Ernest Hemingway's Wives: His Four Spouses in Order
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The short answer
Ernest Hemingway had four wives. In order, they were Hadley Richardson (1921–1927), Pauline Pfeiffer (1927–1940), Martha Gellhorn (1940–1945), and Mary Welsh Hemingway (1946 until his death in 1961). He had three children, all from the first two marriages. Each marriage falls over a distinct phase of the work — Paris, Key West, the war years, and Cuba — and each of the four women had a working life of her own before and after him.
Drawn from the four wife profiles on this site and cross-checked against the Ernest Hemingway Collection at the JFK Library. Year ranges run from marriage to divorce, except the last, which ended with his death in 1961.
The wedding at Horton Bay, Michigan, 3 September 1921 — three months later the couple sailed for Paris with Sherwood Anderson's letters of introduction. (Ernest Hemingway Photograph Collection, JFK Presidential Library)
Hadley Richardson was a pianist from St. Louis, eight years older than Hemingway, when they met at a Chicago party in 1920. They married at Horton Bay, Michigan, in September 1921 and sailed for Paris that December, living on the small trust income that paid for the years A Moveable Feast later remembered as noble poverty. Their son, Jack — called “Bumby” — was born in 1923.
The marriage also carried the era's most famous literary accident: a suitcase holding nearly all his early manuscripts, lost from her train compartment at the Gare de Lyon in December 1922. It came apart after Pauline Pfeiffer, Hadley's own friend, entered their circle. They separated in 1926 and divorced in 1927, and Hemingway signed the royalties of The Sun Also Rises over to her. She is the “we” the Paris memoir mourns.
1927–1940 · Key West, Africa, and the productive decade
Ernest and Pauline, Paris, 1927 — the second marriage, begun in the rue Férou flat near Saint-Sulpice. (Ernest Hemingway Photograph Collection, JFK Presidential Library)
Pauline Pfeiffer came to Paris in 1925 on assignment for Vogue and became a friend of both Hemingways before the affair. When Hadley learned of it she required the couple to spend a period apart; the separation did not hold, and Pauline married him in Paris in May 1927, after he converted to Catholicism at her request. Her family's money bought the house in Key West and much of the life around it.
She was also his first reader. She took the typescript of A Farewell to Arms through with his sister, and he later called her the best editor he ever worked with. Her uncle paid for the 1933–34 East African safari that became Green Hills of Africa. They had two sons, Patrick and Gregory, and the marriage ended in 1940, as Martha Gellhorn replaced her.
With Martha Gellhorn, 1941 — the third marriage, two war correspondents headed for China. (Ernest Hemingway Photograph Collection, JFK Presidential Library)
Martha Gellhorn was a war correspondent who had already published a novel and a book of Depression reporting when they met in Key West in 1936. They covered the Spanish Civil War at the same time, married in 1940, and made a home at the Finca Vigía outside Havana. For Whom the Bell Tolls is dedicated to her, and its account of that war is built from the reporting they had done together.
The marriage held five years and broke on the work. Gellhorn kept reporting — she reached the Normandy beaches he had only sailed toward — and the rivalry told. She was the only one of his wives to leave him first. They divorced in 1945, and she spent much of a sixty-year career afterward declining to be introduced as his wife.
Mary Welsh in correspondent's uniform, 1943 — cropped from the U.S. Army photograph of the six women accredited to the European Theater. (U.S. Army Signal Corps)
Mary Welsh Hemingway had reported the London Blitz and the liberation of Paris for Time and Life when Hemingway asked to be introduced to her at a London lunch in 1944. They married in Havana in 1946 and stayed married until his death, through the Finca Vigía years, the two African plane crashes of 1954, the Nobel Prize, and the last move to Ketchum, Idaho.
She appears in True at First Light as “Miss Mary.” As his widow and literary executor she did the more lasting work: she typed, cut, and brought A Moveable Feast into print after his death, and preserved the archive now held at the JFK Library.
Four marriages across 1921–1961, on a single scale.
Hadley Richardson1921–1927
Pauline Pfeiffer1927–1940
Martha Gellhorn1940–1945
Mary Welsh Hemingway1946–1961
How one marriage led to the next
Hadley to Pauline
Pauline Pfeiffer joined the Hemingways' Paris circle as Hadley's friend in 1925, two years before she became the second wife.
Pauline to Martha
Hemingway met Martha Gellhorn in Key West in 1936, while married to Pauline. They reported the Spanish Civil War before the second marriage ended in 1940.
Martha to Mary
He met Mary Welsh in London in 1944, reporting the same war as Gellhorn, whose marriage to him was by then coming apart.
Mary, to the end
Mary Welsh remained his wife from 1946 until his death in 1961, and outlived him by twenty-five years as the keeper of his estate.
Did Ernest Hemingway have children with all four wives?
No. Hemingway had three children, and all three came from his first two marriages. Jack Hemingway — “Bumby” — was Hadley's son, born in 1923. Patrick and Gregory were Pauline's. He had no children with Martha Gellhorn or Mary Welsh.
Frequently asked questions about Ernest Hemingway's wives
How many wives did Ernest Hemingway have?
Four. In order, they were Hadley Richardson, Pauline Pfeiffer, Martha Gellhorn, and Mary Welsh Hemingway. He was married from 1921 until his death in 1961, apart from short intervals between marriages.
Who was Ernest Hemingway's first wife?
Hadley Richardson, whom he married in 1921. She was a pianist from St. Louis, the mother of his son Jack, and the presence A Moveable Feast is written around. They divorced in 1927.
Who was Ernest Hemingway's last wife?
Mary Welsh Hemingway, his fourth wife, whom he married in 1946 and stayed married to until his death in 1961. A war correspondent before the marriage, she became his literary executor and brought A Moveable Feast into print.
Was Martha Gellhorn one of Hemingway's wives?
Yes, his third, from 1940 to 1945. She was an established war correspondent in her own right, covered six decades of conflict, and was the only one of his wives to leave him rather than the reverse.
Did Ernest Hemingway have children with all four wives?
No. He had three children, all from his first two marriages: Jack with Hadley Richardson, and Patrick and Gregory with Pauline Pfeiffer. He had no children with Martha Gellhorn or Mary Welsh.
Was Hemingway married when he died?
Yes. He was married to Mary Welsh Hemingway, his fourth wife, when he died at Ketchum, Idaho, in July 1961. She survived him by twenty-five years.
Did Hemingway have a fiancée before his four marriages?
Yes. Agnes von Kurowsky, the American nurse he met while recovering from his wounds in Italy in 1918, is generally described as his first love and a former fiancée. She was not one of his four wives — she broke off the engagement — and he drew on the relationship for A Farewell to Arms.
