Life and works of Walt Whitman

#6 ERNEST HEMINGWAY

Ernest Hemingway, born in 1899 in Illinois, became a journalist and an author. He was the second of six children and died in 1961. He had an understated and straightforward style with a strong influence on 20th-century fiction. Additionally, his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Ernest Hemingway said, “to know how to write, you must first be able to read.”
Hemingway worked on the school newspaper in high school and immediately following graduation became a journalist at The Kansas City Star. From there, he went to Paris to work for Star as a foreign correspondent. While in Europe, he and his first wife attended the Festival of San Fermin in Pamplona, Spain. This was the inspiration he needed to write his first novel in 1925, “The Sun Also Rises.” This got acknowledged as his best work that artistically addressed the disillusionment that followed the war. When the United States entered into World War II, he served as a correspondent.
Hemingway was considered a pioneer of the modernist movement in the 20s. He is also known for “A Farewell to Arms” and “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” The latter got inspired by his time spent in the Spanish War. He took home the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1953 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954.
Ernest Hemingway lived a fascinating life and was responsible for writing some of the best-loved classics of American literature, including “The Old Man and the Sea.” Overall, he wrote two novels, three novellas, six short story collections, and four nonfiction works. Hemingway also wrote four plays and screenplays. When not writing, he enjoyed a life of adventure. This included big game hunting in Africa, bullfighting in Spain, and deep-sea fishing in Florida.
Tragically Hemingway took his life in 1961 after battling depression and injuries from his many adventures. He had three novels released posthumously: “Islands in the Stream” (1970), “The Garden of Eden” (1986), and “True at First Light” (1999).