Ernest Hemingway An Author Study of the Great American Writer

Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economical and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid- 1920s and the mid-1950s – he published seven novels, six short story collections, and two non- fiction works. Additional works, including three novels, four short story collections, and three non-fiction works, were published posthumously. Many of his works are considered classics of American literature. Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961)

Personal Life Hemingway was raised in Oak Park, Illinois. After high school he reported for a few months for The Kansas City Star, before leaving for the Italian front to enlist with the World War I ambulance drivers. In 1918, he was seriously wounded and returned home. In 1921, he married Hadley Richardson, the first of his four wives. The couple moved to Paris, where he worked as a foreign correspondent. He later worked as a journalist during the Spanish Civil War and was present at both the Normandy Invasions and the liberation of Paris of World War II. In 1952, Hemingway went on safari to Africa, where he was almost killed in two successive plane crashes that left him in ill health for the rest of his life. He then lived in Key West, Florida, (1930s) and Cuba ( s), and in 1959, he bought a house in Ketchum, Idaho, where he committed suicide in the summer of 1961.

Awards Hemingway received the following awards throughout his life: Silver Medal of Military Valor, Italian Armed Forces (c. WWI) Bronze Star, United States Armed Forces (1947) Pulitzer Prize, The Old Man and the Sea (1953) American Academy of Arts and Letters Award of Merit (1954) Nobel Prize for Literature (1954) Top Reporter of the Last Hundred Years, Kansas City Star (1999) LISTEN TO A VIDEO OF HEMINGWAY’s NOBEL PRIZE ACCEPTANCE SPEECH HERE!

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” “Write the best story that you can and write it as straight as you can.” “All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know.” “I decided that I would write one story about each thing that I knew about.” “As a writer, you should not judge. You should understand.” “You shouldn’t write if you can’t write.” From almost the beginning of his writing career, Hemingway's distinctive style occasioned a great deal of comment and controversy. Basically, his style is simple, direct, and unadorned, probably as a result of his early newspaper training. He avoids the adjective whenever possible, but because he is a master at transmitting emotion without the flowery prose of his Victorian novelist predecessors, the effect is far more telling. He has also been described as a master of dialogue.

The following slides will take a closer look at a few of Hemingway’s most famous novels and short stories. Love, war, wilderness, and loss are all common themes in much of Hemingway’s work.

The Sun Also Rises “Don't you ever get the feeling that all your life is going by and you're not taking advantage of it? Do you realize you've lived nearly half the time you have to live already?” – Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises Hemingway wrote The Sun Also Rises about a group of American and British expatriates who travel from Paris to the Festival of San Fermín in Pamplona to watch the running of the bulls and the bullfights. In it, Hemingway investigates the themes of love, death, renewal in nature, and the nature of masculinity. It received mixed reviews upon publication, but is now “recognized as Hemingway’s greatest work.”

A Farewell to Arms “I know the night is not the same as the day: that all things are different, that the things of the night cannot be explained in the day, because they do not then exist, and the night can be a dreadful time for lonely people once their loneliness has started.” – Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms A Farewell to Arms is about a love affair between the expatriate American Henry and Catherine Barkley against the backdrop of the First World War, cynical soldiers, fighting and the displacement of populations. The publication of A Farewell to Arms cemented Hemingway's stature as a modern American writer, became his first best-seller, and is described by biographer Michael Reynolds as "the premier American war novel from that debacle World War I."

For Whom the Bell Tolls “If you stop complaining and asking for what you never will get, you will have a good life. A good life is not measured by any biblical span.” - Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls For Whom the Bell Tolls is tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades attached to a republican guerrilla unit during the Spanish Civil War. As a dynamiter, he is assigned to blow up a bridge during an attack on the city of Segovia. The novel is regarded as one of Hemingway's best works, dealing with the themes of death, sacrifice, suicide, and bigotry.

The Old Man and the Sea “But man is not made for defeat," he said. "A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” - Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea The Old Man and the Sea was the last major work of fiction to be produced by Hemingway and published in his lifetime. One of his most famous works, it centers upon Santiago, an aging fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. It deals with the themes of death, struggle, and pride, as well as perseverance, friendship, and luck.