left it at least
once—because of the Catholic Church’s
support of he illegal fascist movement of
General Franco in Spain—and ended up
committing suicide, a cardinal sin in
Catholicism.”
Stanton, Edward. Letter to Author. March 9, 2005.
Kvam quotes Ernest as saying “love
allows man to approach the spiritual
and the transcendent.”
“Although Hemingway may explore
Christian values, this is not to say that
he is a Christian writer.”
Kvam, Wayne E. Hemingway in Germany. Ohio University Press, 1973.
“Ernest was raised in the Congregational Church in Oak Park.
Married Pauline who was Catholic and I am told he had a
Catholic burial, so I assume Mary was Catholic too.”
Hemingway, Patricia. Letter to Author. 17 Oct 1988.
Bud Purdy and Ernest Hemingway
Hemingway in Idaho
Bud Purdy: ”Hemingway was tolerant of all religions and
interested in them too. I never heard him say an unkind
or critical word against any religion or against any
believer of any faith. But I remember he often called this
area around Sun Valley “Mormon Country.” He had a
friend, Dick Adamson from Carey, Idaho who hunted with
him. I believe Dick was some kind of leader in the
Mormon Church, a stake president, maybe. I think that
statement about Mormons in Hotchner’s book is a kind of
a joke. But he did respect the Mormons he knew around
here. The Mormons are pretty well respected around this
country…I can say that much about it. My wife and my
daughter in law… threaten to give me a Mormon funeral.”
Purdy, Bud. Personal Interview.
(Bud Purdy, holding a gun Hemingway had
sent him from Spain in the 1950’s)
Pauline Pfeiffer (above)
Elizabeth Hadley Richardson
(above)
Martha Gellhorn (left) and Mary Welsh (above)
Hemingway’s Temple Work
Baptism:
Sept 14th 1990 Jordan River
Endowment:
Sept 14th 1990 Jordan River
Sealed to Parents:
June 03 1994 Ogden
Sealed to Spouse(s):
Elizabeth Hadley Richardson – April 16th 1998 Provo
Pauline Pfeiffer – April 16th 1998 Provo
Martha Gellhorn – April 16th 1998 Provo
Mary Welsh – April 16th 1998 Provo
On November 10, 1946, Mary,
Ernest, and Charles Sweeny
drove to Salt Lake City, Utah to
hunt briefly before driving
down south to Arizona.
Hemingway, Ernest. Ernest Hemingway, Selected Letters, 1917-1961. Ed. Carlos Baker. New York: Scribner, 1981. p. 612.
Print.
Reynolds, Michael S. Hemingway: The Final Years. New York: W.W. Norton, 1999. p. 150. Print.
Reynolds, Michael S. Hemingway: An Annotated Chronology. Detroit (Mich.): Omnigraphics, 1991. p. 109. Print.