I wrote a paper in college about Hemingway. He did have some truly messed up stuff happen to him. His mother sent him the pistol his father used to kill himself. Always wondered why she thought he'd want that.

His work also bears deeper analysis than many people give it. I have always thought it was a superficial assertion that Death in the Afternoon was about bullfighting. If you read and pay attention, it is much more about the craft of writing, using bullfighting as an allegory for writing. There's also plenty of antigovernmental sentiment in there.