Ernest Hemingway was one of America’s favorite authors his writings touched the lives of those who read his books everywhere. He put a lot of emphasis on his experienced, and adventurous life into all of his books. He truly shows how one writer’s life can be another’s entertainment without being too personal. Hemingway’s highly adventurous life shows a little sadness and creativity, while contributing to the twentieth century.
Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1899. He was educated at Oak Park High School, and graduated in 1917 (Benson 11). His first job started at the Kansas City Star, but left his job after a few months to go and serve in World War I, as an volunteer ambulance driver (Rovit 45). In 1921 Hemingway settled in Paris, where he was a correspondent worker for the Toronto Star ( Benson 27). In 1927 he spent a long time in West Florida, Spain, and Africa. During the Spanish civil war, he returned to Spain as a newspaper correspondent (Bruccoli 56).
During World War II, he was a reporter for the United States First Army. After the War he settled near Havana, Cuba, and in 1958 he moved to Ketchum, Idaho (Rovit 17). Hemingway wrote a lot on his experiences as a fisherman, a hunter, and a bullfighter. His adventurous life almost killed him several times (Encyclopedia 246).
In the Spanish Civil War shells burst inside of his room, in World War II, he was struck by a taxi during a blackout, and in 1954 his airplane crashed in Africa ( Benson 34). Hemingway’s writing was based on two types of people. The first were men and women who were deprived by the War, and on their faith, moral values, and their emotional problems ( Rovit 23). The second type is men who were prizefighters and bullfighters. His first writings were a collection of short stories called Three Stories and Ten Poems which was written in 1923 (Hemingway 46).
In 1924, he wrote Our Time which was about his experiences as a child in the northern Michigan woods ( Bruccoli 18). In 1927, he wrote Men Without Women which was about his description of impending doom ( Benson 62). In 1933, he wrote Winner Take Nothing, which was about people who had unfortunate circumstances in Europe ( Hemingway 12). Then in 1926 Hemingway wrote The Sun Also Rises, this book of morally, irresponsible Americans and Britons living in Spain and France, made him famous (Encyclopedia 245).
The other popular novel, A Farewell to Arms, written in 1929, is about a love affair during wartime in Italy between a an American officer and a British nurse ( Hemingway 14). These books were a major part of the American literature during the twentieth century. It made people feel like they could relate to the book; therefore they became very popular. Hemingway’s writing was very simple and childlike, but he provide a detailed descriptions of action to let the reader capture the scenes (Benson 48). He believed in authentic writing, and that a writer could create a good story only by experience and participation (Rovit 72). He also believed that an author writing about a familiar subject was able to elaborate a great deal (Bruccoli 67).
During the next decade, Hemingway wrote a series of short stories and novels based on more experiences of his adventurous life ( Encyclopedia 246). In 1953, he won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction. Then in 1954, he was awarded the Noble Prize in literature. His very last work of his lifetime was Collected Poems, written in 1960 (Hemingway 64). Hemingway was sixty-one years old when he died of apparent suicide, in Ketchum Idaho, in 1961 ( Benson 84). Hemingway was a wonderful author who based his literature in real life experiences (Rovit 45).
His writing style influenced the early twentieth century greatly, which is why he was known as one of the best authors that ever lived ( Bruccoli 32).
