Gloria Hemingway

Gloria Hemingway (born Gregory Hancock Hemingway, November 12, 1931 – October 1, 2001) was an American physician and writer who was the third and youngest child of author Ernest Hemingway.

Although she born a male and lived most of her life publicly as a man, she struggled with her gender identity from a young age.

In her 60s, she underwent gender transition surgery, and preferred the name Gloria when possible.

A good athlete and a crack shot, Gloria longed to be a typical Hemingway hero and trained as a professional hunter in Africa, but her alcoholism prevented her from gaining a license, and it ultimately cost her her medical license in the United States.

Hemingway attended the Canterbury School, a Catholic prep school in Connecticut, graduating in 1949.

Gloria maintained a long-running feud with her father, stemming from a 1951 incident when her arrest for entering a bar in drag caused an argument between Ernest and Gloria's mother Pauline.

Pauline died from a psychological stress-related condition the following day, which Ernest blamed on Gloria and Gloria later believed to have been caused by Ernest.

She dropped out of St. John's College, Annapolis, after one year and worked for a time as an aircraft mechanic before moving to California in 1951.

Gloria was forced to get married in April 1951, at the age of 20.

Ernest objected to the marriage because of her financial and mental instability.

In September 1951, Hemingway was arrested for entering the women's bathroom in a Los Angeles movie theater dressed in women's clothing.

Her mother, Pauline Pfeiffer, died soon after, the day after a phone call with Ernest in which the two parents argued about their child.

According to Hemingway biographer Michael Reynolds the "conversation degenerated into accusations, blame-laying, vituperation, and general misunderstanding."

Pauline died of hypertension, but during the autopsy it was discovered she suffered from a rare tumor that "secretes abnormal amounts of adrenaline causing extremely high blood pressure."

Ernest blamed Gloria for Pauline's death, and she was deeply disturbed by the accusation.

It was years before Gloria and Ernest spoke with each other, and Gloria never saw her father alive again.

Another result was that Hemingway inherited a significant amount of money, which she used in part to retreat to Africa, where she drank alcohol and shot elephants.

She spent the next three years in Africa as an apprentice professional hunter but failed to obtain a license because of her drinking.

She joined the United States Army as a private in October 1956 and served briefly.

She was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

She was soon institutionalized for bipolar disorder, and received several dozen treatments with electroconvulsive therapy.

Of another period shooting elephants she wrote: "I went back to Africa to do more killing. Somehow it was therapeutic."

Not until nearly a decade later, in 1960, did she feel strong enough to resume her medical studies and respond to her father's charges.

She wrote her father a bitter letter, detailing the medical facts of her mother's death and blaming Ernest for the tragedy.

The next year, Ernest Hemingway killed himself, and again Gloria wrestled with guilt over the death of a parent.

She obtained a medical degree from the University of Miami Medical School in 1964.

She practiced medicine in the 1970s and 1980s, first in New York and then as a rural family doctor in Montana, first in Fort Benton and later as the medical officer for Garfield County, based in Jordan, Montana.

Much of her medical practice involved health exams for insurance companies.

Interviewed there, she said: "When I smell the sagebrush or see the mountains, or a vast clean stream, I love those things. Some of my happiest memories of childhood were associated with the West."

In 1976, she authored a bestselling memoir of her father, Papa: A Personal Memoir, which was seen by some to reflect troubles of her own.

These included wearing women's clothes, which she ascribed to gender dysphoria.

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, to novelist Ernest Hemingway and his second wife Pauline Pfeiffer, she was called 'Gigi' or 'Gig' in childhood and was, according to a close observer, "a tremendous athlete" and a "crack shot".

As an adult, she preferred the name 'Greg'.

At the age of 12, she was wearing her stepmother Martha Gellhorn's stockings almost daily.

Ernest caught her wearing them, and had an outburst of anger that left an impression on Gloria for decades.

However, a few days later he said to her: "Gigi, we come from a strange tribe, you and I."

In 1988, authorities in Montana declined to renew Hemingway's medical license because of her alcoholism.

Hemingway dealt with bipolar disorder, alcoholism, and drug abuse for many years.

Hemingway and her brothers tried to protect their father's name and their inheritance by taking legal action to stop the popular local celebrations called "Hemingway Days" in Key West, Florida.

In 1999, they collaborated in creating a business venture, Hemingway Ltd., to market the family name as "an up-scale lifestyle accessory brand".