Gary Cooper (Henry James Cooper) was an avid varmint hunter- loved to stalk bobcats in Idaho, most likely used this fine rifle for that. He also had a .22Lovell (make unknown) and may have used that on the jack rabbit hunts Hemingway organized to help out the Dietrich, Idaho area farmer in the 1940's-- they shot many, which in part saved the hay crop for the Friese family's livestock, for the coming Winter. Of course, he was also a keen hunter with a shotgun, and his wife, Veronica "Rocky" Cooper, was a CA State Ladies Champion skeet shot, back in the pre-WW2 days--
Both Cooper and Don Ernesto were real cockhounds- Cooper almost lost his marriage to Rocky after he became infatuated with young actress Patricia Neal during the filming of the Ayn Rand based movie "The Fountainhead"-- and Hem was married 4 times in his 60 odd years of life in the fast lane- Booze and broads, a killer combo for sure. Was Hemingway "light in his loafers"?? The novel: "The Garden of Eden" might make someone think so, after all, in his own words: "You write what you know, or- at least, what you think you know!"" His aberant mysogonistic approach to women may have stemmed for the deep and long lasting hatred he held for his Mother- Grace Hall Hemingway, whom he partially believed for his Father' -Dr. Clarence E. Hemingway's suicide in 1928--a precursor for events yet to come. "Those whom the Gods gift with great talents, they also curse with the gift of a great, exceeding madness that often leads to their untimate self-destruction." RWTF
