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What was Ernest Hemingway’s Net Worth?
Ernest Hemingway was an American writer and novelist who had a net worth of $1.4 million at the time of his death in 1964. After adjusting for inflation, that’s the same as $9.5 million in today’s dollars. Ernest Hemingway is one of the greatest American authors of all time. Many of his works are considered classics of American literature with most of them being produced between the mid 1920s to the mid 1950s. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.
Early Life
Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on July 21st, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois, to Clarence Edmonds Hemingway and Grace Hall Hemingway. He attended Oak Park and River Forest High School where he was a great athlete who participated in many sports. During the last two years of high school, he was editor of the school’s newspaper and yearbook. He then went on to work for The Kansas City Star as a cub reporter. These projects further reinforced his love for the written word and set the stage for the lifestyle to come.
He was reportedly rejected by the U.S. Army for poor eyesight in 1917 but still found ways to serve during World War I. Ernest signed on with Red Cross to be an ambulance driver and ended up suffering serious injury due to mortar fire. But Ernest would receive the Italian Silver Medal of Valor for helping a soldier reach safety and the U.S. Bronze Star for the courage displayed while covering the European theater during World War II as a journalist. He traveled the world meeting the women he’d eventually marry, and this lifestyle helped shape his works to come. Ernest would die by suicide on July 2nd, 1961 in Ketchum, Idaho.
(Photo by Earl Theisen/Getty Images)
Career
Ernest Hemingway published seven novels, six short-story collections, and two nonfiction works with themes centered on love, loss, war, and travel during his writing career. His notable compositions included “The Torrents of Spring” (1926), “The Sun Also Rises” (1926), “A Farewell to Arms” (1929), “Winner Take Nothing” (1933), “To Have and Have Not” (1937), “For Whom the Bell Tolls” (1940), “Across the River and Into the Trees” (1950), “The Old Man and the Sea” (1952), “A Moveable Feast” (1964), “Islands in the Stream” (1970), and “The Dangerous Summer” (1985) which was cited as his last book.
Influence
Ernest Hemingway had a strong influence on 20th century fiction with his understated and minimalistic style he coined the “Iceberg Theory” or theory of omission. His background as a young journalist working on newspaper reports held a focus on current events with very little context. He started writing short stories and kept this “surface” focus style believing that the deeper meaning of a story should not be direct but come about organically to the reader. An adventurous lifestyle and public image played a part in the admiration of later generations and helped solidify his legacy.
Personal Life
Ernest Hemingway married Hadley Richardson in 1921, and they got divorced in 1927. That same year, he married Pauline Pfeiffer. Their marriage lasted until divorce in 1940. He then married Martha Gellhorn in 1940 and they divorced in 1945. In 1946, he married Mary Welsh. They were married until his death in 1964.
One of his grandchildren is actress Mariel Hemingway. Mariel’s father Jack was the son of Ernest and his first wife Hadley.
Estate Value
As we mentioned earlier, at the time of his death in 1964, Ernest Hemingway left behind an estate valued at around $1.4 million. Ernest’s estate included:
- $418,933 worth of stocks and bonds
- $801,766 miscellaneous property
- $189,611 cash
He owned stock in 36 companies including:
- 304 shares of Eastman Kodak valued at $32,233
- 540 shares of General Motors valued at $24,088
- 24 shares of Bethlehem Steel valued at $10,081
- 336 shares of the AT&T valued at $39,447.
According to his estate’s filings, in the 5 years preceding his death, Ernest Hemingway earned $179,135 in book royalties. That’s the same as around $1.75 million in today’s dollars.
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