Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899 in a Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois. Hemingway attended Oak Park High School where he served as editor of the high school newspaper and was involved with football and boxing. When an eye injury would not allow Hemingway to enlist to fight in World War I, he moved to Kansas City where his writing career would soon take off. Being only 17 at the time, Hemingway had to lie about his age in order to become a reporter for the Kansas City Star. However, his job at the Kansas City Star would only last a few months as Hemingway, still wanting to serve his country. left to serve as a volunteer ambulance driver in Italy. For is services in Italy, Hemingway was awarded the Italian medal al Valore Militate.
Upon Hemingway’s return to the United States, he made his way back to journalism finding a job with the Toronto Star along with the Chicago Tribune. Hemingway would marry Hadley Richardson, and the couple moved to Paris with Hemingway working as a foreign correspondent. In 1923, while in Paris, Hemingway published his first piece of work: Three Stories and Ten Poems. However, it was not until 1926 when one of his publications were praised publicly being his second novel: The Sun Also Rises.
When Hemingway’s father, Clarence, committed Suicide in 1928, Ernest wrote A Farewell to Arms to collaborate on the disparity of death and life struggles. To get away from it all, Hemingway traveled to Africa where he would turn his experiences there into three short stories later on in life from 1961 through 1963.
When the Spanish Civil War broke out, Hemingway took action in an effort to raise over $40,000 to buy ambulances. World War II rolled around, and Hemingway wanted to be a part of it like in the first World War. He became a correspondent for the United States First Army. Using these wars as a writing block, Hemingway completed For Whom the Bell Tolls in 1940. Although the novel experienced great success, Hemingway was fearful that he had burned out and had nothing else of importance to write. While in his anxiety phase, Hemingway published Across the River and Into the Trees and it turned out to be his worst publication of his career. Hemingway would not go out that way as he learned in boxing to “never stay down”.
In 1952, Ernest Hemingway’s greatest piece of work was published. The Old Man and The Sea chronicled the life of an aging Cuban fisherman caught up in a battle with a giant marlin. The story opens on the eighty-fourth day since the old man Santiago, the main character, has caught anything. Much time is spent with Santiago and Manolin, a young boy who assists Santiago, reminiscing about the happy times they have experienced. In many ways the book reflects Hemingway’s consistent use of everyday language, yet also his creativity. Hemingway was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 for the novel. This was only the beginning in the accolades Hemingway would receive.
In 1954, Ernest Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He received the prize for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea, and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style. The fact that Hemingway was only nominated by four people and went on to win the award shows the impact his work had once given the chance. One of the nominees, Per Hallstrom, wrote this of Hemingway in his nomination: “In general, from an artistic point of view, he is remarkable for his alert and quick view on earthly things and his ability to express them in words that make them immediate experiences for the reader. He has a kind of appetite and a sort of primitive wildness. It leads the thought to generations from the west who created the great country and who have been the nerve in peoples’ energy.” Hemingway however, was unable to be attend the Nobel Banquet at the City Hall in Stockholm, December 10, 1954, and his speech was read by United States Ambassador, John C. Cabot.
Ernest Hemingway eventually called it quits and retired to his home in the mountains of Ketchum, Idaho with his fourth wife Mary. Retirement was not as fulfilling to Ernest as he was diagnosed with high blood pressure and depression. On the night of July 2, 1961, Hemingway committed suicide ending the life of one of the greatest writers the world will ever know.
No comments:
Post a Comment