Ernest Hemingway
Biography
Early Years
Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois to Clarence and Grace Hemingway. He loved to fish and hunt at their cabin in Michigan. In highschool, he worked on the school's newspaper writing primarily about sports. Immediately after graduating, he went to work for the Kansas City Star.
Ernest's mother liked to dress him in girls clothing
Hemingway fishing in Michigan
The Hemingway Family
Military
In 1918, Ernest Hemingway went overseas to serve in World War I as an ambulence driver for the Italian Army. He recieved the Italian Medal of Bravery. He suffered from a severe injury that landed him in the hospital. There, he met Agnes von Kurowsky, and soon after, they were engaged to be married. After a few months, she left him for another man which led to the writing of his books "A Very Short Story" and "A Farewell To Arms" He returned home and began working for the Toronto Star Newspaper.
In Chicago, working for the Toronto Star where Hemingway met Hadley Richardson, his first wife. The couple married and quickly moved to Paris. In 1923, they had a son, John Hadley Nicanor Hemingway. Later, the couple took a trip to the festival that would later provided the basis of Hemingway's first novel, The Sun Also Rises. Soon after, Ernest and Hadley divorced due to his affair with Pauline Pfeiffer, who would become Hemingway's second wife shortly after his divorce from Hadley was finalized. He started to work on his book, Men Without Women. Pauline became pregnant and they had their first child, Patrick Hemingway. They moved back to America and settled in Key West, Florida. He finished his novel, A Farewell to Arms, about World War I.
While hunting in Africa, Hemingway met Martha Gellhorn, a fellow war coorespondant. He divorced Pauline and soon after, he was married to Martha. He began gathering material for his next book, For Whom The Bell Tolls, which would later be nominated for The Pulitzer Prize. When the United States went into World War II he served as a war correspondant. Toward the end of the war, he met Mary Welsh, who would become his 4th wife after divorcing Martha. In 1951, he wrote The Old Man and The Sea which would become his most famous book. It finally won the Pullitzer Prize.
Martha Gellhorn
Hemingway's book that won the Pullitzer Prize
Hemingway and Mary Welsh
His Last Few Years
In 1954, Hemingway won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Though at a peak in his career, he suffered from depression, high blood pressure, and liver disease. He wrote A Moveable Feast, and then retired in Idaho where he continued to suffer from deteriorating metal and physical health. Early on the morning of July 2, 1961 Ernest Hemingway commited suicide. He left behind a new way to write, and an iconic style that is still used today.