Man claims to be Ernest Hemingway's illegitimate son

KEY WEST - The annual festivities to celebrate the life of Ernest Hemingway have taken an unusual turn.

The highlight is meant to be the lookalike contest. But the winner this year, Florida postman Bob Doughty, was upstaged by an unexpected illegitimate son.

Richard Steel from Davison, Michigan, was introduced on stage as the writer's fourth child by Hemingway's granddaughter Lorian Hemingway. He recently changed his name to Richard Steel Hemingway.

"I do believe his father is Ernest Hemingway," she said. "[He] is having DNA testing, and a male member of our family is going to give blood for the testing."

He learnt the identity of his father, author of The Sun Also Rises and For Whom the Bell Tolls from his late mother a year ago.

- INDEPENDENT