Leicester Hemingway


Leicester Clarence Hemingway 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, 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.

Early life and family

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, the others being Marcelline, Ernest, Ursula, Madelaine, and Carol.

Personal life

He married his first wife Patricia "Patti" Shedd, with whom he had two sons: Jacob Edmonds and Peter. With his second wife Doris Mae Dunning he had two daughters, Anne and author Hilary Hemingway, according to the book Strange Tribes by Gregory Hemingway's son John Patrick Hemingway in 2007.

Suicide

In 1982, Hemingway committed suicide with a gunshot to the head, after having suffered several years from Type II diabetes, which necessitated numerous operations.

New Atlantis

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.