About Ernest Miller Hemingway

Earnest Miller Hemingway was born on July 21st 1899 in a suburb of Chicago called Oak Park, Illinois where he was raised until he reached manhood. His father was a physician and his mother was a musician. His parents were extremely well known in their community where his father practiced his medicine and his mother performed concerts. Ernest was an active participant in a variety of different sports such as boxing, water polo, track and field and football. His mother however, was constantly pushing him to learn the Cello. In high school Earnest was extremely successful in his English classes. During his third year in high school Ernest took a Journalism class that was set up almost like a newspaper office. In January 1916 Hemingway had published his first journal to the school newspaper called the Trapeze. The piece he had published was about a performance by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Hemingway started as a journalist before he made the switch to a novelist. When he graduated high school he went to work for The Kansas City Star he had only stayed there as a reporter for six months but working there shaped his writing and influenced his style.

The next stop in Hemingway’s journey was World War I. In 1918 Hemingway was recruited by the American Red Cross as an ambulance driver.  He left for Italy in May and found himself in Paris while German soldiers were attacking the city. When the month of June hit Hemingway found himself on the front lines in Italy. On the 8th of July Hemingway was seriously injured by a mortar. Even though Hemingway had extremely serious injuries, he still helped other soldiers reach safety. Because of this act of bravery, Hemingway was awarded the Italian Star Medal of Bravery. While in the hospital to heal from the injuries he sustained in the front lines young Ernest met and fell in love with Agnes von Kurowsky who was a Red Cross nurse. He was finally released from the hospital and returned to the states January, 1919. Ernest and Agnes decided that they would get married after they spent a few months in the states. Ultimately Agnes wrote a letter to Hemingway confessing to him that she had gotten engaged to an Italian Officer. Hemingway returned home to readjust and was soon offered a writing job in Toronto, Canada. He began working as a freelance and staff writer for the Toronto Star Weekly. Eventually, he moved away from Toronto and back to Chicago while still writing stories for the Toronto Star Weekly. While Hemingway was in Chicago he worked as an editor for the Cooperative Commonwealth, a monthly journal. Hemingway met his first wife Hadley Richardson while she was in Chicago visiting. Hadley and Hemingway had talked for a few months and then they decided it was time to visit Europe. They got married on September 3rd, 1921 and moved to Paris.

Ernest Hemingway’s passport photo

While in Paris Hemingway was a foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star Weekly. He published eighty-eight stories for the newspaper within the first twenty months of his time spent there. Hemingway wrote many different travel pieces while he traveled across Europe. It was in Europe where he learned he did not want to live the life as a journalist and he wanted to be a novelist. After the birth of his son, Hemingway and Hadley traveled back to Toronto but ultimately decided to travel back to Europe so he can fulfill his desire to be a novelist. While there Hemingway met F. Scott Fitzgerald, the same year the pair met Fitzgerald published “The Great Gatsby” and that is when Hemingway knew he didn’t want to just do journals and short stories, his next work absolutely had to be a novel.

In 1923 Hemingway and Hadley had visited Spain with some of his long time friends. It was Spain where he fell in love with watching bull fighting. His love and fascination with the running with the bulls and bull fighting inspired him to write his first novel “The Sun Also Rises”. A women named Pauline Pfeiffer had convinced Hemingway to sign a contract with Scribner’s in order to publish “The Sun Also Rises”. Hemingway listened to Pauline against the wishes of Hadley and went to New York to get his novel published. During this time Hemingway had an affair with Pauline, which led Hadley and Hemingway to separate and ultimately divorce in January, 1927. A few months later in May of 1927 Hemingway Married Pauline.

After Pauline had become pregnant with their child, she had the desire to move back to America. In the Spring of 1928 Hemingway and his wife went to Kansas City where she gave birth to their son Patrick on the 28th of June, 1928. After Patrick’s birth the family traveled quite a bit. During this traveling Hemingway learned of his fathers death by suicide. Hemingway’s next journey was to Key West Florida. It was there that Hemingway penned “A Farewell To Arms”. After taking a while to complete the novel and changing the ending many times, it was published on the 27th of September, 1929.

Time continued on and Hemingway prepared different drafts for his future manuscripts. Hemingway had to take a year off of writing because he broke his arm in a car accident. On November, 12 1931 Hemingway welcomed his third son Gregory Hancock Hemingway to the world while in Kansas City. His family settled in a house in Key West Florida, but Hemingway did continue to travel to both Europe and Cuba. A few years later in 1933 Pauline and Hemingway went on a trip to West Africa. This trip helped influence many of Hemingway’s works.

During the Spanish Civil War in 1937 Hemingway decided to to report on the event for the North American Newspaper Alliance. A women named Martha Gellhorn had joined him on his adventure to Spain. During this time Hemingway had penned his first and only play titled “The Fifth Column”.

When Hemingway had met Martha this caused a rift between Pauline and Hemingway. In 1939 Hemingway took a trip to Cuba during the separation between him and Pauline. Martha went to Cuba to be with Hemingway and this ultimately led Pauline to divorce him. Hemingway and Pauline divorced in the Summer of 1939 and a short time later he married Martha on November 20th 1940. Martha, like many of Hemingway’s other lovers had influenced his writing. In fact Martha influenced one of Hemingway’s most well known novels “For Whom the Bell Tolls”.

Martha with Ernest Hemingway

During World War II, Hemingway spent most of his time in Europe. While he was there he met a women involved with Time magazine named Mary Welsh. He fell madly in love with Mary. Martha, his wife at this time was extremely mad at him for not getting her a plane ticket to see him while he was in London so she demanded for a divorce. Martha ultimately got her wish and the two did divorce. After his third meeting with Mary, Hemingway proposed. Hemingway was present during battles in World War II. His presence ultimately led the way for him to receive the prestigious bronze star for bravery and valor. Hemingway was recognized for giving readers the opportunity to truly understand the environment that soldiers in the front lines were in.

 

Mary and Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway took a break from writing between the years of 1943 through 1945. He married his last wife Mary in 1946. After World War II Hemingway’s family suffered injuries and illness from many different accidents. Hemingway watched himself and his family and friends fall ill and some even passed away. This caused Hemingway to fall into a deep and dark depression. During his depression he also suffered with many different severe health problems such as high blood pressure and diabetes. Hemingway also had a problem with extremely painful headaches as well as being over weight. All of these health problems came from the heavy drinking problem he has had throughout his life as well as many of the accidents that he was involved in.

The same year Hemingway married his wife Mary he began writing his novel “The Garden of Eden”. In the year 1948 Hemingway and Mary went to Europe where he met a nineteen year old girl and had an affair with her. This affair inspired him to write his novel “Across the River and into the Trees”. The book received a lot of controversy and criticism. Hemingway was extremely frustrated with the criticism of his book so he decided to quickly write another novel. Hemingway penned one of his most famous novels “The Old Man and the Sea”. This novel ultimately won Hemingway the Pulitzer Prize.

In the year 1954 Hemingway was honored with the Nobel Prize in Literature. Hemingway took this prize lightly because in some senses he felt like it was a pity prize because of his accidents. Time went on and he continued writing and adding chapters to his already finished books. Hemingway fell into an even worse depression and decided to move to Idaho. Through the years Hemingway’s health continued to deteriorate and he ultimately committed suicide by shooting himself in the head on July 2nd, 1961.