Contents
Ernest Hemingway
Writing The Old Man and the Sea and shaping a spare, understated style of fiction.
The Sun Also Rises · A Farewell to Arms
- Born
- 21 July 1899
- Birthplace
- Oak Park, United States
- Died
- 2 July 1961
More people
Ernest Hemingway
American novelist and reporter whose stories drew on war, travel and the outdoors. His short sentences often leave powerful emotions beneath the surface.
Early life
Illinois upbringing
Grew up in Oak Park and spent family holidays fishing and hunting in northern Michigan.
Newsroom training
Joined The Kansas City Star after high school, learning the discipline of direct, economical reporting.
Career
- 1917–1918
Reporting and war
Worked as a reporter, then volunteered as an ambulance driver in Italy and was seriously wounded.
- 1921–1926
Paris apprenticeship
Worked as a foreign correspondent while developing fiction among expatriate writers in Paris.
- 1930s–1954
Novels and recognition
Combined major novels with war reporting, winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.
Selected work
The Sun Also Rises
Disillusioned expatriates travel through France and Spain after the First World War.
A Farewell to Arms
A love story set against the Italian front.
The Old Man and the Sea
An ageing fisherman struggles with a marlin and the cost of bringing it home.
Beyond work
Cuba and Key West
Spent important periods of his writing life in Florida and Cuba, where fishing became a lasting interest.
Family and final years
Married four times. After serious health difficulties, he died by suicide in Idaho in 1961.
Sources & photo credit
Biography and references ↗Institutional biography and career ↗Photo: Lloyd Arnold. Public domain · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
