Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway (1899—1961), was one of the most fa­mous and influential American writers of the 1900's. He received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954. Hemingway had won a Pulitzer Prize the previous year for his novel «The Old Man and the Sea» (1952).

Hemingway developed a plain, forceful prose style character­ized by simple sentences and few adjectives or adverbs. He wrote crisp, accurate dialogue and exact descriptions of places and things. His style has been imitated by many writers.

Hemingway also created a type of male character, sometimes called the Hemingway hew, who faces violence and destruction with courage. The trait of «grace under pressure» — that is, what appears to be unemotional behavior even in dangerous situations — is part of what became known as the Hemingway code.

Early life. Ernest Miller Hemingway was born in Oak Park, III. After graduating from high school, he worked briefly as a reporter for the «Kansas City Star». During World War I (1914—1918), he served as a volunteer ambulance driver in Italy and then as an in­fantryman in the Italian Army. He was seriously wounded in 1918. Hemingway's wartime experiences help suggest why his writing emphasizes physical and psychological violence and the need for courage.

In 1921, Hemingway went to Paris, where he met a number of American authors. He became the principal spokesman for a group of disillusioned younger writers sometimes called the «lost generation».

Hemingway's first published work «Three Stories and Ten Po­ems», appeared in 1923. It was followed by «In Our Time» (1924), a collection of short stories partly based on his boyhood experi­ences in northern Michigan.

Rise to fame. Hemingway's most famous novels are two of his early works, «The Sun Also Rises» (1926) and «А Farewell to Arms» (1929). «The Sun Also Rises» portrays a group of Ameri­cans who, like the members of the «lost generation», were disillu­sioned by the war. «А Farewell to Arms», set in Italy in World War I, is a tragic love story.

Hemingway returned to the United States in 1927. Two collec­tions of his short stories were published during the 1930's. They contain some of his besl writing, including «А Clean, Well-Lighted Place», «The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber», and «The Snows of Kilimanjaro». He also wrote some nonfiction. «Death in the Afternoon» (1932) deals with bullfighting, which fascinated him. In «Green Hills of Africa» (1935), Hemingway described his experiences on an African safari.

In 1936, Hemingway went to Spain and covered the Spanish Civil War as a war correspondent. He used the war as the setting of «For Whom the Bell Tolls» (1940). This novel, about an idealistic American fighting the fascist forces in Spain, is one of Hemingway's finest books.

Later years. By the 1940's, Hemingway had become an inter­national celebrity. He was famous for his colorful life style and his extreme concern with presenting a tough, masculine image.

Hemingway's first published work after 1940 was «Across the River and Into the Trees» (1950). This novel reflects a growing bitterness toward life. It is largely regarded as inferior because of its sentimentality. In «The Old Mail and the Sea» (1952), he re­vived his theme of a strong man courageously accepting fate. The hero, an old fisherman, catches a giant marlin after a long and bru­tal struggle — only to have the fish eaten by sharks.

Hemingway suffered physical and mental illnesses during the 1950's, and he committed suicide in 1961. «А Moveable Feast» was published in 1964, after his death. It is an autobiographical book based on notebooks he kept in Paris in the 1920's. Two nov­els were also published after his death — «Islands in the Stream» (1970), and the unfinished «The Garden of Eden» (1986).