Thirty-five years ago famed author Ernest Hemingway used his shotgun to commit suicide at his Ketchum, Idaho, home.
A University of North Carolina professor has studied news reports of the event and concludes that the death of only a few Americans, and no literary figure, has ever received such extensive coverage."In July 1961, Hemingway, an author of international acclaim, received in one week more press coverage than any other literary figure in history," said John Bittner, professor of journalism and mass communication at the Chapel Hill campus.
Bittner will report on his study at the July 20-25 International Hemingway Conference in Sun Valley.
He said coverage of the writer's death included hard news, book reviews, columns, features, photographs, quotes, letters and editorials - and it went on for a long time.
"Hemingway's personal life - his world travels, African safaris, public appearances at bullfights in Spain, four marriages, correspondent reports during the Spanish Civil War and World War II and two plane crashes - all contributed to his status as a newsmaker," Bittner said.
"Also, to journalists, Hemingway was one of their own. Like police officers who attend en masse a fallen comrade's funeral, journalists paid him their respect."
At about 7 a.m. on a Sunday morning 35 years ago Tuesday, the Nobel Prize-winning author of "The Old Man and the Sea," and "The Sun Also Rises" used his shotgun to kill himself. Contemporaries have said Hemingway was depressed over his declining health and made several previous attempts to kill himself before he finally succeeded.
"Recapping the way the week's press coverage developed, only a television script writer could have created a plot with as much news value," Bittner said.
"An internationally famous literary figure dies violently on the slowest news day of the week, in one of the slowest news weeks of the year. Reporters and editors have both a large news hole to fill and the time to fill it."
For several days, the Sun Valley Resort's publicity office handled communications for both family and reporters. The first reports were that it was an accident, but suspicion soon arose. Hemingway's son's delayed arrival from an African safari kept the story alive.
The funeral should have brought closure, but Hemingway's fourth wife, Mary, who had been in seclusion, announced a limited news conference six days after Hemingway's death. That created new interest in what she would say, Bittner said.
The week ended with people waiting for word on the author's unfinished novels, which lay in vaults in Idaho and Cuba.
Coincidentally, the author's granddaughter Margaux Hemingway was found dead last week in Santa Monica, Calif., of causes yet unknown.