However, when her mother decided Richardson was 'too delicate, both physically and emotionally,' she left college. Louis, and then attended college at Bryn Mawr. Īs a teenager, Richardson became painfully shy and reclusive. Hadley's father was less protective, but in 1903 he died by suicide in response to financial difficulties. After the accident, her mother became overly protective, not allowing Hadley to learn how to swim or engage in other physical activities. As a child, Hadley fell out of a second-story window and consequently was bed-ridden for a year.

Richardson's mother, Florence Wyman Richardson (née Hadley), was an accomplished musician and singer, and her father James Richardson Jr., worked for a family-owned pharmaceutical company. Louis, Missouri, the youngest of five children. In 1933, Richardson married a second time, to journalist Paul Mowrer, whom she met in Paris.Įlizabeth Hadley Richardson was born on November 9, 1891, in St. Pfeiffer had been Richardson's best friend and had lived and traveled with the Hemingways. In 1925, Richardson learned of Hemingway's affair with Pauline Pfeiffer. In Paris, Hemingway pursued a writing career, and through him Richardson met other expatriate American and British writers. The two married in 1921 after a courtship of less than a year, and moved to Paris within months of being married. Elizabeth Hadley Richardson (Novem– January 22, 1979) was the first wife of American author Ernest Hemingway.

Paris Without End by Gioia Diliberto