Ernest Hemingway worked well on the novel that was to become 'Islands in the Stream', but throughout 1947 he was in a bad way, both mentally and physically. Look at photographs of the man from this time and there is a far away, dreamy look in his eyes. But the novelist, and his new wife, Mary Welsh, pretty much had the Finca Vigia to themselves in the early part of that year and were looking forward to Ernest's two youngest sons arriving.
But on a visit to their mother (Pauline Pfeiffer) both Patrick and Gregory were involved in a car crash. Although Gregory recovered quickly Patrick began to complain of headaches. Soon after the boys arrived in Cuba Mary was called away to Chicago, where her father had been taken seriously ill with prostate cancer.
By the morning of the 14th of April Patrick was feverish and delirious. Ernest quickly turned the finca into a hospital and his staff into a team of nurses, with each of them taking turns to watch over Patrick, with Hemingway himself taking the midnight watch.
On the the 16th Pauline arrived and took control of her son's health. Hemingway reported to Mary that his ex-wife was 'behaving admirably'. Pauline stayed until the 10th of May when Patrick was well enough to be left.
Mary returned to Cuba on the 18th of May completely exhausted. She just wanted to sleep. Five days later Pauline reappeared, and much to Ernest's surprise, the two Mrs Hemingways got on very well, and amused him with "...some girlish banter about their attendance at the Hemingway University."
But it was becoming obvious to both Mary and Pauline that Hamingway was exhausted, and showing signs of nervous strain that exploded into rage when he read in the press that fellow novelist, William Faulkner, had called him a coward.
Faulkner had said nothing of the sort of course. When talking with some students at the University of Mississippi Faulkner had said that Thomas Wolfe, Jon Dos Passos, Eskine Caldwell, Hemingway, and himself were the best modern novelists of the last twenty years, but that they were all victims of what he called 'splendid failure'. According to Faulkner Wolfe had made the best failure because his courage was the greatest, that he had risked clumsiness, and even dullness, in order to 'shoot the works, win or loose, and damn the torpedoes'. Jon Dos Passos had sacrificed some courage, said Faulkner, 'to the demands of style', and that Hemingway stood last on the list, 'because he lacked the courage to go out on a limb of experimentation' as the others had done.
Hemingway, not having read the full newspaper report, had grabbed hold of the wrong end of the stick and thought Faulkner was talking about his physical courage. Faulkner should have known better, and acknowledged that he, and Hemingway, were, without a doubt, the two greatest experimental American literary stylists of the 20th century.
Hemingway sent the the newspaper clipping to General Charles 'Buck' Lanham (Hemingway's old friend from WWII) asking him to write to Faulkner and tell him the truth about his behaviour under fire in 1944. Lanham did so and gave Faulkner a long account of Hemingway's bravery, which he concluded by writing:
" Without exception Hemingway was the most courageous man I have ever known, both in war and peace. He has physical courage, and he has that far rarer commodity, moral courage."
Faulkner sent a letter of explanation to Lanham, and one of apology to Hemingway. Ernest was satisfied.
On June the 13th, 1947, Hemingway was awarded the Bronze Star at the US Embassy in Havana. The citation read:
" Mr Hemingway has performed meritorious service as a war correspondent from 20 July to 1 September, and from 6 November to 6 December, 1944, in France and Germany. During these periods he displayed a broad familiarity with modern military science, interpreting and evaluating the campaigns and operations of friendly and enemy forces, circulating freely under fire in combat areas in order to obtain an accurate picture of conditions. Through his talent of expression, Mr Hemingway enabled readers to obtain a vivid picture of the difficulties and triumphs of the front-line soldier and his organization in combat."
When Hemingway returned from the award ceremony he recieved news that his old editor and mentor at Scribners, Max Perkins, had died. it was the end of an era.