Ernest Hemingway’s Depression was Chronic by Winter 1936, Had Undiagnosed Lead Poisoning According to New Article

Hemingway's father Clarence Edmonds Hemingway had a little-known hobby so he could enjoy outdoor hunting. Indoor bullet casting.

SEWELL, NJ, UNITED STATES, May 22, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Ernest Hemingway’s depression became chronic by Winter of 1936, lived with undiagnosed lead poisoning according to findings in new article.

May 21, 2026

By Scott Rossi.

Author Scott Rossi reveals in his new article titled, “Ernest Hemingway’s Lead Poisoning: A Contributing Neurotoxin to His Mental Illness?” published in this month’s issue of the scholarly journal The Hemingway Review, a major new discovery that the literary giant Hemingway likely had lead poisoning for much of his life. Rossi has completed a new book titled, “Hemingway’s Mania, Unveiling the Mind of a Genius, and Its Modern Echoes.” It is 344 pages, and 99,932 words in length. Rossi is in search of a publisher.

https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/275

https://www.hemingwaysociety.org/hemingway-review

Like father like son?

According to late Biographer Michael Reynolds in his book, The Young Hemingway, Reynolds described Hemingway’s immediate family as sickly and neurotic, there was something wrong with nearly all of the children of Dr. Clarence Hemingway and Grace Hall. Their three eldest children, Ernest and two of his sisters, Marcelline and Ursula, suffered from blinding headaches and insomnia. Severe depression affected them all, as well as their father.
Marcelline records the most compelling evidence to date, on pages 79-80 of her memoir At the Hemingway’s, as a potential major cause of the depression within her family, beyond their genetics: “‘In Oak Park during the winters, Dad let us help him mold bullets in an old army bullet mold which had been his father's during the Civil War. The sputter of the hot lead melting in the small funnel-shaped dipper, with it’s long metal handle (very long to reach over a campfire, he told us), still stays in my memory. The lump of lead was dull and gray when he held it over the gas flame on the basement laundry stove, but when the liquid lead was poured into the bullet molds and the cooled bullets were turned out, they were silver bright. “Oxygen's burned off in the heating,” he'd say, “but they’ll pick up more as they stand in the air.’”

Experts regarding lead poisoning have gone on record with Rossi, including Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scientist Dave Topping, and Sam Churchill, former head of the State of Illinois Lead Prevention Program, the state of Hemingway’s birthplace of Oak Park. During interviews with them, they say, it was not “oxygen” that was let off during bullet casting, but “lead vapor” and “volatized lead”, which is lead that is cooked off. It is “toxic”. Hemingway also likely had mercury and iron toxicity, the Mayo Clinic diagnosed Hemingway with hemochromatosis known as iron overload, but ran no follow-up tests.

Hemingway was driven to suicide by the following factors: 9+ concussions which brought about, “chronic traumatic encephalopathy” (CTE), first brought to light by forensic psychiatrist Andrew Farah, in his 2017 book, Hemingway’s Brain. Hemingway also had two major exposures to toxic lead by the age of 36, (a childhood exposure to lead vapor from his father’s bullet casting, and a large retained lead bullet below his left knee from an April 7, 1935 shooting accident, while aboard his fishing boat, the Pilar.) Hemingway’s local Key West doctor, Dr. William Warren, advised against the bullet’s removal. It remained in his left calf, inches below his knee, for the remainder of his life. Hemingway also had exposure to toxic mercury, and iron. He also had genetic bipolar I disorder, and self-medicated with alcohol. It is now known that long-term usage of alcohol, also causes depression. These factors, most especially lead poisoning, would account for Hemingway’s profound personality change during his life, and his mental breakdown in his late 50’s. His suicide was hastened by his treatment with 36 individual ECT electro-shock treatments at the Mayo Clinic, which led to the loss of his memory and his writing ability.

Through research since 2002, Rossi unearthed Ernest Hemingway’s long-lost black and white 20+ minute home movies from April 7, 1935. The footage is of Hemingway in his prime, at 35 years old in Key West, and captures his shooting accident. For a fee, the owner of the footage, a descendant of Hemingway’s friends Sara and Gerald Murphy, will allow Rossi to use still images from the footage to go inside his book on Hemingway, as well as for its cover. There is potential for a documentary based on Rossi’s book. Rossi received a film credit from award-winning film maker Ken Burns, under “Additional Research” in all three episodes of his PBS documentary, “Hemingway: The man, The myth. The writer revealed,” which debuted on April 5th-7th 2021. Burns has agreed to post news about Rossi’s book when it nears publication, on all his social media accounts including Facebook (390,000 followers), and X.com (222,000 followers).

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Scott Rossi
Scott Rossi
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