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In order to write about life,
first you must live it!
~Ernest Hemingway~

Ernest Hemingway is said to be one of America's greatest writers.  He was born on July 21, 1899 in Oak Park, Chicago.  He was the second of six children.  His father, Dr. Ed Hemingway, was a physician.  Ernest Hemingway's mother, Grace Hall Hemingway, was trained as a singer who considered herself prim and proper.  When Ernest was a baby, she dressed him up like a baby doll.  The family liked to spend the summer in Michigan where Dr. Hemingway had purchased some property.  That is when Ernest developed his love of the outdoors, and it remained with him forever.  He caught his first fish when he was three years old.

When Ernest Hemingway graduated high school, his uncle helped him get a job as a reporter on the Kansas City Star.  He never attended college.  He stayed at the Star for about six months.  He tried to enlist in the Army, but was unable to because of an eyesight problem.  So he volunteered with the American Red Cross in Italy and drove ambulances for them. 

    When he was in Italy, he was seriously wounded by shrapnel.  Some time later, he was taken to the Red Cross hospital in Milan where he spent part of the summer and the fall of 1918.  During his stay in the hospital, he fell in love with a nurse named Agnes.  But their love affair came to an end when she realized that because she was several years older than him, the relationship probably wouldn't work out.  So even though she still loved Ernest, she ended the relationship and started seeing an Italian officer.  Hemingway later wrote about this affair and some of his experiences in A Farewell to Arms. 

Ernest Hemingway was still broken up about Agnes leaving him, but in 1921 he married his first wife Hadley Richardson.  Soon the couple moved to Paris where Ernest became part of the literary group that was later named The Lost Generation.

Ernest and Hadley had one son named Jack.  Jack was nicknamed Bumby.  The money Ernest made writing short stories and working for the Toronto Star was the only income the family had.  They were poor.  The couple came up with enough money to travel to Austria and Spain.  This is where Ernest discovered bullfighting and the running of the bulls in Pamplona.

Ernest and Hadley were divorced in 1927.  Ernest married his second wife Pauline Pfeiffer, an American heiress.  They traveled to Key West, Florida and ended up buying a home there.  Ernest spent much of his time deep-sea fishing with friends.

Today Hemingway's home in Key West is open for visitors and a popular spot for tourists.  The house is a Registered National Historic Landmark and guided tours are offered. It was in the Key West home that Hemingway worked on: Death in the Afternoon, Green Hills of Africa, To Have and To Have Not, For Whom the Bell Tolls and his play The Fifth Column, in addition to many short stories. 

Ernest spent part of each day writing, but also spent time drinking with some buddies and fishing.  He also traveled to Spain and Wyoming.  Thanks to Pauline's uncle, they were able to take an American safari, which lasted several months.

In the mid-1930's, Ernest was carrying on a love affair with Martha Gellhorn, who was also a journalist.  Martha became his third wife in 1940.

During World War II, Ernest spent most of his time in Cuba and Key West.  He worked semi-officially through the US Embassy in Cuba patrolling the seas searching for German submarines on his own boat the Pilar.  He became a journalist again and covered D-Day and the final Allied victory in Europe.  During World War II, he met his last wife, Mary.  They were married in 1946.

No matter what else Ernest Hemingway had going on, he always continued to write.  He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954.

In the late 1950's, Ernest became very sick.  He and Mary moved to Ketchum, Idaho in 1959 and purchased a house.  Ernest had high blood pressure, and was treated at the Mayo Clinic for depression.  Also, he had never fully recovered from the injuries he got from two plane crashes he was in on a safari in Africa.  He also had several incidents which seemed to indicate suicidal tendencies.  On July 2, 1961, Hemingway killed himself with a shotgun.  He is buried in a cemetery in Ketchum, Idaho.

The world is a fine place and worth fighting for.
~Ernest Hemingway~

Ernest Hemingway Quotes

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