Hemingway, Ernest

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'''Ernest Miller Hemingway''' ([[July 21]], [[1899]] – [[July 2]], [[1961]]) was an [[United States|American]] [[novelist]] and [[short story author|short story writer]] whose works, drawn from his wide range of experiences in [[World War I]], the [[Spanish Civil War]], and [[World War II]], are characterized by terse [[minimalism]] and [[understatement]]; they exerted a significant influence on the development of [[20th century|twentieth century]] [[fiction]]. Hemingway's [[protagonist]]s are typically stoic male individuals, often interpreted as projections of his own character, who must master "grace under pressure". Many of his works, like ''[[The Sun Also Rises]]'', ''[[A Farewell to Arms]]'' and ''[[The Old Man and the Sea]]'', are now considered classics in the canon of [[American literature]].
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{{epname|Hemingway, Ernest}}
  
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Hemingway was part of the 1920s [[expatriate]] community in [[Paris]], known as "The Lost Generation," a name coined and popularized by [[Gertrude Stein]]. Leading a turbulent social life, Hemingway married four times, allegedly formed various romantic relationships during his lifetime, and received much media exposure. Hemingway received the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] in [[1954]], seven years before his death by [[suicide]] in [[1961]].
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[[File:Ernest Hemingway in Milan 1918.jpg|thumb|300px|A young Hemingway in his World War I uniform]]
  
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==Early life==
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'''Ernest Miller Hemingway''' (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an [[United States|American]] [[novelist]] and short story writer whose works, drawn from his wide range of experiences in [[World War I]], the [[Spanish Civil War]], and [[World War II]], are characterized by terse [[minimalism]] and [[understatement]].
  
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[[Image:ErnestHemingwayBabyPicture.gif|thumb|left|A baby picture, c. 1900]]
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Hemingway's clipped prose style and unflinching treatment of human foibles represented a break with both the [[prosody]] and sensibilities of the nineteenth-century novel that preceded him. The urbanization of America, coupled with its emergence from isolation and entry into the first World War created a new, faster paced life that was at odds with the leisurely paced, rustic nineteenth-century novel. Hemingway seems to capture perfectly the new pace of life with his language. He catalogued America's entry into the world through the eyes of disaffected expatriated intellectuals in works like ''The Sun Also Rises'', as well as the longing for a more simple time in his classic ''The Old Man and the Sea.''
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Hemingway exerted a significant influence on the development of twentieth-century [[fiction]], both in America and abroad. Echoes of his style can still be heard in the telegraphic prose of many contemporary novelists and screenwriters, as well as in the modern figure of the disillusioned anti-hero. Throughout his works, Hemingway sought to reconcile the ruination of his times with an enduring belief in conquest, triumph, and "grace under pressure."
  
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Hemingway was born at 8:00 A.M. on [[July 21]], [[1899]] in [[Oak Park, Illinois|Oak Park]], [[Illinois]], the firstborn son of six children to Clarence ("Doctor Ed") and Grace Hemingwa. His mother was domineering and devoutly religious, mirroring the strict [[Protestant]] ethic of Oak Park, which Hemingway later said had "wide lawns and narrow minds"{{ref|ref1}}. While his mother hoped that her son would develop an interest in music, Hemingway adopted his father's outdoorsy interests—hunting and fishing in the woods and lakes of northern [[Michigan]]. Summering in a house called Windemere on Michigan's [[Walloon Lake]], Hemingway's early experiences in close contact with [[nature]] would instill in him a lifelong passion for outdoor adventure and for living in areas of the world generally considered remote or isolated.
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==Youth==
  
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When Hemingway graduated from high school, he did not pursue a college education.  Instead, in 1916, when he was 17 years old, he began his writing career as a cub [[reporter]] for ''[[The Kansas City Star]]''. While he stayed at that newspaper for only about six months, throughout his lifetime he used the admonition from the ''Star'''s [[style guide]] as a foundation for his manner of writing: "Use short sentences. Use short first paragraphs. Use vigorous English. Be positive, not negative"{{ref|ref3}}.
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[[Image:ErnestHemingwayBabyPicture.gif|thumb|200px|right|A baby picture, c. 1900]]
  
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==World War I until the Spanish Civil War==
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Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, [[Illinois]], the firstborn son of six children. His mother was domineering and devoutly religious, mirroring the strict [[Protestant]] ethic of Oak Park, which Hemingway later said had "wide lawns and narrow minds." Hemingway adopted his father's outdoor interests—hunting and fishing in the woods and lakes of northern [[Michigan]]. Hemingway's early experiences in close contact with nature would instill in him a lifelong passion for outdoor isolation and adventure.
  
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[[Image:Hemingway WorldWarIYoung.gif|thumb|200px|A young Hemingway in his World War I uniform]]
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When Hemingway graduated from high school, he did not pursue a college education. Instead, in 1916, when he was 17 years old, he began his writing career as a cub [[reporter]] for the ''[[Kansas City Star]].'' While he stayed at that newspaper for only about six months, throughout his lifetime he used the admonition from the ''Star'''s [[style guide]] as a foundation for his manner of writing: "Use short sentences. Use short first paragraphs. Use vigorous English. Be positive, not negative."<ref>[https://citatis.com/a19368/2622dc/ Ernest Hemingway Quotes] ''Citatis''. Retrieved November 4, 2020.</ref>
  
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Hemingway left his reporting job after only a few months, and, against his father's wishes, tried to join the [[United States Army]] to see action in [[World War I]]. He supposedly failed the medical examination due to poor vision (there is no record of this), and instead joined the [[American Field Service]] Ambulance Corps and left for [[Italy]], then fighting for the Allies. En route to the Italian front, he stopped in [[Paris]], which was under constant bombardment from [[Germany|German]] artillery. Instead of staying in the relative safety of the Hotel Florida, Hemingway tried to get as close to the combat as possible.
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==World War I==
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[[File:Ernest Hemingway recuperates from wounds in Milan, 1918.jpg|thumb|200px|Hemingway recuperating from wounds in [[Milan]], [[Italy,]] September 1918]]
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Hemingway left his reporting job after only a few months, and, against his father's wishes, tried to join the [[United States Army]] to see action in [[World War I]]. He failed the medical examination, instead joining the [[American Field Service]] Ambulance Corps and leaving for [[Italy]], then fighting for the Allies.  
  
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Soon after arriving on the Italian front, he witnessed the brutalities of the war; on his first day of duty, an [[ammunition]] factory near [[Milan]] suffered an explosion. Hemingway had to pick up the human remains, mostly of women who had worked at the factory. This first cruel encounter with human death left him shaken. The soldiers he met later did not lighten the horror; one of them, [[Eric Dorman-Smith]], quoted to him a line from [[Henry IV, part 2 |Part Two of Shakespeare's ''Henry IV'']]:
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Soon after arriving on the Italian front, he witnessed the brutalities of the war; on his first day of duty, an [[ammunition]] factory near [[Milan]] suffered an explosion. Hemingway had to pick up the human remains, mostly of women who had worked at the factory. This first cruel encounter with human death left him shaken.  
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By my troth, I care not; a man can die but once; we owe god a death...and let it go which way it will, he that dies this year is quit for the next{{ref|ref4}}.
 
  
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At the Italian front on July 8, 1918, Hemingway was wounded delivering supplies to soldiers, ending his career as an ambulance driver. The exact details of this attack are in dispute, but two facts are certain: Hemingway was hit by an [[Austria|Austrian]] [[trench warfare|trench]] [[mortar]] shell which left fragments in both of his legs, and he was subsequently awarded the [[Silver Medal of Military Valor]] (''medaglia d'argento'') from the Italian [[government]]. Hemingway later claimed that he was transferred to the Italian infantry, where he was seriously injured in combat, but no record exists of this and it is likely an invention on his part.
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At the Italian front on July 8, 1918, Hemingway was wounded delivering supplies to soldiers, ending his career as an ambulance driver. After this experience, Hemingway convalesced in a Milan hospital run by the [[American Red Cross]]. There he was to meet a nurse, Sister Agnes von Kurowsky. The experience would later form the foundation for his first great novel, ''A Farewell to Arms.''
  
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After this experience, Hemingway convalesced in a Milan hospital run by the [[American Red Cross]]. There he was to meet a nurse, Sister Agnes von Kurowsky of Washington, D.C., one of 18 nurses attending groups of 4 patients each. Hemingway fell in love with Kurowsky, who was more than 6 years older than he, but this first relationship did not last. After he returned to the United States, she fell in love with and married another man.
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==First novels and other early works==
  
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===Literary aftermath of WWI===
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Hemingway made his debut in American literature with the publication of the short story collection ''[[In Our Time]]'' (1925). The vignettes that now constitute the interchapters of the American version were initially published in Europe as ''in our time'' (1924). This work was important for Hemingway, reaffirming to him that his minimalist style could be accepted by the literary community. "The Big Two-Hearted River" is the collection's best-known story.
  
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====First novels and other early works====
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It is the tale of a man, Nick Adams, who goes out camping along a river to fish, while at the same time suffering flashbacks to traumatic, wartime memories. Adams struggles with his grim experiences of death until he finds peace through the act of partaking in nature by coming to the river to fish.
  
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In 1921, Hemingway married his first wife, Hadley Richardson. They decided to live abroad for a time, and, at the advice of [[Sherwood Anderson]],  settled, along with Morley Callaghan and [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]], in Paris; there Hemingway covered the [[Greco-Turkish War]] for the ''Toronto Star''. After the 1922 publication and American banning of colleague [[James Joyce]]'s [[Ulysses (novel)|Ulysses]], Hemingway used Toronto-based friends to smuggle copies of the novel into the United States. Hemingway's own first book, called ''Three Stories and Ten Poems'' (1923), was published in Paris by [[Robert McAlmon]].
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==Life after WWI==
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After Hemingway's return to [[Paris]], [[Sherwood Anderson]] gave him a letter of introduction to [[Gertrude Stein]]. She became his mentor and introduced Hemingway to the "Parisian Modern Movement" then ongoing in [[Montparnasse Quarter]]. This group would form the foundation of the American expatriate circle that became known as the [[Lost Generation]].  
  
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[[Image:Stein by picasso.jpg|thumb|[[Gertrude Stein]] (pictured here in a portrait by [[Pablo Picasso]]) was a long-time mentor of Hemingway and served as an important influence on his style and literary development.]]
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Hemingway's other influential mentor during this time was [[Ezra Pound]],<ref>On August 10, 1943, Hemingway typed a letter to [[Archibald MacLeish]] discussing Pound's mental health and other literary matters.</ref> the founder of [[imagism]]. Hemingway later said in reminiscence of this eclectic group: “Ezra was right half the time, and when he was wrong, he was so wrong you were never in any doubt about it. Gertrude was always right.”<ref> In a conversation with John Peale Bishop, quoted in Hemingway, Cowley (ed.), 1944, xiii.</ref>
  
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Hemingway's American debut in literature, however, is often associated with the publication of the short story collection ''[[In Our Time]]'' (1925). The vignettes that now constitute the interchapters of the American version were initially published in Europe as ''in our time'' (1924). This work was important for Hemingway, reaffirming to him that his minimalist style could be accepted by the literary community. "The Big Two-Hearted River" is the collection's best-known story. It is the tale of a man, Nick Adams, who goes out camping along a river to fish, while at the same time suffering flashbacks to traumatic, war-time memories.  
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During his time in Montparnasse, in just over six weeks, he wrote his second novel, ''[[The Sun Also Rises]]'' (1926). The semi-autobiographical novel, following a group of expatriate Americans in Europe, was successful and met with much critical acclaim. While Hemingway had initially claimed that the novel was an obsolete form of literature, he was apparently inspired to write one after reading [[F. Scott Fitzgerald|Fitzgerald]]'s manuscript for ''[[The Great Gatsby]].''
  
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After Hemingway's return to Paris, Anderson gave him a letter of introduction to [[Gertrude Stein]]. She became his mentor and introduced Hemingway to the "Parisian Modern Movement" then ongoing in [[Montparnasse Quarter]]; this was the beginnings of the American expatriate circle that became known as the [[Lost Generation]], a term coined by Stein. The group often frequented [[Sylvia Beach|Sylvia Beach's]] bookshop, Shakespeare &amp; Co., at 18 ''Rue de l'Odéon''. Hemingway's other influential mentor was [[Ezra Pound]]{{ref|ref6}}, the founder of [[imagism]]. Hemingway later said in reminiscence of this eclectic group:
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==''A Farewell to Arms''==
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Ezra was right half the time, and when he was wrong, he was so wrong you were never in any doubt about it. Gertrude was always right{{ref|ref7}}.
 
  
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During his time in Montparnasse, in just over 6 weeks, he wrote his second novel, ''[[The Sun Also Rises]]'' (1926). The novel, following a semi-autobiographical group of expatriate Americans in Europe, was successful and was met with much critical acclaim. While Hemingway had initially claimed that the novel was an obsolete form of literature, he was apparently inspired to write one after reading Fitzgerald's manuscript for ''[[The Great Gatsby]]''.
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''[[A Farewell to Arms]],'' is considered the greatest novel to come from Hemingway's experiences in WWI. It details the tragically doomed romance between Frederic Henry, an American soldier in convalescence, and Catherine Barkley, a British [[nurse]]. After recovering sufficiently from his wounds, Henry invites Barkley to run away with him, away from the war, to [[Switzerland]] and a life of peace, but their hopes are dashed: after a tumultuous escape across [[Lake Geneva]], Barkley, heavily pregnant, collapses and dies during labor. The novel closes with Henry's dark ruminations on his lost honor and love.  
  
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In 1928 Hemingway's second son, Patrick, was born in Kansas City (his third son, Gregory, would be born to the couple a few years later). It was a Caesarean birth after difficult labor, details that were incorporated into the concluding scene of his novel [[A Farewell to Arms]], the last important work associated with the period following World War I.  It details the tragically doomed romance between Frederic Henry, an American soldier in convalescence, and Catherine Barkley, a British [[nurse]]. The novel is heavily autobiographical: the plot is directly inspired by his experience with Sister von Kurowsky in Milan; the intense labor pains of his second wife, Pauline, in the birth of Hemingway's son Patrick inspired Catherine's labor in the novel; the real-life Kitty Cannell inspired the fictional Helen Ferguson; the priest was based on Don Giuseppe Bianchi, the priest of the 69th and 70th regiments of the Brigata Ancona.  
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The novel is heavily autobiographical: the plot is directly inspired by his experience with Sister von Kurowsky in Milan; the intense labor pains of his second wife, Pauline, in the birth of Hemingway's son inspired the depiction of Catherine's labor.
  
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''A Farewell to Arms'' was published at a time when many other World War I books were prominent, including [[Frederic Manning]]'s ''[[Her Privates We]]'', [[Erich Maria Remarque]]'s ''[[All Quiet on the Western Front]]'', [[Richard Aldington]]'s ''[[Death of a Hero]]'', and [[Robert Graves]]' ''[[Goodbye to All That]]''. ''A Farewell to Arms'''s overwhelming success rendered Hemingway essentially independent financially.
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==''The (First) Forty Nine Stories''==
  
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====''The (First) Forty Nine Stories''====
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Following the war and the publication of ''A Farewell to Arms,'' Hemingway wrote some of his most famous short stories. These stories were published in the collection ''[[The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories]].'' Hemingway's intention, as he openly stated in his own foreword to the collection, was to write more. He would, however, write only a handful of short stories during the rest of his literary career.
  
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Several of Hemingway's most famous short stories were written in the period following the war; in 1938&mdash;along with his only full-length play, entitled ''The Fifth Column''&mdash;49 such stories were published in the collection ''[[The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories]]''. Hemingway's intention was, as he openly stated in his own foreword to the collection, to write more.  Many of the stories that make up this collection can be found in other abridged collections, including ''In Our Time,'' ''[[Men Without Women]],'' ''[[Winner Take Nothing]],'' and ''[[The Snows of Kilimanjaro]]''.
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Some of the collection's important stories include: ''Old Man at the Bridge,'' ''On The Quai at Smyrna,'' ''Hills Like White Elephants,'' ''One Reader Writes,'' ''The Killers,'' and (perhaps most famously) ''A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.'' While these stories are rather short, the book also includes much longer stories. Among these the most famous are ''The Snows of Kilimanjaro'' and ''The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.''
  
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Some of the collection's important stories include: ''Old Man at the Bridge'', ''On The Quai at Smyrna'', ''[[Hills Like White Elephants]]'', ''One Reader Writes'', ''The Killers'' and (perhaps most famously) ''[[A Clean, Well-Lighted Place]]''. While these stories are rather short, the book also includes much longer stories. Among these the most famous are ''[[The Snows of Kilimanjaro]]'' and ''[[The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber]]''.
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==''For Whom the Bell Tolls''==
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[[File:ErnestHemingway.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Hemingway posing for a photo for the first edition of "For Whom the Bell Tolls", by Lloyd Arnold at the Sun Valley Lodge, Idaho, late 1939]]
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Only one other story collection by Hemingway appeared during his lifetime, entitled ''[[Four Stories Of The Spanish Civil War]]''; "The Denunciation" is the most notable story therein. ''[[The Nick Adams Stories]]'' appeared posthumously in 1972. What is now considered the definitive compilation of all of Hemingway's short stories is published as ''[[The Complete Short Stories Of Ernest Hemingway]],'' first compiled and published in 1987.
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[[Francisco Franco]] and his fascist forces won the [[Spanish Civil War]] in the spring of 1939. ''[[For Whom The Bell Tolls]]'' (1940) published shortly after, was drawn extensively from Hemingway's experiences as a reporter covering the war for the ''Toronto Star.'' Based on real events, the novel follows three days in the life of Robert Jordan, an American dynamiter fighting with Spanish [[guerilla]]s on the side of the Republicans. Jordan is one of Hemingway's characteristic antiheroes: a drifter with no sense of belonging, who finds himself fighting in Spain more out of boredom than out of any allegiance to ideology. The novel begins with Jordan setting out on another mission to dynamite a bridge to prevent the Nationalist Army from taking the city of [[Madrid]]. When he encounters the Spanish rebels he is supposed to assist, however, a change occurs within him. Befriending the old man Anselmo and the boisterous matriarch Pilar, and falling in love with the beautiful young Maria, Jordan at last finds a sense of place and purpose amongst the doomed rebels. It is one of Hemingway's most notable accomplishments, and one of his most life-affirming works.
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==Key West==
 
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Following the advice of [[John Dos Passos]], Hemingway moved to [[Key West, Florida]] where he established his first American home. From his old stone house&mdash;a wedding present from Pauline's uncle&mdash;Hemingway [[fishing|fished]] in the [[Dry Tortugas]] waters, went to the famous bar [[Sloppy Joe's (bar)|Sloppy Joe's]], and traveled occasionally to [[Spain]], gathering material for ''[[Death in the Afternoon]]'' and ''[[Winner Take Nothing]]''.
 
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''[[Death in the Afternoon]]'' a book about [[bullfighting]], was published in [[1932]]. Hemingway had become a bullfighting aficionado after seeing the [[Pamplona]] fiesta of [[1925]], fictionalized in ''[[The Sun Also Rises]]''. In ''Death in the Afternoon'', Hemingway extensively discussed the metaphysics of bullfighting: the ritualized, almost religious practice. In his writings on Spain he was influenced by the Spanish master [[Pío Baroja]] (when Hemingway won the Nobel Prize, he traveled to see Baroja, then on his death bed, specifically to tell him that he thought Baroja deserved the prize more than him).
 
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A [[safari]] in the fall of [[1932]] led him to [[Mombasa]], [[Nairobi]], and [[Machakos]] in the [[Mua Hills]]. In Spain reporting on the Spanish Civil War, Hemingway broke friendship with [[John Dos Passos]] because Dos Passos kept reporting despite warning on the atrocities, not only of the Fascists who Hemingway disliked, but also of the Republicans who Hemingway favored ("The Breaking Point: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and the Murder of Jose Robles" by Stephen Koch, published [[2005]] ISBN 1582432805) and The Spanish Civil War ([[1961]]) by [[Hugh Thomas]]).  Hemingway also began to question his Catholicism at this time, eventually leaving the church (though friends indicate that he had "funny ties" to Catholicism for the rest of his life).  The story "The Denunciation"  [http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/07/04/specials/hemingway-fifth.html]  seems autobiographical, thus suggesting that the author might have been an informant for the Republic as well as weapons instructor (The Spanish Civil War (1961) by [[Hugh Thomas]]). [[1935]] saw the publication of ''Green Hills of Africa'', an account of his African safari. ''[[The Snows of Kilimanjaro]]'' and ''[[The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber]]'' were the fictionalized results of his African experiences.
 
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===''For Whom the Bell Tolls''===
 
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[[Francisco Franco]] won the [[Spanish Civil War]] in the spring of 1939. ''[[For Whom The Bell Tolls]]'' was published shortly after, in 1940. Based on real events, the novel follows three days in the life of Robert Jordan, an American dynamiter fighting with Spanish guerrillas on the side of the Republicans. Jordan is one of Hemingway's characteristic antiheroes: a drifter with no sense of belonging, he finds himself fighting in Spain more out of boredom than out of any allegiance to ideology. The novel begins with Jordan setting out on another mission to dynamite a bridge so as to prevent the Nationalist Army from taking the city of [[Madrid]]. When he encounters the Spanish rebels he is supposed to assist, however, a change occurs within him. Befriending the old man Anselmo and the boisterous matriarch Pilar, and falling in love with the beautiful young Maria, Jordan at last finds a sense of place and purposeamongst the doomed Spaniards. It is one of Hemingway's most notable accomplishments.  
 
  
 
==World War II and its aftermath==
 
==World War II and its aftermath==
  
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The United States entered [[World War II]] on [[December 8]], [[1941]], and for the first time in his life, Hemingway is known to have taken an active part in a war.  
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The United States entered [[World War II]] on December 8, 1941, and for the first time in his life Hemingway is known to have taken an active part in a war. Aboard the ''Pilar,'' Hemingway and his crew were charged with sinking Nazi submarines off the coasts of [[Cuba]] and the United States. His actual role in this mission is dubious; his ex-wife Martha viewed the sub-hunting as an excuse for Hemingway to get gas and booze for fishing.  
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Aboard the ''Pilar'', now a [[Q-Ship]], Hemingway's crew was charged with sinking [[Nazi]] [[submarine]]s threatening the shipping of the coasts of [[Cuba]] and the United States, though there were actually far more professional and successful activities carried out by the US and Cuban navies (Hemingway's ex-wife Martha always viewed the sub-hunting as an excuse for Hemingway and his friends to get gas and booze for fishing).  As the [[FBI]] took over Caribbean counter-espionage, Ernest went to Europe as a war correspondent for [[Collier's]] magazine.
 
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After the war, Hemingway started work on ''[[The Garden of Eden]]'', which was never finished and would be published posthumously in much abridged form in 1986. At one stage, he planned a major trilogy which was to be comprised of "The Sea When Young", "The Sea When Absent" and "The Sea in Being" (the latter eventually published in 1953 as ''[[The Old Man and the Sea]]''). There was also a "Sea-Chase" story; three of these pieces were edited and stuck together as the posthumously published novel ''[[Islands in the Stream]]'' (1970).
 
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Hemingway's first novel after ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' was ''[[Across the River and Into the Trees]]'' (1950), set in World War II [[Venice]]. He derived the title from the last words of General [[Thomas J. Jackson|Stonewall Jackson]].  Enamored of a young Italian girl at the time, '' Across the River and Into the Trees'' is a romance between a war-weary Colonel Cantwell (obviously based on Hemingway) and the young Renata (which means "Reborn" in [[Latin]]; obviously based on Adriana Ivanich, a woman Hemingway was at that time infatuated with). The novel received poor reviews, many of which accused Hemingway of bad taste, stylistic ineptitude and sentimentality. Perhaps the last charge was most true, and fit an emerging pattern: Hemingway was growing old.
 
  
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===''The Old Man and the Sea===
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After the war, Hemingway started work on ''[[The Garden of Eden]],'' which was never finished and would be published posthumously in a much abridged form in 1986. At one stage, he planned a major trilogy which was to be comprised of "The Sea When Young," "The Sea When Absent," and "The Sea in Being" (the latter eventually published in 1953 as ''The Old Man and the Sea''). There was also a "Sea-Chase" story; three of these pieces were edited and stuck together as the posthumously published novel ''[[Islands in the Stream]]'' (1970).
  
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In 1952, ''[[The Old Man and the Sea]]'' was published. Often cited as his greatest work, the [[novella]]'s enormous success satisfied and fulfilled Hemingway, probably for the last time in his life. It earned him both the [[Pulitzer Prize]] in [[1953]] and the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] in [[1954]], and restored his international reputation.  
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==''The Old Man and the Sea''==
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[[File:Ernest Hemingway 1950 crop.jpg|thumb|200px|Hemingway aboard his yacht, circa 1950]]
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In 1952, Hemingway published ''[[The Old Man and the Sea]].'' Often cited as his greatest work, the [[novella]]'s enormous success satisfied and fulfilled Hemingway probably for the last time in his life. It earned him both the [[Pulitzer Prize]] in 1953 and the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] in 1954, and restored his international reputation, which had suffered after the disastrous publication of his over-the-top novel ''Across the River and Into the Trees.''
  
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It is the story of an aging Cuban fisherman, who sets off to fish for one last time despite his advancing age and the obsolescence of his profession. The narrative proceeds rapidly using Hemingway's characteristic understatement to great effect, to the point where the reader loses all sense of reading a fiction and feels instead as if they themselves are at sea. The fisherman encounters an enormous fish. Although he catches it, it nearly kills him and nearly wrecks his boat. As he proceeds back to shore, schools of barracuda eat away at the body of the fish, so that by the time he returns the only thing the old man has to show for his struggle is the enormous fish's skeleton, bone dry.  
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''The Old Man and the Sea'' is the story of an aging Cuban fisherman who sets off to fish for one last time despite his advancing age and the obsolescence of his traditional profession. The narrative proceeds rapidly using Hemingway's characteristic understatement to great effect, to the extent that it causes the reader to lose all sense of reading a work of fiction, but instead feel as though they are at sea. The fisherman encounters an enormous fish. Although he catches it, the effort nearly kills him. As he proceeds back to shore, schools of [[barracuda]] eat away at the body of the fish, so that by the time he returns the only thing the old man has to show for his struggle is the enormous fish's skeleton, bone dry.  
  
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===Later years and Death===
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The novella is often interpreted as an allegory of religious struggle (the fish, of course, is a major figure in [[Christianity]]). The old man, though irrevocably changed by his experience on the sea, has nothing to physically show for it, and must be content to have nothing but the afterglow of an epiphany. In this sense there are considerable parallels to [[Fyodor Dostoevsky|Dostoevsky]]'s famous passage, ''[[The Grand Inquisitor]],'' a piece of literature Hemingway loved, where the Inquisitor relentlessly interrogates Christ, only to be left dumbfounded and silent by a sudden act of revelation.
  
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Riding high on the success of his last greatest novel, Hemingway's notorious bad luck struck once again; on a safari he suffered injuries in two successive plane crashes. Hemingway's injuries were serious; he sprained his right shoulder, arm, and left leg, had a grave [[concussion]], temporarily lost vision in his left eye (and the hearing in his left ear), had paralysis of the [[sphincter]], a crushed [[vertebra]], ruptured [[liver]], [[spleen]] and [[kidney]], and first degree burns on his face, arms, and leg. As if this were not enough, he was badly injured one month later in a [[bushfire]] accident which left him with [[burn (injury)|second degree burn]]s on his legs, front torso, lips, left hand and right forearm. The pain left him in prolonged anguish, and he was unable to travel to [[Stockholm]] to accept his Nobel Prize.
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The story itself is also starkly existential and resists simple interpretation: though there is a sense of a certain transcendence in the old man's epic struggle, the narrative itself is arid and spartan. Hemingway seems to insist that beyond any [[allegory]], it is simply the tale of a man who went to sea and caught and lost a fish, and that this is the profoundest truth of all.
  
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A glimmer of hope came with the discovery of some of his old manuscripts from [[1928]] in the Ritz cellars, which were transformed into ''[[A Moveable Feast]]''. Although some of his energy seemed to be restored, severe drinking problems kept him down. His blood pressure and cholesterol count were perilously high, he suffered from aortal inflammation, and his depression, aggravated by [[alcoholism]], was worsening.
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==Later Years and Death==
 +
Riding high on the success of his last great novel, Hemingway's notorious bad luck struck once again; on a safari he suffered injuries in two successive plane crashes. As if this were not enough, he was badly injured one month later in a [[bushfire]] accident which left him with [[burn (injury)|second degree burn]]s all over his body. The pain left him in prolonged anguish, and he was unable to travel to [[Stockholm]] to accept his [[Nobel Prize.]]
  
−
He also lost his Finca Vigía, his estate outside [[Havana, Cuba]] that he had owned for over twenty years, and was forced to "exile" to [[Ketchum, Idaho]], when the situation in Cuba began to escalate. The famous photograph of Fidel Castro and Hemingway, nominally related to a fishing competition which Castro won, is believed to document a conversation in which Hemingway begged for the return of his estate and Castro ignored him.
+
A glimmer of hope came with the discovery of some of his old manuscripts from 1928 in the Ritz cellars, which were transformed into ''[[A Moveable Feast]].'' Although some of his energy seemed to be restored, severe drinking problems kept him down. His blood pressure and cholesterol count were perilously high, he suffered from aortal inflammation, and his depression, aggravated by [[alcoholism]], worsened.
 +
[[File:Hemingway Memorial Sun Valley.jpg|thumb|200px|Ernest Hemingway Memorial above Trail Creek in Sun Valley, Idaho]]
 +
Simultaneously, he also lost his beloved estate outside [[Havana]], [[Cuba]], that he had owned for over twenty years, forcing him into "exile" in Ketchum, [[Idaho]]. The famous photograph of [[Fidel Castro]] and Hemingway, nominally related to a fishing competition that Castro won, is believed to document a conversation in which Hemingway begged for the return of his estate, which Castro ignored.
  
−
Consumed with depression about these and other problems, Hemingway committed suicide on the morning of [[July 2]], [[1961]] as a result of a self-inflicted [[Shotgun|shotgun]] blast to the head at the age of 61.
+
Consumed with depression about these and other problems, Hemingway committed [[suicide]] at the age of 61 on the morning of July 2, 1961, as a result of a self-inflicted [[shotgun]] blast to the head.
  
 
==Influence and legacy==
 
==Influence and legacy==
 +
The influence of Hemingway's writings on [[American literature]] was considerable and continues to exist today. Indeed, the influence of Hemingway's style was so widespread that it may be glimpsed in most contemporary fiction, as writers draw inspiration either from Hemingway himself or indirectly through writers who consciously emulated Hemingway's style. In his own time, Hemingway affected writers within his [[modernist]] literary circle. [[James Joyce]] called "A Clean, Well Lighted Place" "one of the best stories ever written." [[Pulp fiction]] and "hard boiled" crime fiction often owe a strong debt to Hemingway.
  
−
The influence of Hemingway's writings on [[American literature]] was considerable and continues to exist today. Indeed, the influence of Hemingway's style was so widespread that it may be glimpsed in most contemporary fiction, as writers draw inspiration either from Hemingway himself or indirectly through writers who consciously emulated Hemingway's style. In his own time, Hemingway affected writers within his [[modernist]] literary circle. [[James Joyce]] called "A Clean, Well Lighted Place" "one of the best stories ever written". [[Pulp fiction]] and "[[hard boiled]]" crime fiction (which flourished from the 1920s to the 1950s) often owed a strong debt to Hemingway.
+
Hemingway's terse prose style is known to have inspired [[Bret Easton Ellis]], [[Chuck Palahniuk]], [[Douglas Coupland]], and many [[Generation X]] writers. Hemingway's style also influenced [[Jack Kerouac]] and other [[Beat Generation]] writers. [[J.D. Salinger]] is said to have wanted to be a great American [[short story]] writer in the same vein as Hemingway.
−
 
 
−
Hemingway's terse prose style is known to have inspired [[Bret Easton Ellis]], [[Chuck Palahniuk]], [[Douglas Coupland]] and many [[Generation X]] writers. Hemingway's style also influenced [[Jack Kerouac]] and other [[Beat Generation]] writers. [[J.D. Salinger]] is said to have wanted to be a great American [[short story]] writer in the same vein as Hemingway.
 
  
 
===Awards and honors===
 
===Awards and honors===
Line 99: Line 89:
 
During his lifetime Hemingway was awarded with:
 
During his lifetime Hemingway was awarded with:
 
*[[Silver Medal of Military Valor]] (medaglia d'argento) in [[World War I]]
 
*[[Silver Medal of Military Valor]] (medaglia d'argento) in [[World War I]]
−
*[[Bronze Star Medal|Bronze Star]] (War Correspondent-Military Irregular in [[World War II]]) in [[1947]]
+
*[[Bronze Star Medal|Bronze Star]] (War Correspondent-Military Irregular in [[World War II]]) in 1947
−
*[[Pulitzer Prize]] in [[1953]] (for ''[[The Old Man and the Sea]]'')
+
*[[Pulitzer Prize]] in 1953 (for ''The Old Man and the Sea'')
−
*[[Nobel Prize in Literature]] in [[1954]] (''The Old Man and the Sea'' cited as a reason for the award)
+
*[[Nobel Prize in Literature]] in 1954 (''The Old Man and the Sea'' cited as a reason for the award)
  
 
==Works==
 
==Works==
Line 114: Line 104:
 
* (1952) ''[[The Old Man and the Sea]]''
 
* (1952) ''[[The Old Man and the Sea]]''
 
* (1962) ''[[Adventures of a Young Man]]''
 
* (1962) ''[[Adventures of a Young Man]]''
−
* (1970) ''[[Islands in the Stream (Hemingway)]]''
+
* (1970) ''[[Islands in the Stream (Hemingway)|Islands in the Stream]]''
 
* (1986) ''[[The Garden of Eden]]''
 
* (1986) ''[[The Garden of Eden]]''
 
* (1999) ''[[True at First Light]]''
 
* (1999) ''[[True at First Light]]''
Line 140: Line 130:
 
===Film===
 
===Film===
 
* (1937) ''[[The Spanish Earth]]''
 
* (1937) ''[[The Spanish Earth]]''
−
* (1962) ''[[Adventures Of A Young Man]]'' is based on Hemingway's [[Nick Adams]] stories. (also known as ''[[Hemingway's Adventures Of A Young Man]]''.)
+
* (1962) ''[[Adventures Of A Young Man]]'' is based on Hemingway's Nick Adams stories. (Also known as ''[[Hemingway's Adventures Of A Young Man]].'')
  
 
==Notes==
 
==Notes==
−
#{{note|ref1}} From [http://www.lostgeneration.com/childhood.htm Childhood] at ''The Hemingway Resource Center''.
+
<references/>
−
#{{note|ref2}} Three different sources disagree on how long this habit of his mother's lasted. A note from [http://www.pbs.org/hemingwayadventure/michigan.html a PBS lecture series] states that it lasted for two years; [http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA_Profiles/People_Profile/0,2540,15,00.html Grauer] claims she stopped when he was 6; [http://www.harpercollins.com.au/drstephenjuan/0208news.htm Juan's analysis] suggests that her treatment continued "well into his teens;" he also claims that at times she would attempt to liken Hemingway to his older sister [[Marcelline Hemingway|Marcelline]].
 
−
#{{note|ref3}} A large list of such anecdotes are compiled at [http://www.kcstar.com/hemingway/ the centennial commemoration page of the ''Kansas City Star''].
 
−
#{{note|ref4}} Burgess, 1978, p. 24.
 
−
#{{note|ref5}} Ibid.
 
−
#{{note|ref6}} On [[August 10]], [[1943]], Hemingway typed '''[[Ernest Hemingway/Typed Letter|a letter to Archibald MacLeish]]''' discussing Pound's mental health and other literary matters.
 
−
#{{note|ref7}} In a conversation with [[John Peale Bishop]], quoted in Hemingway, Cowley, ed, 1944, p. xiii.
 
−
#{{note|ref8}} Burgess, 1978, p. 57.
 
−
#{{note|ref9}} Ibid.
 
−
#{{note|ref10}} Information about these posthumous Hemingway works was taken from Charles Scribner, Jr.'s 1987 Preface to ''The Garden of Eden''.
 
−
#{{note|ref11}} [http://www.bookrags.com/shortguide-garden_of_eden/ BookRags] makes this quantitative note; it also reveals some more information about the publication of ''The Garden of Eden'' and offers some discussion of thematic content.
 
−
#{{note|ref12}} [http://upress.kent.edu/books/Hemingway.htm The Kent State University Press] is the official source for this new novel's release.
 
−
#{{note|ref13}} See the [http://www.und.edu/dept/our/dimensions/march2005/2.html University of North Dakota] feature of editor Robert W. Lewis, for example.
 
  
 
==References==
 
==References==
−
*{{Book reference | Author=Berridge, H.R. | Title=Barron's Book Notes on Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms | Publisher=Stuttgart: Klett | Year=1990 | ID=ISBN 0812034120}}
+
*Berridge, H.R. ''Barron's Book Notes on Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms''. Stuttgart: Klett, 1990. ISBN 0812034120
−
*{{Book reference | Author=Baker, Carlos | Title=Hemingway: The Writer as Artist | Publisher=Princeton: Princeton University Press | Year=1972 | ID=ISBN 0691013055}}
+
*Baker, Carlos. ''Hemingway: The Writer as Artist''. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972. ISBN 0691013055
−
*{{Book reference | Author=Baker, Carlos, ed | Title=Ernest Hemingway: Critiques of Four Major Novels | Publisher=New York: Charles Scribner's Sons | Year=1962 | ID=ISBN 0684411571}}
+
*Baker, Carlos (ed.). ''Ernest Hemingway: Critiques of Four Major Novels''. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1962. ISBN 0684411571
−
*[[Anthony Burgess|Burgess, Anthony]] (1978). ''Ernest Hemingway and His World''. Norwich: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0684185040.
+
*Burgess, Anthony. ''Ernest Hemingway and His World''. Norwich: Thames and Hudson, 1978. ISBN 0684185040
−
*{{Book reference | Author=Hemingway, Ernest, Carlos Baker, ed | Title=Selected Letters 1917-1961 | Publisher=New York: Charles Scribner's Sons | Year=1981 | ID=ISBN 0743246896}}
+
*Hemingway, Ernest. Carlos Baker (ed.). ''Selected Letters 1917-1961''. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1981. ISBN 0743246896
−
*{{Book reference | Author=Hemingway, Ernest, Malcolm Cowley, ed | Title=Hemingway (The Viking Portable Library) | Publisher=New York: The Viking Press | Year=1944 | ID=ASIN B0007DNS9K}}
+
*Hemingway, Ernest.  Malcolm Cowley (ed.). ''Hemingway: A Comprehensive Selection''. New York: Viking Press, 1944.
−
*{{Book reference | Author=Koch, Stephen | Title=The Breaking Point: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and the Murder of Jose Robles | Publisher=New York: Counterpoint Press| Year=2005 | ID=ISBN 1582432805}}
+
*Koch, Stephen. ''The Breaking Point: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and the Murder of Jose Robles''. New York: Counterpoint Press, 2005. ISBN 1582432805
−
*{{Book reference | Author=Lynn, Kenneth Schuyler | Title=Hemingway | Publisher=Cambridge: Harvard University Press | Year=1995 | ID=ISBN 0674387325}}
+
*Lynn, Kenneth Schuyler. ''Hemingway''. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0674387325
−
*{{Book reference | Author=Young, Philip | Title=Ernest Hemingway | Publisher=New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston | Year=1952 | ID=ISBN 0816601917}}
+
*Young, Philip. ''Ernest Hemingway''. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, 1952. ISBN 0816601917
  
−
{{start box}}
+
==External links==
−
{{succession box | before = [[Sir Winston Churchill]] | title = [[List of Nobel laureates#Literature|Nobel Prize in Literature winner]] | years =1954 | after = [[Halldór Laxness]]
+
All links retrieved February 13, 2024.
−
}}
 
−
{{end box}}
 
  
−
==Further reading==
 
−
 
−
==External links==
 
−
{{wikiquote}}
 
 
* [http://www.timelesshemingway.com Timeless Hemingway]
 
* [http://www.timelesshemingway.com Timeless Hemingway]
−
* [http://www.onetruesentence.com One True Sentence: A Blog Devoted to EH]
+
* [http://www.pbs.org/hemingwayadventure Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure.] Based on a PBS lecture series narrated by Michael Palin.
−
* [http://www.pbs.org/hemingwayadventure Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure] Based on a PBS lecture series narrated by Michael Palin.
 
 
*[http://www.hemingwaysociety.org The Hemingway Society]
 
*[http://www.hemingwaysociety.org The Hemingway Society]
−
*[http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/books/1999/hemingway/index.html CNN: A Hemingway Retrospective]
+
* [http://www.hemingwayhome.com/ Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum in Key West, Florida] official website
−
*[http://www.einstein-hemingway-shows.com Ernest Hemingway One Man Show]
+
 
−
* [http://www.retortmagazine.com/05/id_09_05_dan_schneider.htm Review of The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway]
+
{{Nobel Prize in Literature Laureates 1951-1975}}
−
* [http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7857 Review of The Sun Also Rises]
 
−
* [http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/oldman/ SparkNotes of The Old Man And The Sea]
 
−
* [http://www.hemingwayhome.com/ Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum in Key West, Florida, official website]
 
−
* [http://www.briangordonsinclair.com/hemingway.htm ''Hemingway on Stage'']
 
−
{{Link FA|he}}
 
  
−
[[category:Art, music, literature, sports and leisure]]
+
[[Category:Art, music, literature, sports and leisure]]
 +
[[Category:Writers and poets]]
 
{{credit|32106763}}
 
{{credit|32106763}}

Latest revision as of 19:32, 13 February 2024

A young Hemingway in his World War I uniform

Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist and short story writer whose works, drawn from his wide range of experiences in World War I, the Spanish Civil War, and World War II, are characterized by terse minimalism and understatement.

Hemingway's clipped prose style and unflinching treatment of human foibles represented a break with both the prosody and sensibilities of the nineteenth-century novel that preceded him. The urbanization of America, coupled with its emergence from isolation and entry into the first World War created a new, faster paced life that was at odds with the leisurely paced, rustic nineteenth-century novel. Hemingway seems to capture perfectly the new pace of life with his language. He catalogued America's entry into the world through the eyes of disaffected expatriated intellectuals in works like The Sun Also Rises, as well as the longing for a more simple time in his classic The Old Man and the Sea.

Hemingway exerted a significant influence on the development of twentieth-century fiction, both in America and abroad. Echoes of his style can still be heard in the telegraphic prose of many contemporary novelists and screenwriters, as well as in the modern figure of the disillusioned anti-hero. Throughout his works, Hemingway sought to reconcile the ruination of his times with an enduring belief in conquest, triumph, and "grace under pressure."

Youth

A baby picture, c. 1900

Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois, the firstborn son of six children. His mother was domineering and devoutly religious, mirroring the strict Protestant ethic of Oak Park, which Hemingway later said had "wide lawns and narrow minds." Hemingway adopted his father's outdoor interests—hunting and fishing in the woods and lakes of northern Michigan. Hemingway's early experiences in close contact with nature would instill in him a lifelong passion for outdoor isolation and adventure.

When Hemingway graduated from high school, he did not pursue a college education. Instead, in 1916, when he was 17 years old, he began his writing career as a cub reporter for the Kansas City Star. While he stayed at that newspaper for only about six months, throughout his lifetime he used the admonition from the Star's style guide as a foundation for his manner of writing: "Use short sentences. Use short first paragraphs. Use vigorous English. Be positive, not negative."[1]

World War I

Hemingway recuperating from wounds in Milan, Italy, September 1918

Hemingway left his reporting job after only a few months, and, against his father's wishes, tried to join the United States Army to see action in World War I. He failed the medical examination, instead joining the American Field Service Ambulance Corps and leaving for Italy, then fighting for the Allies.

Soon after arriving on the Italian front, he witnessed the brutalities of the war; on his first day of duty, an ammunition factory near Milan suffered an explosion. Hemingway had to pick up the human remains, mostly of women who had worked at the factory. This first cruel encounter with human death left him shaken.

At the Italian front on July 8, 1918, Hemingway was wounded delivering supplies to soldiers, ending his career as an ambulance driver. After this experience, Hemingway convalesced in a Milan hospital run by the American Red Cross. There he was to meet a nurse, Sister Agnes von Kurowsky. The experience would later form the foundation for his first great novel, A Farewell to Arms.

First novels and other early works

Hemingway made his debut in American literature with the publication of the short story collection In Our Time (1925). The vignettes that now constitute the interchapters of the American version were initially published in Europe as in our time (1924). This work was important for Hemingway, reaffirming to him that his minimalist style could be accepted by the literary community. "The Big Two-Hearted River" is the collection's best-known story.

It is the tale of a man, Nick Adams, who goes out camping along a river to fish, while at the same time suffering flashbacks to traumatic, wartime memories. Adams struggles with his grim experiences of death until he finds peace through the act of partaking in nature by coming to the river to fish.

Life after WWI

After Hemingway's return to Paris, Sherwood Anderson gave him a letter of introduction to Gertrude Stein. She became his mentor and introduced Hemingway to the "Parisian Modern Movement" then ongoing in Montparnasse Quarter. This group would form the foundation of the American expatriate circle that became known as the Lost Generation.

Hemingway's other influential mentor during this time was Ezra Pound,[2] the founder of imagism. Hemingway later said in reminiscence of this eclectic group: “Ezra was right half the time, and when he was wrong, he was so wrong you were never in any doubt about it. Gertrude was always right.”[3]

During his time in Montparnasse, in just over six weeks, he wrote his second novel, The Sun Also Rises (1926). The semi-autobiographical novel, following a group of expatriate Americans in Europe, was successful and met with much critical acclaim. While Hemingway had initially claimed that the novel was an obsolete form of literature, he was apparently inspired to write one after reading Fitzgerald's manuscript for The Great Gatsby.

A Farewell to Arms

A Farewell to Arms, is considered the greatest novel to come from Hemingway's experiences in WWI. It details the tragically doomed romance between Frederic Henry, an American soldier in convalescence, and Catherine Barkley, a British nurse. After recovering sufficiently from his wounds, Henry invites Barkley to run away with him, away from the war, to Switzerland and a life of peace, but their hopes are dashed: after a tumultuous escape across Lake Geneva, Barkley, heavily pregnant, collapses and dies during labor. The novel closes with Henry's dark ruminations on his lost honor and love.

The novel is heavily autobiographical: the plot is directly inspired by his experience with Sister von Kurowsky in Milan; the intense labor pains of his second wife, Pauline, in the birth of Hemingway's son inspired the depiction of Catherine's labor.

The (First) Forty Nine Stories

Following the war and the publication of A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway wrote some of his most famous short stories. These stories were published in the collection The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories. Hemingway's intention, as he openly stated in his own foreword to the collection, was to write more. He would, however, write only a handful of short stories during the rest of his literary career.

Some of the collection's important stories include: Old Man at the Bridge, On The Quai at Smyrna, Hills Like White Elephants, One Reader Writes, The Killers, and (perhaps most famously) A Clean, Well-Lighted Place. While these stories are rather short, the book also includes much longer stories. Among these the most famous are The Snows of Kilimanjaro and The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Hemingway posing for a photo for the first edition of "For Whom the Bell Tolls", by Lloyd Arnold at the Sun Valley Lodge, Idaho, late 1939

Francisco Franco and his fascist forces won the Spanish Civil War in the spring of 1939. For Whom The Bell Tolls (1940) published shortly after, was drawn extensively from Hemingway's experiences as a reporter covering the war for the Toronto Star. Based on real events, the novel follows three days in the life of Robert Jordan, an American dynamiter fighting with Spanish guerillas on the side of the Republicans. Jordan is one of Hemingway's characteristic antiheroes: a drifter with no sense of belonging, who finds himself fighting in Spain more out of boredom than out of any allegiance to ideology. The novel begins with Jordan setting out on another mission to dynamite a bridge to prevent the Nationalist Army from taking the city of Madrid. When he encounters the Spanish rebels he is supposed to assist, however, a change occurs within him. Befriending the old man Anselmo and the boisterous matriarch Pilar, and falling in love with the beautiful young Maria, Jordan at last finds a sense of place and purpose amongst the doomed rebels. It is one of Hemingway's most notable accomplishments, and one of his most life-affirming works.

World War II and its aftermath

The United States entered World War II on December 8, 1941, and for the first time in his life Hemingway is known to have taken an active part in a war. Aboard the Pilar, Hemingway and his crew were charged with sinking Nazi submarines off the coasts of Cuba and the United States. His actual role in this mission is dubious; his ex-wife Martha viewed the sub-hunting as an excuse for Hemingway to get gas and booze for fishing.

After the war, Hemingway started work on The Garden of Eden, which was never finished and would be published posthumously in a much abridged form in 1986. At one stage, he planned a major trilogy which was to be comprised of "The Sea When Young," "The Sea When Absent," and "The Sea in Being" (the latter eventually published in 1953 as The Old Man and the Sea). There was also a "Sea-Chase" story; three of these pieces were edited and stuck together as the posthumously published novel Islands in the Stream (1970).

The Old Man and the Sea

Hemingway aboard his yacht, circa 1950

In 1952, Hemingway published The Old Man and the Sea. Often cited as his greatest work, the novella's enormous success satisfied and fulfilled Hemingway probably for the last time in his life. It earned him both the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954, and restored his international reputation, which had suffered after the disastrous publication of his over-the-top novel Across the River and Into the Trees.

The Old Man and the Sea is the story of an aging Cuban fisherman who sets off to fish for one last time despite his advancing age and the obsolescence of his traditional profession. The narrative proceeds rapidly using Hemingway's characteristic understatement to great effect, to the extent that it causes the reader to lose all sense of reading a work of fiction, but instead feel as though they are at sea. The fisherman encounters an enormous fish. Although he catches it, the effort nearly kills him. As he proceeds back to shore, schools of barracuda eat away at the body of the fish, so that by the time he returns the only thing the old man has to show for his struggle is the enormous fish's skeleton, bone dry.

The novella is often interpreted as an allegory of religious struggle (the fish, of course, is a major figure in Christianity). The old man, though irrevocably changed by his experience on the sea, has nothing to physically show for it, and must be content to have nothing but the afterglow of an epiphany. In this sense there are considerable parallels to Dostoevsky's famous passage, The Grand Inquisitor, a piece of literature Hemingway loved, where the Inquisitor relentlessly interrogates Christ, only to be left dumbfounded and silent by a sudden act of revelation.

The story itself is also starkly existential and resists simple interpretation: though there is a sense of a certain transcendence in the old man's epic struggle, the narrative itself is arid and spartan. Hemingway seems to insist that beyond any allegory, it is simply the tale of a man who went to sea and caught and lost a fish, and that this is the profoundest truth of all.

Later Years and Death

Riding high on the success of his last great novel, Hemingway's notorious bad luck struck once again; on a safari he suffered injuries in two successive plane crashes. As if this were not enough, he was badly injured one month later in a bushfire accident which left him with second degree burns all over his body. The pain left him in prolonged anguish, and he was unable to travel to Stockholm to accept his Nobel Prize.

A glimmer of hope came with the discovery of some of his old manuscripts from 1928 in the Ritz cellars, which were transformed into A Moveable Feast. Although some of his energy seemed to be restored, severe drinking problems kept him down. His blood pressure and cholesterol count were perilously high, he suffered from aortal inflammation, and his depression, aggravated by alcoholism, worsened.

Ernest Hemingway Memorial above Trail Creek in Sun Valley, Idaho

Simultaneously, he also lost his beloved estate outside Havana, Cuba, that he had owned for over twenty years, forcing him into "exile" in Ketchum, Idaho. The famous photograph of Fidel Castro and Hemingway, nominally related to a fishing competition that Castro won, is believed to document a conversation in which Hemingway begged for the return of his estate, which Castro ignored.

Consumed with depression about these and other problems, Hemingway committed suicide at the age of 61 on the morning of July 2, 1961, as a result of a self-inflicted shotgun blast to the head.

Influence and legacy

The influence of Hemingway's writings on American literature was considerable and continues to exist today. Indeed, the influence of Hemingway's style was so widespread that it may be glimpsed in most contemporary fiction, as writers draw inspiration either from Hemingway himself or indirectly through writers who consciously emulated Hemingway's style. In his own time, Hemingway affected writers within his modernist literary circle. James Joyce called "A Clean, Well Lighted Place" "one of the best stories ever written." Pulp fiction and "hard boiled" crime fiction often owe a strong debt to Hemingway.

Hemingway's terse prose style is known to have inspired Bret Easton Ellis, Chuck Palahniuk, Douglas Coupland, and many Generation X writers. Hemingway's style also influenced Jack Kerouac and other Beat Generation writers. J.D. Salinger is said to have wanted to be a great American short story writer in the same vein as Hemingway.

Awards and honors

During his lifetime Hemingway was awarded with:

Works

Novels

  • (1925) The Torrents of Spring
  • (1926) The Sun Also Rises
  • (1929) A Farewell to Arms
  • (1937) To Have and Have Not
  • (1940) For Whom the Bell Tolls
  • (1950) Across the River and Into the Trees
  • (1952) The Old Man and the Sea
  • (1962) Adventures of a Young Man
  • (1970) Islands in the Stream
  • (1986) The Garden of Eden
  • (1999) True at First Light
  • (2005) Under Kilimanjaro

Nonfiction

  • (1932) Death in the Afternoon
  • (1935) Green Hills of Africa
  • (1960) The Dangerous Summer
  • (1964) A Moveable Feast

Short story collections

  • (1923) Three Stories and Ten Poems
  • (1925) In Our Time
  • (1927) Men Without Women
  • (1932) The Snows of Kilimanjaro
  • (1933) Winner Take Nothing
  • (1938) The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories
  • (1947) The Essential Hemingway
  • (1953) The Hemingway Reader
  • (1972) The Nick Adams Stories
  • (1976) The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway
  • (1995) Collected Stories

Film

  • (1937) The Spanish Earth
  • (1962) Adventures Of A Young Man is based on Hemingway's Nick Adams stories. (Also known as Hemingway's Adventures Of A Young Man.)

Notes

  1. ↑ Ernest Hemingway Quotes Citatis. Retrieved November 4, 2020.
  2. ↑ On August 10, 1943, Hemingway typed a letter to Archibald MacLeish discussing Pound's mental health and other literary matters.
  3. ↑ In a conversation with John Peale Bishop, quoted in Hemingway, Cowley (ed.), 1944, xiii.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Berridge, H.R. Barron's Book Notes on Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms. Stuttgart: Klett, 1990. ISBN 0812034120
  • Baker, Carlos. Hemingway: The Writer as Artist. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972. ISBN 0691013055
  • Baker, Carlos (ed.). Ernest Hemingway: Critiques of Four Major Novels. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1962. ISBN 0684411571
  • Burgess, Anthony. Ernest Hemingway and His World. Norwich: Thames and Hudson, 1978. ISBN 0684185040
  • Hemingway, Ernest. Carlos Baker (ed.). Selected Letters 1917-1961. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1981. ISBN 0743246896
  • Hemingway, Ernest. Malcolm Cowley (ed.). Hemingway: A Comprehensive Selection. New York: Viking Press, 1944.
  • Koch, Stephen. The Breaking Point: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and the Murder of Jose Robles. New York: Counterpoint Press, 2005. ISBN 1582432805
  • Lynn, Kenneth Schuyler. Hemingway. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0674387325
  • Young, Philip. Ernest Hemingway. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, 1952. ISBN 0816601917

External links

All links retrieved February 13, 2024.

Nobel Prize in Literature: Laureates (1951-1975)

1951: Pär Lagerkvist | 1952: François Mauriac | 1953: Winston Churchill | 1954: Ernest Hemingway | 1955: Halldór Laxness | 1956: Juan Ramón Jiménez | 1957: Albert Camus | 1958: Boris Pasternak | 1959: Salvatore Quasimodo | 1960: Saint-John Perse | 1961: Ivo Andrić | 1962: John Steinbeck | 1963: Giorgos Seferis | 1964: Jean-Paul Sartre | 1965: Michail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov | 1966: Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Nelly Sachs | 1967: Miguel Ángel Asturias | 1968: Yasunari Kawabata | 1969: Samuel Beckett | 1970: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn | 1971: Pablo Neruda | 1972: Heinrich Böll | 1973: Patrick White | 1974: Eyvind Johnson, Harry Martinson | 1975: Eugenio Montale

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