ERNEST M. HEMINGWAY

Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899 in Oak Park, IL [7]. Parents Clarence and Grace Hemingway raised Ernest in an upper middle class suburb. The Hemingway family often spent summers at their lake cabin in Michigan. It was there that Hemingway's father taught him to hunt and fish [1]. Much of his writing would later convey the writer's love for sport of this kind [4].

His career in writing began in high school where he wrote poems, stories, and articles for the school's paper, largely based on outdoor experiences with his father. After graduation he worked as a reporter for the Kansas City Star for a short time [4].

Hemingway soon left his job with the Star to become an ambulance driver in Italy during World War I [1]. He was wounded on the Italian front and had a romantic relationship with his nurse during his recovery. His novel A Farewell to Arms in 1929 was largely based on this experience[4]. The novel deals with an American man who gets injured in WWI and falls in love with his nurse. Through the main character, Hemingway makes a statement against the war and its destruction. This novel catapulted Hemingway's literary career [3].

After the war he did correspondence work for the Toronto Star and settled in Paris with his first wife, Hadley Richardson [7]. It was here that Hemingway was encouraged to write by expatriates Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound. He wrote out of his own experiences as a big game hunter, fisherman, and bullfighting enthusiast [4].

It was during this time that Hemingway wrote one of his greatest novels, The Sun Also Rises, published in 1926 [7]. The Sun Also Rises is about a group of expatriates traveling from Paris to Spain. The characters are aimless and seem to be constantly drunk. The novel examines the emptiness that was felt after The Great War and its effect on the lives of the characters [6].

During the success of The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway's first of four marriages was ending. He quickly remarried and moved to Key West, Florida in 1928. Shortly after the move Clarence Hemingway committed suicide [7] . This event would prove to have a lasting effect on Ernest Hemingway's life.

The writer went back to correspondence writing during the Spanish Civil War. He also traveled with American troops during World War II. During this time Hemingway both divorced and remarried until finally meeting Mary Welsh, his fourth and last wife [7]. Hemingway wrote his unexpectedly successful novella The Old Man and the Sea in 1952, and then won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954 [4].

The Old Man and the Sea would prove to critics that Hemingway could still write with the simple direct style that made him famous [4]. It is a story about an old fisherman and his battle with a huge marlin. Much symbolism is used in the book, though the themes of courage and endurance are clear [5]. This book was Hemingway's last published before his death [7].

He moved to Ketchum, Idaho and was hospitalized for depression and other serious ailments in 1960. Hemingway was treated with electric shock therapy. As a result he lost much of his memory and could no longer remember those experiences on which he based so much of his writing. In 1961 he followed his father's example and committed suicide, ending his life with a shotgun in the foyer of his home [1]. Hemingway left behind three sons, 4 wives, and a countless number of mourning fans [2].

1.  "Biography." The Hemingway Resource Center.  Mod. 14 September 2000.  <http://www.lostgeneration.com/hembio.html> (accessed 17 October 2000). 

2.  "Ernest Hemingway."  New York Times on the Web-Books.    <http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/07/04/specials/hemingway-main.html> (accessed 17 October 2000). 

3.  "A Farewell to Arms."  Awerty Notes. <http://www.awerty.com/farewell2.html> (accessed 17 October 2000).

4. Griffin, Red F.  "A Short Biography of Author Ernest Hemingway." The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park. Mod. 10 February 1999. <http://www.hemingway.org/life/index.html> (accessed 17 October 2000).

5. "The Old Man and The Sea." Awerty Notes. <http://www.awerty.com/oldman2.html> (accessed 17 October 2000).

6. "The Sun Also Rises." Sparknotes Literature. <http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/sun/summary.html> (accessed 17 October 2000).

7. "Timeline." The Ernest Hemingway Home Page. Mod. 11 February 2000.
<http://members.atlantic.net/~gagne/hem/time.html> (accessed 17 October 2000).

Note:  Picture of Hemingway courtesy of - http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/hemingway/

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