Winner of the most important literary awards in the world, Ernest Hemingway is today considered a reference point of American literature. Let’s find out the story of his career and his private life.
Who was Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (Oak Park, July 21, 1899 – Ketchum, July 2, 1961) was an American writer.
He grew up near Chicago with his father Clarence, a doctor, and his mother Grace, an aspiring opera singer. From his childhood he remembers particularly well the house by the lake that he gets used to contact with nature who then has the opportunity to deepen in the naturalist circle to which he is enrolled by his father. In this way he has the opportunity to learn more about the world of animals and herbs while also developing a sense of adventure.
In these years he does not particularly like school, he manages to find his way during the period of high school when two teachers push him towards the world of writing. He then begins to make his first stories and write his first articles in school newspapers. He refuses to enroll in college and then moves to Kansas City where he works as reporter for the local newspaper immediately making himself noticed for his captivating and modern writing style.
The beginning of Ernest Hemingway’s career
In this same year young people begin to be called to the front and Ernest, due to an eye problem, is chosen as an ambulance driver on the Italian front. Here, after being injured in an accident, he meets Agnes, a nurse with whom he falls madly in love. Once back home he dedicates himself again to writing but it does not achieve the desired success. During a party he meets Elizabeth, an older and richer woman whom he falls in love with and who helps him in his dream by deciding to move to Paris with him.
Here they bring their first child into the world and the cultural environment leads him to conclude the first book “Three short stories and ten poems”. This success is followed by other important novels that receive the approval of critics and some colleagues including Ezra Pound. In the meantime, her love story ends to give space to Pauline, her new love with whom she returns to the United States and gives birth to her second child.
In this period he writes “Farewell to Arms”, one of the greatest successes of his entire career that is received with great enthusiasm by the public and critics. In the meantime he lives a life in search of adrenaline and emotions and thus participates in his first safari in Africa where he meets what will become a historical friend of his: Marlene Dietrich. He subsequently publishes “Green hills of Africa” and “The snows of Chilimangiaro” inspired by this experience.
Ernest Hemingway’s success and literary awards
In 1940 he separated from Pauline and met Martha with whom he moved to Cuba. In the meantime he wrote “For Whom the Bell Tolls”, a novel that tells the story of the Spanish Civil War and achieves an incredible success among the public, less so among critics. In the meantime, however, the second World War in which he and his wife participate as special envoys attending historical events such as the Normandy landings.
After the conflict, the two divorce and the fourth, as well as the last, wife Mary arrives for him. In recent years he has had the opportunity to travel a lot, especially for Italy where he writes one of his most loved works: “The old Man and the Sea”, with which the I press Pulitzer. He should also go to Stockholm to pick up the Nobel prize for literature, but the damage caused by a serious plane crash prevents him from doing so.