Ernest Hemingway: The Life and Legacy of a Literary Giant

Ernest Hemingway was one of the most influential and celebrated writers of the 20th century. His novels and stories captured the essence of his time and place, as well as his own adventurous and turbulent life. He was also a Nobel laureate, a Pulitzer winner, a war correspondent, and a cultural icon. Here are some of the facts and quotes that reveal the man behind the legend.

Ernest Hemingway was an influential American writer known for his succinct and powerful prose. He was born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois, and began his writing career as a journalist before transitioning to fiction.

Hemingway was born in 1899 in Illinois, and grew up in a conservative suburb. He developed a love of the outdoors from spending summers at his family’s cabin in Michigan. He began writing in high school, and later became a journalist for the Kansas City Star. He learned to write short sentences and vigorous language, which would become his trademark style.

He volunteered as an ambulance driver in World War I, and was wounded by mortar fire while rescuing Italian soldiers. He fell in love with a nurse, Agnes von Kurowsky, who broke his heart by leaving him for another man. This experience inspired his novel A Farewell to Arms, which depicts the romance and tragedy of war.

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He moved to Paris in 1921, where he met other American writers who were disillusioned with modernity. Gertrude Stein called them the “Lost Generation”, which Hemingway used as an epigraph for his first novel The Sun Also Rises. The novel portrays the aimless lives of expatriates in Europe after the war. He also befriended F. Scott Fitzgerald, whom he once examined in a bathroom to reassure him about his penis size.

He married four times, and had three sons. His second wife, Pauline Pfeiffer, introduced him to bullfighting, which he wrote about in Death in the Afternoon. His third wife, Martha Gellhorn, was also a journalist, and they covered the Spanish Civil War together. He wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls, based on his experiences in Spain. His fourth wife, Mary Welsh, was with him when he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954.

He loved hunting, fishing, and boxing. He traveled widely, and lived in Cuba, Key West, and Idaho. He wrote The Old Man and the Sea, which won him the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953. It tells the story of an old fisherman’s struggle with a giant marlin. He also had a six-toed cat named Snow White, whose descendants still live in his former home in Key West.

He suffered from physical and mental health problems throughout his life. He survived two plane crashes in Africa, and endured various injuries and illnesses. He also struggled with alcoholism, depression, and bipolar disorder. He attempted suicide several times before succeeding in 1961. He once said: “Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.”

He left behind a legacy of literature that is still widely read and admired today. His style influenced many other writers, such as Raymond Carver, J.D. Salinger, and Jack Kerouac. He also coined some memorable phrases, such as: “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” And: “Write hard and clear about what hurts.”

Ernest Hemingway was a literary giant who lived a larger-than-life existence. He was a man of courage, grace, and passion. He once said: “Never confuse movement with action.” He certainly lived by his own words.

Relevant articles:
- Ernest Hemingway Facts | Mental Floss, Mental Floss, July 21, 2019
- Ernest Hemingway | Biography, Books, Death, & Facts, Britannica, accessed on August 2, 2023
- Ernest Hemingway Biography, Works, and Quotes | SparkNotes, SparkNotes, accessed on August 2, 2023
- Hemingway’s Life & Work | Hemingway | Ken Burns | PBS, PBS, accessed on August 2, 2023

Originally published at https://trendydigests.com on August 2, 2023.

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