Ernest Hemingway was a Nobel Prize-winning American writer who touched the heights of fame with his novel The Old Man and the Sea, which catapulted him to international fame. During his writing career, he published seven novels, six storybooks and two non-fiction works that greatly influenced subsequent generations of writers.
Childhood
Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois. His father, Clarence Edmonds Hemingway, was a physician and his mother, Grace Hall-Hemingway, was a musician.
He had an interesting childhood, his father taught him to hunt, fish and camp in the forests and lakes of Northern Michigan. His mother insisted that he receive music lessons, which greatly annoyed her son.
From 1913 to 1917 he received his secondary education at school, where he excelled in English and was actively involved in the creation of the school newspaper "Trapeze and Tabula". He was also very passionate about sports and took part in competitions in boxing, athletics, water sex and football.
Career
After graduating from high school, he took a job at the Kansas City Star as a reporter. He only worked there for six months, but has learned several valuable lessons that will help him develop his own unique writing style.
When World War I broke out, he became an American Red Cross ambulance driver. He was badly wounded while serving on the Austro-Italian front and was awarded the Italian Silver Medal of Courage.
He returned home in 1919 and began working as a staff writer and foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star Weekly. He continued to write stories for publication even after moving to Chicago in September 1920.
In 1921, Hemingway was accepted as a foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star and moved to Paris. It was in Paris that he began a full-fledged career as a writer and wrote 88 stories in 20 months! He covered the Greco-Turkish War and wrote travel guides, and in 1923 published his first book, Three Stories and Ten Poems.
In 1929, his novel A Farewell to Arms was published. The book became very popular, cementing its reputation as a writer of fascinating fiction.
He continued to write throughout the 1930s, with novels such as Death in the Afternoon (1932), The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber (1935), and To Have and Not to Have (1937). He also enjoyed travel and adventure, including big game hunting in Africa, bullfighting in Spain, and deep sea fishing in Florida.
The 1940s were very eventful for him. He began the decade with the publication of one of his most famous works, For Whom the Bell Tolls, in 1940.
In 1951, he published The Old Man and the Sea, which was instrumental in winning the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Personal life
Ernest Hemingway has been married four times. His first wife was Elizabeth Hadley Richardson, whom he married in 1921. The couple had a child. During this marriage, Hemingway began an affair with Pauline Pfeiffer. When his wife found out about this, she divorced him.
He married Pauline Pfeiffer in 1927 shortly after the divorce. From this marriage he had two sons. This marriage ended in the same way and the first, Hemingway got a mistress Martha Gellhorn, which led to his divorce from Pauline in 1940.
Shortly after his second divorce, he tied the knot with Martha Gellhorn. The successful journalist was outraged at being called Hemingway's wife. After some time, she began an affair with the American paratrooper Major General James M. Gavin and divorced Hemingway in 1945.
His fourth and last marriage was to Mary Welch in 1946. The couple remained together until Hemingway's death.
The last years of Ernest Hemingway's life were marked by poor health and depression. He was treated for depression, hypertension and liver disease. He was increasingly visited by suicidal thoughts and in the end he shot himself on the morning of July 2, 1961.
Contribution to world literature
His novel A Farewell to Arms, written during the Italian campaign of World War I, is considered one of his first major literary successes. The book, the plot of which revolves around the love affair between the emigrant American Henry and Catherine Barkley against the backdrop of the First World War, became his first bestseller.
For Whom the Bell Tolls is another of his most famous works. The novel tells the story of a young American who ended up in a Republican guerrilla unit during the Spanish Civil War. Death is the main theme of the novel.
His novel The Old Man and the Sea was the last major work written and published by Hemingway during his lifetime. It is also one of his most famous pieces. The plot revolves around an aging fisherman who manages to catch a huge fish.
Awards
Ernest Hemingway was awarded a bronze star for his bravery during World War II in 1947.
He received the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 for his novel The Old Man and the Sea.
In 1954, Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for "his skill in the art of storytelling, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea, and for his influence on contemporary prose."
