The Problems of Having a Genius in the Family, by Karla Stover

 

Visit Karla Stover's BWL Author Page to purchase Parlor Girls

     "Ineffectual," "Inept," "A consistent failure." This are just a few of the ways Ernest Hemingway described his brother, Leicester. Harsh comments from a bullying brother, so what could Leicester do to make his mark on history? How about work hard and create and become president of a foreign country--a made-man country built on a platform in the Caribbean Sea six miles off the island of Jamaica which he called New Atlantis.

It's hard to know how serious Hemingway was about his enterprise but perhaps very serious. He used his own money, money earned from the proceeds of his book, My Brother, Ernest Hemingway, and waited for three years after his famous brother's death before launching  the kingdom.

"Anything we build there is legally called 'an artificial island,'" he said of a spot in international waters. Interestingly enough, the ocean floor was only fifty feet down there, an anomaly from its normal 1,000 feet. There he put down a foundation made from used steel, iron and cables, a ship's anchor, a railroad axle, steel wheels, an old Ford motor block, and assorted other scrap metal. Attached to it was an 8 x 30-foot bamboo log platform. He claimed half for Atlantis and half for the United States government, based on the U.S. Guano Act of 1856. To quote Wikipedia, "The Act enables U.S. citizens to take possession of unclaimed islands containing guano for the U.S., and empowered the President to send in armed military to intervene. This encouraged American entrepreneurs to search and exploit new deposits on tiny islands and reefs in the Caribbean and in the Pacific."  Guano was both a fertilizer and a necessary ingredient in gunpowder. Leicester wasn't interested in guano, though. He planned to found an International Marine Research Society on the island. He hoped to raise money for further marine research, to build "a scientifically valuable aquarium in Jamaica, and to help protect Jamaican fishing."

            One of the island's stamp.

The island's flag.

The first residents were Leicester, his wife Doris and their daughters seven -year old Anne and three-year old Hilary and Lady Pamela Bird, a Brit holding two citizenships. A letter from President Lyndon Johnson addressed to Acting President and Republic of New Atlantis inadvertently gave the fledgling republic an act of formal recognition.

     None of his plans came to fruition. In 1966 a storm destroyed New Atlantis and Leicester, who was diabetic, began experiencing bad health. After two operations and fearing the loss of his legs, he committed suicide in 1982. Like his brother, he took himself  out with a shotgun.