Ernest Hemingway Biography

An Ernest Hemingway biography is an amazing story filled with drama, danger, romance and adventure. Hemingway was a Nobel award winning novel and short story author. He was one of the greatest voices of "The Lost Generation," or the generation of disillusioned young adults after the end of World War I.

Early Years
Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois, to Dr. Clarence and Grace Hemingway. He was educated in public school and spent his summers with his family on a lake in Michigan. He enjoyed his time on the lake immensely and went on to become an avid sportsman. He excelled in high school and was involved in many writing activities, such as the school newspaper.

Hemingway worked at a Kansas newspaper for a short time after high school graduation, but became committed to joining the fighting in World War I. Though rejected for military service, he volunteered with the Red Cross and became an ambulance driver in Italy. In 1918 Hemingway was wounded and sent to a hospital in Milan, Italy. He met a nurse there and fell in love, but she declined his proposal of marriage.

Adulthood
Hemingway returned to America after recovering from his war wounds. He became a reporter, first for American newspapers, then Canadian. He sailed to France on assignment and found fellow authors in Paris that encouraged him to write non-journalistic pieces.

Hemingway's first book, In Our Time, was published to tepid reviews. He followed it up with the 1926 publication of The Sun Also Rises, which was a huge financial and critical success. 

Hemingway kept his home in Paris, but spent much of his free time travelling. He would go skiing, hunting, fishing and watch bullfights. He continued to write, publishing another successful novel, A Farewell to Arms, in 1929. His passion for Spain compelled him to work as a correspondent to document the civil war that had erupted in the country as commoners fought off fascist forces. He wrote a play, The Fifth Column, in 1938 and a novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls, in 1940 about the war.

Later Years
Hemingway worked as a journalist during World War II and even crossed the English Channel with troops for D-Day. He witnessed many battles and was involved in the liberation of Paris from Nazi forces. After the war ended, Hemingway returned to the home he bought in Havana, Cuba. He wrote many pieces, but most were considered inferior to his earlier works.

In 1952, Hemingway published his most successful short story, The Old Man and the Sea. The story helped win him a 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature. In 1960, Fidel Castro's revolution drove Hemingway from Cuba to Ketchum, Idaho. He fell into deep depression and suffered from serious health problems. On July 2, 1961, Hemingway committed suicide. He was survived by his fourth wife and three sons from his previous marriages.

Marriages
Hemingway was married four times, divorced three times and had three sons. His marriages often appear as nothing more than a footnote in an essay of his life. Considering he led such an extraordinary existence, his marriages are often considered a minor point in his overall story.

Hemingway married his first wife, Elizabeth, in 1920. They had a son, John, but divorced in 1927. That same year, Hemingway married his second wife, Pauline. They had two sons, Patrick and Gregory. He divorced Pauline in 1940 and married his third wife, Martha. In 1946 the two divorced and he married his fourth wife, Mary. The two remained together until his death in 1961.