Block 4 Hemingway Bio

Ernest Hemingway

IMPORTANT LIFE FACTS:

  • He was born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1899.
  • Ernest began his writing career as a newspaper reporter in Kansas at the age of 17.
  • Ernest joined the medical unit of the Italian army after the U.S. joined the first World War. He was wounded at the front line of battle and was awarded a Medal of Honor from the Italian government.
  • Following the war, Ernest returned to America and continued to write for newspapers.
  • A few years later, Ernest moved to Europe so that he could cover pressing stories in Greece and other European countries.
  • When he moved to Europe, he began to write in Paris. He quickly befriended Gertrude Stein, who was also an American writer and poet.
  • As he continued in Paris, he made some more friends. These comrades included F. Scott Fitzgerald and Pablo Picasso, who were also working in Paris at this time.
  • Hemingway began writing short stories and novels while he lived in France. His stories were always highly anticipated by the public. Some of Hemingway’s most famous works include The Old Man and Sea, The Sun Also Rises, and A Farewell to Arms.
  • Though Hemingway was very successful, he was never happy. He went through multiple marriages and none were ever successful.
  • Later in his life, he traveled the world and visited places such as Africa and South America. He won The Pulitzer Prize in 1951 for his novel The Old Man and the Sea and also won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954.
  • Around this time, Hemingway began to feel the pain of depression.
  • On July 2, 1961, Hemingway committed suicide in his home.

WRITING MOVEMENT:

  • Hemingway was part of The Lost Generation. This movement took place write after WWI. The artists of this period were considered lost because the morals they were taught as children were thrown out the window in a postwar world.

WRITING STYLE AND LEGACY:

  • Hemingway left an impressive legacy on the writing community. His concise and to-the-point writing style were both entertaining, but also thought provoking. Many of his stories and novels had a deeper meaning, such as The Old Man and the Sea which is believed to be out Jesus, from the Bible. Ernest Hemingway will forever be remembered as one of the greatest writers to ever live.