In 1992, Ernest Hemingway's sons (John, Patrick and Gregory) formed Hemingway Ltd. to license the use of his name, image and signature. The brothers soon came under fire when one of the first items they authorized was a Hemingway shotgun. (Hemingway had used a double-barreled 12-gauge English shotgun to commit suicide.) They protested that their father really had loved such a gun.
Some time later, they were criticized again, this time for licensing a $600 limited-edition Mont Blanc fountain pen. The problem? Hemingway always wrote with a pencil!
Sources
Cigar Aficionado, 2000; Kenneth Lynn, Hemingway (1987); Charles Poore, The Hemingway Reader (1953)
