Ernest Hemingway

1899-1961

Ernest Hemingway was one of the greatest American writers of his age. He was born in Oak Park, Illinois, in the family of a doctor. His father was fond of hunting and fishing and in his school days Ernest became an excellent sportsman. He played football, was a member of the swimming team and learned to box, as a result of which his nose was broken and an eye injured. At school he was a successful pupil. He wrote poetry and prose for the school literary magazine and edited the school newspaper.

In 1917, when the United States entered World War I, Hemingway wanted to join the army but was refused because of his eye. Then he left home and went to Kansas City. He lived in his uncle's house and worked as a newspaper reporter. In 1918 he tried to join the army again and was given the job of driving American Red Cross ambulances on the Italian front. Two months later he was badly wounded in the leg. He was taken to a hospital in Milan where he had twelve operations. After a period of time he returned to the army. Hemingway was awarded a silver medal by the Italian Government. His war experience influenced the life and all the works of the writer.

In 1920 Hemingway returned to the United States and began to work as a foreign correspondent of a newspaper.

Now he was earning enough to support himself by his pen and he began writing stories. His dream was to become a novelist. To get the material for his future stories and novels Hemingway travelled all over the world. He visited Spain, Switzerland, Germany and other countries. His first work. -Three Stories and Ten Poems", was written in 1923. [91] It was followed by other collections of stories. Hemingway's first novel, "The Sun Also Rises", known in our country as "Fiesta", was published in 1926. Then followed his masterpiece, the novel "A Farewell to Arms", a protest against war. It was published in 1929 and made the author famous.

Hemingway continued to write short stories which were published under the title "Men Without Women". The collection includes "The Killer","In Another Country" and others. Here the author shows the disappointment of young people in the postwar world, which was ruled by the dollar.

In 1935 Hemingway published his novel "TheGreen Hills of Africa" in which the author expresses the idea that nature and art are the two things that live long in the world.

When the Civil War in Spain began in 1936, Hemingway collected money (140,000 dollars) for an ambulance service in the Spanish Republic and went to Spain. He took part in the war as an antifascist correspondent. In Spain Hemingway met many progressive people - communists and fighters of the international brigades. The writer saw the heroic struggle of the republicans and his political ideas changed. In the works written later he shows sharp social conflicts("The Fifth Column", 1938). After the end of the Civil War in Spain Hemingway wrote one of his best novels, "For Whom the Bell Tolls", where he speaks about the Americans who died in the fight for the republic in Spain. Hemingway's sympathy for the Spanish people and their struggle against fascism was expressed in his speech at the Congress of American writers in 1937.

During World War II Hemingway was a war correspondent. He took part in air raids over Germany and fought against the fascists together with French partisans. In 1941 he sent a telegram to the Soviet Government in which he expressed his solidarity with the Soviet people in their heroic struggle against the fascists.

The last years of his life Hemingway spent in Cuba, visiting the USA and Spain. He loved freedom and supported the revolution in Cuba and greeted the revolutionary government there. Hemingway's last work, "The Old Man and the Sea" (1952), is about the courage of an old fisherman, who was fighting a big fish and the sea for many hours and won the victory over them. In 1954 the author was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature and "The Old Man and the Sea" was mentioned as one of his best works. [92]

Discouraged by a troubled family background, illness, and the belief that he was losing his gift fir writing, Hemingway shot himself to death on July 2, 1961.