Ernest Hemingway

In 1916 Hemingway graduated from high school and began his writing career as a reporter for The Kansas City Star. There he adopted his minimalist style by following the Star's style guide: "Use short sentences. Use short first paragraphs. Use vigorous English. Be positive, not negative. " Six months later he joined the Ambulance Corps in WWI and worked as an ambulance driver on the Italian front, picking up human remains.

In July 1918 he was seriously wounded by a mortar shell, which left shrapnel in both of his legs causing him much pain and requiring several surgeries. He was awarded the Silver Medal. Back in America, he continued his writing career working for Toronto Star.

At that time he met Hadley Richardson and the two married in 1921.

In 1921, he became a Toronto Star reporter in Paris.

There he published his first books, called "Three Stories and Ten Poems" (1923), and "In Our Time" (1924). In Paris he met Gertrude Stein, who introduced him to the circle that she called the "Lost Generation". F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thornton Wilder, Sherwood Anderson and Ezra Pound were stimulating Hemingway's talent.

At that time he wrote "The Sun Also Rises" (1926), "A Farewell to Arms" (1929), and a dazzling collection of Forty-Nine stories. Hemingway also regarded the Russian writers Lev Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Ivan Turgenev and Anton Chekhov as important influences, and met Pablo Picasso and other artists through Gertrude Stein.

Hemingway, perhaps the most prominent of the American supporters of the Spanish Republic during its struggle against the fascist rebellion led by Gen. Francisco Franco's Falangists--heavily supported by the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler--said that Alvah Bessie's Spanish Civil War novel "Men in Battle" (1939) was one of the best war novels of its time. Hemingway's own Spanish Civil War novel, "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (1943), won the 1940 Pulitzer Prize for fiction and was a best-seller.

His military experiences were emulated in "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (1940) and in several other stories.

Long considered a likely Nobel Laureate for Literature, he was disappointed when in 1950, William Faulkner became the first American writer of their generation to be awarded the Prize. Hemingway's 1949 novel "Across the River and Into the Trees" had been a notable failure, and likely cost him the honor of being the first American to win the prize since Eugene O'Neill did in 1938. Hemingway returned to his original, simple style for "The Old Man and the Sea", his 1952 novella that won him the Pulitzer Prize. After two plane crashes gave him the opportunity to read his own obituary, he finally won the Nobel Prize in 1954, in large part due to the extraordinary success of "Old Man". Hemingway himself was initially involved in the translation of the book into a film (The Old Man and the Sea (1958)), although the extent of his participation after selling his book was to go marlin-fishing off the coast of Peru to try to find a fish worthy enough for the picture. In the end, the producers used a rubber marlin and stock footage of marlin fishing in which Hemingway didn't participate. After seeing the film he expressed his disappointment and said that Spencer Tracy looked less like a Cuban peasant fisherman and more the rich old actor that he was. Tracy received an Oscar nomination for the role.

Ernest Hemingway was an American writer who won the Pulitzer Prize (1953) and the Nobel Prize in Literature (1954) for his novel The Old Man and the Sea, which was made into a 1958 film The Old Man and the Sea (1958). He was born into the hands of his physician father. He was the second of six children of Dr. Clarence Hemingway and Grace Hemingway (the daughter of English immigrants). His father's interests in history and literature, as well as his outdoorsy hobbies (fishing and hunting), became a lifestyle for Ernest. His mother was a domineering type who wanted a daughter, not a son, and dressed Ernest as a girl and called him Ernestine. She also had a habit of abusing his quiet father, who suffered from diabetes, and Dr. Hemingway eventually committed suicide. Ernest later described the community in his hometown as one having "wide lawns and narrow minds".

He settled near Havana, Cuba, where he wrote his best known work, "The Old Man and the Sea" (1953), for which he won a Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize in Literature.

This was adapted as the film The Old Man and the Sea (1958), for which Spencer Tracy was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actor, and Dimitri Tiomkin received an Oscar for Best Musical Score. War wounds, two plane crashes, four marriages and several affairs took their toll on Hemingway's hereditary predispositions and contributed to his declining health. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and insomnia in his later years. His mental condition was exacerbated by chronic alcoholism, diabetes and liver failure. After an unsuccessful treatment with electro-convulsive therapy, he suffered severe amnesia and his physical condition worsened. The memory loss obstructed his writing and everyday life.

When he died in 1961, his estate consisted of $418,933 in various stocks and bonds, $801,766 in real estate and $189,611 in notes, cash and mortgages.

"A Moveable Feast" (1964) is his classic memoir of Paris after WWI. Hemingway participated in the Spanish Civil War and took part in the D-Day landings during the invasion of France during World War II, in which he not only reported the action but took part in it. In one instance he threw three hand grenades into a bunker, killing several SS officers. He was decorated with the Bronze Star for his action.

A.E. Hotchner, in his 1966 memoir of his friendship with "Papa Hemingway", reports that Hemingway chose him in the late 1950s as his emissary to Hollywood to sell the Nick Adams stories. Hemingway, hobbled by mental illness and bad health, wanted an unprecedented $1 million for the movie rights to the stories, but Hotchner was only able to get him $100,000. The stories are the basis for Martin Ritt's film Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man (1962), which came out the year after Hemingway's death. Hotchner wrote the screenplay, as he did for The Seven Lively Arts: The World of Nick Adams (1957).

His granddaughter Mariel Hemingway co-starred in Woody Allen's movies Manhattan (1979) and Deconstructing Harry (1997). Allen later played Hemingway himself in Midnight in Paris (2011).

Pictured on a 25¢ US commemorative postage stamp in the Literary Arts series, issued 17 July 1989.

Grandfather of Joan Hemingway and actresses Mariel Hemingway and Margaux Hemingway (also a suicide, in 1996, as was her great-grandfather, Ernest's father).

It's estimated Hemingway left behind over 8,000 personal and business letters, and plans were announced in May 2002 to attempt to collect and publish most of them in a set that could exceed 10 volumes.

One son, Jack Hemingway with first wife; two sons, Patrick and Gregory, with second. Only Patrick survives as of this writing (June 2005).