Hadley Richardson

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Elizabeth Hadley Richardson (1891-1979) was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on November 9, 1891. On September 3, 1921, she married Ernest Hemingway and soon after that they moved to Paris, France. In the fall of 1923, as Hadley approached the term of her pregnancy, they returned westward so that their child could be born in the United States. On October 10, 1923, Hadley gave birth to their son, John Hadley Nicanor Hemingway, nicknamed "Bumby".

In January 1924 the Hemingway family returned to Paris. Hadley and Hemingway had many adventures together as members of "The Lost Generation," as Gertrude Stein called the expatriates living in Paris. Hemingway recounted these days in his non-fiction book, A Moveable Feast. It covered the years 1921-1926 and it recounts the days of the "struggling artist", Hemingway, and wife Hadley, and their adventures in the sidewalk cafe society of Paris; and their trips to Switzerland, Austria, and Spain.

In the spring of 1925, the Hemingways met Pauline Pfeiffer in Paris, an American expatriate. After Hadley discovered that her husband and Pfeiffer were having an affair, the Hemingway marriage fell apart and the Hemingways divorced in January 1927.

Among many of Hadley’s friends in Paris was Paul Mowrer. A distinguished American poet, journalist and political writer, and the first-ever recipient of a Pulitzer Prize awarded for foreign correspondence, Hadley had known him since the spring of 1927. On July 3, 1933, Hadley and Paul Mowrer were married in London, where Mowrer was at the time covering the World Economic Conference. Later that year the Mowrers permanently returned to the United States. Hadley Mowrer remained on friendly terms with her first husband, Ernest Hemingway, until Hemingway's death.