HST & Friends

About HST

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+ E. Jean Carroll
+ William McKeen
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HST's Friends



How Old Is HST?

Last updated March 2005

Due to some questions regarding when HST was really born, I have this little write-up. Even though most major reference sources claim HST was born in 1939, I strongly feel it was 1937. I guess it's only one of those things that add to the myth. But you can check out this cool birthday profile for people born on July 18.

When HST passed away, his year of birth was widely reported as 1937, with a few 1939s and one 1938 thrown in.

HST was born in 1937, according to E. Jean Carroll's book. 1997 was his sixtieth birthday; William Kennedy confirmed it in the April 1997 George magazine:

I immediately noticed that he was smoking and drinking heavily. I advised him to curb these vices and proceed into his sixtieth year with moderation, the only course to take if he was going to get on with his work. (p120)

Peter Whitmer got it right in When The Going Gets Weird on page 32. This book states that HST was born in 1937, however, he writes, "In 1946, when Hunter was nine..." If HST was nine in 1946, then he was born in 1937.

In Campaign Trail too, he rages about being a 35 year old man who burnt his hair out from excess. Once again it points to HST being born in 1937. The line reads, on p356, "August" chapter, "...for their own perverse reasons - on a weird looking, 35-year-old speed freak with half his hair burned off from overindulgence..."

If you still need more proof, in the November 1997 issue of Time that featured "Doomed Love at the Taco Stand" HST wrote:

"They are extremely uncomfortable with the idea that I am a teenage-girl trapped in the body of a 60-year old career criminal who has already died 16 times..."

And finally, in the June 1998 issue of Gadfly, Whitmer mentions that HST is going to be 61.

There are a lot of reasons why people don't want their actual age to be known. In the case of a former politician, he was either 2 years older or younger than what he claimed to be, and used either whenever he needed to...it actually put him in the same age bracket as the voters.