Ernest Hemingway is one of the most famous American authors of the 20th century. His unique style of writing and his life of adventure have made him an enduring figure in American literature. This biography will explore the life and work of Ernest Hemingway, from his early years in Oak Park, Illinois to his later years in Cuba.
Table of Contents:
1. Early Life
2. Education and Writing Career
3. Marriage and Family
4. World War I
5. The 1920s
6. The 1930s
7. The 1940s
8. The 1950s
9. Later Years
10. Legacy
11. Top Ernest Hemingway Quotes
Early Life
Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois. His parents were Clarence Edmonds Hemingway, a doctor, and Grace Hall Hemingway, a musician. Ernest was the second of six children. He grew up in a strict, religious household. As a boy, he was an avid outdoorsman, and he developed a love for hunting and fishing. He also became a proficient swimmer.
In 1917, Hemingway graduated from high school and went to work for the Kansas City Star as a reporter. He wanted to enlist in the army to fight in World War I, but he was rejected because of his poor eyesight. Instead, he went to Italy as an ambulance driver for the American Red Cross.
Education and Writing Career
In 1918, Hemingway was injured by a mortar shell while serving in Italy. He was hospitalized for several months. While he was recuperating, he fell in love with a nurse named Agnes von Kurowsky. When he was well enough to travel, he returned to the United States.
Hemingway enrolled in a writing course at the University of Chicago, but he was unhappy with the program and dropped out after only a few weeks. He then moved to Paris, where he became part of the expatriate community of American writers and artists. He befriended such figures as Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound.
In 1925, Hemingway’s first novel, The Sun Also Rises, was published. The novel was based on his own experiences in Europe and was an instant success. Hemingway followed up with a second novel, A Farewell to Arms, in 1929.
Marriage and Family
In 1927, Hemingway married Hadley Richardson, a woman eight years his senior. The couple had a son, John, in 1928. Hemingway and Richardson divorced in 1929.
Hemingway then married Pauline Pfeiffer, a wealthy socialite. The couple had two children, Patrick and Gregory. Hemingway and Pfeiffer divorced in 1940.
Hemingway’s third wife was Martha Gellhorn, a journalist and novelist. The couple divorced in 1945.
Hemingway’s fourth and final wife was Mary Welsh, a journalist. The couple was married from 1946 until Hemingway’s death in 1961.
World War I
In 1940, Hemingway went to Finland as a correspondent for Collier’s magazine. He was there to cover the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union.
In 1941, Hemingway traveled to China as a correspondent for the Toronto Star. He was there to cover the war between China and Japan.
In 1942, Hemingway went to Cuba to report on the Battle of the Eastern Front during World War II.
The 1920s
In the 1920s, Hemingway became a member of the ” Lost Generation,” a group of American expatriates who lived in Europe during the postwar period. He spent time in Spain, where he became interested in the bullfighting culture. He also traveled to Africa, where he went on a big-game hunting safari.
The 1930s
In the 1930s, Hemingway returned to the United States and settled in Key West, Florida. He continued to travel and write during this period. In 1935, he published his most famous novel, The Old Man and the Sea.
The 1940s
In the 1940s, Hemingway’s health began to decline. He was diagnosed with high blood pressure and an enlarged heart. In 1944, he was seriously injured in a car accident. Despite his health problems, he continued to travel and write.
The 1950s
In the 1950s, Hemingway’s health continued to decline. He was diagnosed with diabetes and had to have his left leg amputated below the knee. He also began to suffer from depression and anxiety. In 1961, he committed suicide at his home in Ketchum, Idaho.
Later Years
After Hemingway’s death, his wife Mary published a collection of his unpublished writings. These works included the novel The Garden of Eden, the novella The Snows of Kilimanjaro, and the short story “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.”
Legacy
Hemingway is considered to be one of the most important American authors of the 20th century. His unique style of writing, which is characterized by economy and precision, has influenced many writers who came after him.
The 37 Best Quotes by Ernest Hemingway!
Top Ernest Hemingway Quotes
“The way to make people trustworthy is to trust them.”
“For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can.”
“My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.”
“How lazily the sun goes down in Granada, it hides beneath the water, it conceals in the Alhambra!”
“But man is not made for defeat… A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”
“There’s no one thing that’s true. It’s all true.”
“Perhaps I should not have been a fisherman, he thought. But that was the thing that I was born for.”
“A beautiful vacuum filled with wealthy monogamists, all powerful and members of the best families all drinking themselves to death.”
“My training was never to drink after dinner nor before I wrote nor while I was writing.”
“Writing and travel broaden your ass if not your mind and I like to write standing up.”
“I don’t want you to go away. I just said that. You go if you want to. But hurry right back. Why, darling, I don’t live at all when I’m not with you.”
“If everyone said orders were impossible to carry out when they were received where would you be? Where would we all be if you just said, “Impossible,” when orders came?”
“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.”
“Why did they make birds so delicate and fine as those sea swallows when the ocean can be so cruel?”
“Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now.”
“No animal has more liberty than the cat, but it buries the mess it makes. The cat is the best anarchist.”
“All stories, if continued far enough, end in death, and he is no true-story teller who would keep that from you.”
“An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools.”
“Prose is architecture, not interior decoration, and the Baroque is over.”
“Keep your head clear and know how to suffer like a man. Or a fish.”
“The world is a fine place and worth fighting for and I hate very much to leave it.”
“That is what we are supposed to do when we are at our best – make it all up – but make it up so truly that later it will happen that way.”
“We would be together and have our books and at night be warm in bed together with the windows open and the stars bright.”
“A serious writer is not to be confounded with a solemn writer. A serious writer may be a hawk or a buzzard or even a popinjay, but a solemn writer is always a bloody owl.”
“All stories, if continued far enough, end in death.”
“If a writer knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-ninth of it being above water.”
“Living was an earthen jar of water in the dust of the threshing with the grain flailed out and the chaff blowing.”
“Fear of death increases in exact proportion to increase in wealth.”
“All thinking men are atheists.”
“Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.”
“When people talk listen completely. Don’t be thinking what you’re going to say. Most people never listen.”
“If a writer knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-ninth of it being above water.”
“But life isn’t hard to manage when you’ve nothing to lose.”
“Write the best story that you can and write it as straight as you can.”
“No, that is the great fallacy: the wisdom of old men. They do not grow wise. They grow careful.”
“There are many who do not know they are Fascists, but will find it out when the time comes.”
“If two people love each other there can be no happy end to it.”
“You shouldn’t write if you can’t write.”
“I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I’m awake, you know?”
“Only I have no luck anymore. But who knows? Maybe today. Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.”
“I’m not brave anymore darling. I’m all broken. They’ve broken me.”
“Courage is grace under pressure.”
“The important thing is to have good water in the well, and it is better to take a regular amount out than to pump the well dry and wait for it to refill.”
“Most people were heartless about turtles because a turtle’s heart will beat for hours after it has been cut up and butchered. But the old man thought, I have such a heart too.”
“When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature.”
“If we win here we will win everywhere. The world is a fine place and worth the fighting for and I hate very much to leave it.”
“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.”
“It’s none of their business that you have to learn how to write. Let them think you were born that way.”
“The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too.”
“There is no friend as loyal as a book.”
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