New Discovery!
Hemingway writer and scholar, Curtis DeBerg, has brought forward an amazing note of Hemingway history that gives us insight, raises questions, and informs what we may think about Hemingway’s end.
In a New York Times Article published January 23, 2026, John Rosengren covers the discovery of an inscription that Hemingway wrote by hand on June 16, 1961. He killed himself on July 2, 1961 with a gunshot. Hemingway who was at the Mayo Clinic receiving treatment for depression at the time he wrote an inscription in “The Old Man & The Sea” to one of the nuns who was caring for him named Sister Immaculata. For those of us who read and love Hemingway, it is profound. It reads as follows:
“ To Sister Immaculata: this book, hoping to write another one as good for her when my writing luck is running well again, and it will.”
Ernest Hemingway, St. Mary’s, June 16, 1961”
Hemingway entered a psychiatric unit at St. Mary’s Hospital affiliated with the Mayo Clinic in November of 1960 and stayed until almost the end of January 1961. He received electroshock therapy and returned to the facility in April 1961 for additional care. The public was unaware of his condition and his wife Mary signed him in claiming it was for high blood pressure.
Hemingway was released by the chief psychiatrist claiming that he was well enough to go home. He lived in Idaho at that point.
Here is where Curtis DeBerg comes in. The book appears to have been largely forgotten until 5 years ago when one of the Sisters mentioned it to Curt who was doing research at the Mayo Clinic. At the time, Curt thought, “Was he kidding himself thinking he was going to be able to write again after all those electroshock treatments or is he thinking in the back of his mind “I’ll never write another book like this.””
Until now, the book with its inscription was locked up and largely forgotten on the shelves in the library at St. Mary’s Hospital. Five years ago, one of the Sisters mentioned it to Curtis DeBerg who has written two books about Hemingway and was doing research at the Mayo Clinic. DeBerg who wrote “Traveling the World with Hemingway” and the more recent “Wrestling with Demons” also about Hemingway, appropriately said more people should see this and it’s a part of very important Hemingway history.
DeBerg wonders if Hemingway was kidding himself thinking he was going to be able to write again after all those electric shock treatments or was he thinking in the back of his mind “I’ll never write another book like this.” He also ponders if the sunniness of the note was designed to convince the Mayo Clinic doctors that he was ready for release which he was not.
When DeBerg toured the Nobel Prize museum and learned it had no Hemingway artifacts he suggested the Franciscans donate at St. Mary’s the book. The order’s Leadership Counselor agreed to do so and turned it over to DeBerg in November. At the ceremony in Sweden on January 23, DeBerg discussed the inscription’s significance and it will now rest at the museum.
Endless gratitude to Curtis DeBerg for seeing the book and its inscription and making it known to the rest of the world. Even in his despair or hope depending on how you see this, Hemingway showed kindness and gratitude to Sister Immaculata which was the flipside of his aggressive side and what I like to think is his true, mid-western nature.
What a find! So much to think about and discuss.
With much gratitude to Curt who brought this to my attention. Thank you, Curt, for your dedication to Hemingway’s memory.
