What is Pauline Pfeiffer birthday?

Pauline Pfeiffer was born at 1895-07-22

When was Pauline Pfeiffer died?

Pauline Pfeiffer was died at 1951-10-01

Which age was Pauline Pfeiffer died?

Pauline Pfeiffer was died at age 56

Where is Pauline Pfeiffer's birth place?

Pauline Pfeiffer was born in Parkersburg, Iowa, U.S.

What is Pauline Pfeiffer nationalities?

Pauline Pfeiffer's nationalities is American

Who is Pauline Pfeiffer spouses?

Pauline Pfeiffer's spouses is Ernest Hemingway

Who is Pauline Pfeiffer childrens?

Pauline Pfeiffer's childrens is Gregory Hemingway, Patrick Hemingway

What was Pauline Pfeiffer universities?

Pauline Pfeiffer studied at Visitation Academy of St. Louis University of Missouri School of Journalism

Who is Pauline Pfeiffer's father?

Pauline Pfeiffer's father is Paul

Who is Pauline Pfeiffer's mother?

Pauline Pfeiffer's mother is Mary Pfeiffer

How famous is Pauline Pfeiffer?

Pauline Pfeiffer is famouse as Journalist & Second Wife of Ernest Hemingway

Pauline Pfeiffer - Journalists, Facts and Childhood

Home › American › Pauline PfeifferJuly 22, 1895421 views

Pauline Pfeiffer Biography Stories Embed this Biography stories

Table of contents

Personal Details
Photo
Overview
Timeline
FAQ

Cancer Celebrities Iowa American Media Personalities Journalists

Pauline Pfeiffer's Personal Details

Pauline Marie Pfeiffer was an American journalist and the second wife of American novelist Ernest Hemingway.

Information	Detail
Birthday	July 22, 1895
Died on	October 1, 1951
Nationality	American
Famous	Media Personalities, Journalists, Journalists, Second Wife of Ernest Hemingway
City/State	Iowa
Spouses	Ernest Hemingway
Known as	Pauline Marie Pfeiffer
Childrens	Gregory Hemingway, Patrick Hemingway
Universities	Visitation Academy of St. Louis University of Missouri School of Journalism
Birth Place	Parkersburg, Iowa, U.S.
Gender	Female
Father	Paul
Mother	Mary Pfeiffer
Sun Sign	Cancer
Born in	Parkersburg, Iowa, U.S.
Famous as	Journalist & Second Wife of Ernest Hemingway
Died at Age	56

Pauline Pfeiffer's photo

Last First

Who is Pauline Pfeiffer?

Pauline Marie Pfeiffer was an American journalist and second wife of American novelist, short-story writer and journalist Ernest Hemingway. Pfeiffer, a graduate from University of Missouri School of Journalism, started her career with newspapers in Cleveland and New York. She then worked with up-scale magazines ‘Vanity Fair’ and ‘Vogue’. Her working pursuits with Vogue led her to Paris where she was introduced to Hemingway. An affair with Hemingway led to her eventual marriage with the novelist following his divorce with first wife, Hadley. During Spanish Civil War, Pfeiffer, a dedicated Roman Catholic, backed the Nationalists while Hemingway supported the Republicans. She had two sons with Hemingway, but failed to sustain the marriage as the latter got into an affair with Martha Gellhorn. After her divorce, Pfeiffer remained in Key West for good and ran a sophisticated fabric shop. Her death is believed to have been caused by an acute shock triggering from her son Gregory's arrest and her subsequent heated arguments with Hemingway over a long distance phone call. After becoming a physician, Gregory mentioned that Hemingway’ phone call led to excessive secretion of adrenalin from Pfeiffer’s pheochromocytoma tumor resulting in a fatal shock.

// Famous Journalists

Stephanie Ruhle

Stephanie Leigh Ruhle is an American journalist, writer, politics and business correspondent, and news anchor. Let’s take a look at her family, personal life, career, achievements, and some fun facts.

Murray Walker

Murray Walker is a Formula One motor sport commentator and journalist, famous for his eager commentary technique. This biography provides detailed information on his childhood, life, career & timeline.

James Thurber

James Thurber was an American author, journalist and cartoonist, famously known for his short stories and cartoons in ‘The New Yorker’ magazine. This biography offers detailed information on his childhood, life, achievements and timeline.

Childhood & Early Life

She was born on July 22, 1895, in Parkersburg, Iowa to a wealthy Catholic family of real estate agent Paul Pfeiffer and his wife Mary Downey Pfeiffer. Jinny Pfeiffer was her younger sister.

Pfeiffer spent her early years in north central Iowa and in 1901 at six years of age she relocated to St. Louis with her family. There she attended Visitation Academy of St. Louis and completed her high school graduation from there in June 1913.

Later her family shifted to Piggott, Arkansas while Pfeiffer stayed in Missouri and attended the University of Missouri School of Journalism from where she obtained a degree in 1918.

Career & Encounter with Ernest Hemingway

Initially Pfeiffer worked in Ohio on the night desk at the Cleveland Press and then moved to New York to work with the Daily Telegraph. After a stint there, she turned her focus on up-scale magazines and worked with popular culture, fashion, and current affairs magazine ‘Vanity Fair’ and fashion and lifestyle magazine ‘Vogue’.

Her proficiency in writing and copy editing complimented with her perceptiveness in fashion soon landed her with an offer to join the Paris bureau of Vogue. She went to Paris in February 1925 accompanied with sister Jinny.

The following year she got introduced to Ernest Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley Richardson. Hemingway was then a rising writer who moved to Paris a few years back with Hadley to work as foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star.

Affair, Marriage & Life with Ernest Hemingway

In January 1926 she joined Hemingway and Hadley in Schruns, Austria where the couple were spending their winter. Pfeiffer pressed Hemingway to sign contract with American publisher ‘Charles Scribner's Sons’, although against the advice of Hadley. Accordingly Hemingway left for New York to meet the Scribner's.

While returning to Schruns from New York, Hemingway made a stopover in Paris where he initiated a romantic relationship with Pfeiffer. Gradually Hemingway’s marriage started experiencing rough patches and in spring 1926, Hadley came to know about her husband’s romance with Pfeiffer.

Pfeiffer accompanied the couple during their annual trip to Pamplona in July 1926. While returning to Paris Hadley expressed her decision for separation and formally requested a divorce in November that year. The couple finally got their divorce in January 1927.

On May 10, 1927 Pfeiffer married Hemingway prior to which the latter converted to Catholicism. They had their honeymoon in Le Grau-du-Roi. She became pregnant by the year end and wanted to return to America. As suggested by John Dos Passos, the couple left Paris for Key West in March 1928.

On June 28, 1928, she gave birth to a boy, in Kansas City, Missouri, who was named Patrick. The difficult delivery she experienced during that time was fictionalized by Hemingway in his 1929 novel ‘A Farewell to Arms’.

Gregory, her second son with Hemingway, was born on November 12, 1931, in Kansas City. Her Uncle Gus purchased a Key West house that year for $8,000 cash as the couple’s wedding gift. Officially known as the Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum, the house was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark on November 24, 1968.

The couple went on an East African safari in 1933 that lasted for 10 weeks. Places covered by them included Mombasa, Machakos and Nairobi among others.

The Spanish Civil War that lasted from 1936 to 1939 saw Hemingway supporting the Republicans while Pfeiffer with devout Roman Catholic views backed the Nationalists.

Hemingway went to Spain in March 1937 to cover news on the Spanish Civil War on behalf of the North American Newspaper Alliance (NANA). There he began an affair with American journalist, novelist and travel writer Martha Gellhorn. Such affair gradually led the marriage of Pfeiffer and Hemingway on the rocks which finally culminated to divorce on November 4, 1940 following which the latter married Gellhorn.

During her marriage with Hemingway, the latter spawned several notable literary works including novels ‘A Farewell to Arms’ (1929) and ‘To Have and Have Not’ (1937); non-fictions ‘Death in the Afternoon’(1932) and ‘Green Hills of Africa’ (1935); and story collections ‘Winner Take Nothing’ (1933) and ‘The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories’ (1938).

Life After Divorce & Death

Following her divorce with Hemingway, she remained in Key West for life and visited California frequently. She ran a designer fabric, upholstery and gift business called the Carolina Shop.

On October 1, 1951, she died after suffering an acute shock. This was considered to have generated from her son Gregory’s arrest due to drug possession and subsequent call of Hemingway to her from Havana spurting a heated argument while she was visiting her sister. Although she was rushed to Hollywood hospital, she died on the operation table.

She was buried in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, in Los Angeles County, California, US.

Gregory became terribly upset when Hemingway accused him of Pfeiffer’s death.

Later when Gregory became a medical doctor, he elucidated that Pfeiffer had a rare pheochromocytoma tumor on one of her adrenal glands. According to him, Hemingway’s phone call caused surge of adrenaline from her tumor and stopped thereafter thus leading to blood pressure change resulting in an acute shock which turned fatal.