Marcelline Sanford

Marcelline Hemingway was the first of six children born to Clarence and Grace Hemingway and the older sister of Ernest Hemingway.

Much has been written about Grace Hemingway's twinship experiments with Marcelline and Ernest. Grace dressed the children in the same clothes, gave them similar haircuts, and kept Marcelline back a year so she would be in the same grade as Ernest.

Marcelline's 1962 book, At the Hemingways: A Family Portrait is a family history of the Hemingways and provides Marcelline's unique perspective on growing up as a Hemingway. Of particular note is the afterword titled "Mother Alone," which details Grace Hemingway's final years.

Marcelline married Sterling Sanford on January 2, 1923 and they had three children together: Carol, James, and John.

Detroit Free Press, December 10, 1963, p.14: Mrs. Sanford, Author Hemingway's Sister, Dies at Grosse Pointe Mrs. Marcelline Hemingway Sanford, author, lecturer and sister of the late Ernest Hemingway, died Monday in Bon Secours Hospital, Grosse Pointe. Mrs. Sanford's book about her family, "At the Hemingways," is in its second American and first British editions. The book, three chapters of which were serialized in The Atlantic in 1961 and 1962, recounted the life of her famous family. It was published in 1962 by Little Brown & Co. Mrs. Sanford, 65, was born in Oak Park, Ill. After studying at Oberlin Conservatory, she became a social service workers. Training at Northeastern University's school of speech led to her later career as an internationally known lecturer on literature and the theater. A resident of Detroit and the Grosse Pointes since her marriage to Sterling S. Sanford in 1923, Mrs. Sanford kept her interests in literature and theater arts. Mrs. Sanford, who lives in Grosse Pointe Farms, is survived by her husband, Sterling S.; a daughter, Mrs. David A. Coolidge of Grosse Pointe Farms; two sons, James S. Sanford of Grosse Pointe Farms and John E. Sanford, of California; also three sisters, Mrs. Jasper J. Jepson on Honolulu, Mrs. Ernest Miller of Wolverine, Mich., and Mrs. John Gardner of Garden City, N.Y., and a brother, Leicester Hemingway, of Miami.