I don't know or understand why anybody would consider suicide, let alone commit it. Hemingway's life and suicide is an exception that I do understand.
Looking at his life in it's entirety, it becomes obvious that he had lived an erethic existence. Erethism as I understand it, is defined as "the abnormal reaction to normal stimuli." Many dictionaries will change this definition slightly but they all boil down to the same basic idea.
I suspect that he acquired this personality trait at an early age and was not helped out of this quagmire existence by either of his parents. His resentment of women and affection to other men that mirrored his propensities were molded by both of his parents, simultaneously, with the extreme efficiency that only a family environment can produce.
The first brash incident of his life was the adventure in the Ambulance Service of the Red Cross during World War I. The idea of proving his manhood in the face of the grim reaper with every breath was the ultimate attempt at suicide that was evaded by a miraculous stroke of luck. He didn't suffer two bullet holes in his legs but a falanx of artillery shrapnel that essentially put his legs into the jeopardy of amputation. This life changing injury came only after about a month on the front lines and in the heat of a battle that would effect his entire existence, including his relationships with the women that he married. He now understood that he was not bullet proof and true to his pattern of erethic behavior, he reflected on his experience but in the end he would ignore it for his entire life.
The remainder of Mr. Hemingway's life was essentially his attempt to recreate his WWI experience with a shuffling of the sequence of events. In Paris he was bored so he traveled to Pamplona, Spain to run with the bulls. In Spain, during the Civil War, he flirted with combat by reporting it to the world in print and film. In Cuba, he mixed pleasure with adventure by function on the water for the OSS to gather intelligence on any German U-boat activity. He returned to France just in time to join the Allies in the march into Paris. Again, flirting with death at every mile. In this same period he dealt with the KGB (who he was familiar with from the Spanish Civil War) with limited success that was on purpose, I suspect. In Africa, he dealt death to predator wild-life and was again almost killed in two different aircraft accidents. In the end, he became paranoid with good reason. He knew that the US government was aware that he was friends with Fidel Castro, that he had had a detailed relationship with the KGB of the USSR and the McCarthy Hearings had done him no service. This in combination with the fact that he had Diabetes (which has no identified cause and no Rx cure) that brought him to the Mayo Clinic for electro-shock treatments and, to make a bad situation worse, he had writer's block and considered himself a failure. The only solution that would occur to him was the same fate that took his father . . . suicide.
This entire life experience can be explained by the introduction of mercury in the form of mercury amalgams in his teeth, vaccines and other minor exposures. Also, the probability of being exposed to lead in paints, medications and other minor exposures would explain the life long erethism.
The one factor that I can not produce evidence of, would be the introduction of mercury into his personal environment. Medical and Dental records would show this evidence. This in combination with any lead involvement would, without question, produce an erethism that could not be satisfied by divorce, alcohol, drugs or even war. Mr. Hemingway's success is, without doubt, a direct consequence of his erethic behavior in all circumstances and stages of life.
His exposure to mercury can be proven by the exhumation of his remains in Ketchum, Idaho. The lead burden of his body should also be present in his coffin because neither mercury or lead will disappear . . . ever.
The finding of mercury and probably lead does not prove that this caused his erratic lifestyle but it is profound evidence that both metals (and any other heavy metal that happens to be in his casket) had an influencing effect on his life, diseases and suicide.
I have been chastised by this suggestion because the Hemingway family receives an enormous royalty from his works and the robust legends of his life. Not only his family benefits but other subordinate incomes are generated by his history and the places where he lived.
This is not a question that will be answered by me or anybody like me. It will have to be dealt with by a family member that throws caution to the wind and demands answers and a stop to the aberrant application of suicide as a solution to difficult diseases or times.
