Ernest Hemingway 1899-1961 Biography Early Life and Death ● Ernest Hemingway - full name Ernest Miller Hemingway - was born on July 21, 1899. ○ He disliked his given name because he associated it with Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Beıng Earnest. ● His parents, Clarence Edmonds Hemingway and Grace Hall-Hemingway, were a physician and musician, respectively. ○ Ernest Hemingway professed to hating his mother, though biographers point out that he took after her energy and enthusiasm. ○ She insisted that he learn to play the cello and though it was initially a source of conflict, he later admitted that the music lessons were beneficial to his writing. ● The family owned a summer home called Windemere in Northern Michigan, where his father taught him to hunt, fish, and camp. These early experiences in nature instilled a passion for outdoor adventure and living in remote or isolated areas. ● Hemingway attended Oak Park and River Forest High School. ○ He took part in various sports, excelled in English, and performed in the school orchestra. ○ He contributed to and edited the school's newspaper and yearbook under the pen name Ring Lardner, Jr. ● After leaving high school (1917), Hemingway went to work for The Kansas Cıty Star. ○ He relied on the Star's style guide as a foundation for his writing: "Use short sentences. Use short first paragraphs. Use vigorous English. Be positive, not negative." ● On July 2, 1961 Hemingway committed suicide with a shotgun, as had his father and two of his siblings. The Hemingway family Windmere In early 1918, Hemingway signed on to become an ambulance driver in Italy. He was World War I seriously wounded while providing supplies for men on the front line, helping Italian soldiers to safety despite his injuries - for which he received the Italian Silver Medal of Bravery. He spent six months in the hospital during which time he fell in love with nurse Agnes von Kurowsky. He was released from the hospital and returned to the U.S in January of 1919 and the two decided to be married soon. But Agnes wrote to him in March that she had become engaged to an Italian officer. Hemingway was devastated by Agnes' rejection, and in future relationships, he followed a pattern of abandoning a wife before she abandoned him. In the spring of 1944 Hemingway decided to World War II go to Europe to report the war. During his initial time in London, he split from his third wife, Martha, and proposed to Mary Welsh, a TIME magazine correspondent, on their third meeting. He was present at the Normandy Landings, but was not allowed ashore. In late July, he joined his friend Col. Charles Lanham and the 22nd Infantry Regiment, at one point becoming de facto leader to a small band of village militia outside of Paris. These exploits were actually in violation of the Geneva Convention and Hemingway was brought up on formal charges. He was present at the liberation of Paris and other battles. In 1947, Hemingway was awarded a Bronze Star for his bravery during the war. Personal Life ● Hemingway was married four times and had three children: ○ Elizabeth Hadley Richardson ■ John Hadley Nicanor Hemingway ○ Pauline Pfeiffer ■ Patrick Hemingway ■ Gloria Hemingway; born Gregory Hancock Hemingway ○ Martha Gellhorn ○ Mary Welsh Hemingway ● He was adulterous and a heavy drinker. ● Hemingway was an avid fisherman. ○ He acquired a boat he named the Pılar, upon which he broke numerous fishing records, conducted scientific exploits, and shot at sharks with a machine gun. Ernest, Hadley, Ernest, Patrick, and John in and Gloria - then Austria, 1926 known as George - in Cuba, 1942 Ernest and Mary in Africa, 1954 Ernest and Pauline in Paris, 1927 ● Hemingway was an extensive traveler and his travels inspired much of his writing. Journalism and personal adventures took him from Europe to East Africa, to Key West and the Caribbean. ○ He covered the Spanish Civil War for the North America Newspaper Alliance, an experience upon which one of his most notable works For Whom the Bell Tolls is based. ○ The FBI opened a file on Hemingway during WWII and an agent was assigned by the President to keep an eye on him because of his activities in the waters off Cuba, where he would patrol for German submarines. It’s been proposed that he was recruited by the Soviets during a period of time spent in China with his then-wife Martha, operating under the name “Agent Argo”. ● In his life Hemingway survived anthrax, malaria, pneumonia, skin cancer, hepatitis, diabetes, two consecutive plane crashes, a ruptured kidney, a ruptured spleen, a ruptured liver, a crushed vertebrae, a fractured skull, multiple car accidents, being struck by mortar, having a skylight fall in on him, arteriosclerosis, and other miscellaneous injuries including but not limited to second degree burns and a dislocated shoulder. Hemingway in Kenya after a bushfire and two plane crashes, 1954 Ernest and Martha with General Yu Hanmou in China, 1941 Hemingway on the Pilar Writing Writing Style ● Hemingway called his style the Iceberg Theory: the facts float above water; the supporting structure and symbolism operate out of sight. ● His style was fundamentally shaped in reaction to his experience of world war. ○ After World War I, he and other modernists lost faith in the central institutions of Western civilization and reacted by creating a style in which meaning is established through dialogue, action, and silence - fiction in which nothing crucial, or at least very little, is stated explicitly. ● His style was carefully cultivated and honed with an eye toward the avant-garde of the era. ● He thought it would be easy, and pointless, to describe emotions; he instead sculpted collages of images in order to help the audience grasp the real thing. ● His writing has been criticized for being misogynistic in it’s depiction of women. Theme ● The themes that are the most strongly evident in Hemingway’s work are love, war, wilderness, and loss. ● The theme of death permeates his work as well. ○ Women and death ○ Existentialism: those who face death with dignity and courage live an authentic life. ● The theme of emasculation is also prevalent in Hemingway's work. ● Politics ○ Hemingway was drawn into anti fascist politics during his time covering the Spanish Civil War Awards ● Pulitzer Prize in 1953 (The Old Man and the Sea) ● Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954 (The Old Man and the Sea) Influence and legacy ● Hemingway's legacy in American literature is his style: writers who came after him either emulated it or avoided it. ● He left stories and novels so starkly moving that some have become part of our cultural heritage. ● The extent of Hemingway's influence is seen in the tributes and echoes of his fiction in popular culture. ○ Works of literature and films made in reference of him. ○ The minor planet 3656 Hemingway was named after him. ○ Restaurants, bars, and clothing lines name after him. ○ The International Imitation Hemingway Competition ○ The Hemingway Foundation Sources Baym, Nina. The Norton Anthology of Amerıcan Lıterature. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print. Mellow, James R. Hemıngway: A Lıfe wıthout Consequences. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1994. Print. Meyers, Jeffrey. Hemıngway: A Bıography. New York: Da Capo, 1999. Print. Oliver, Charles M. Ernest Hemıngway A to Z: The Essentıal Reference to the Lıfe and Work. New York: Facts on File, 1999. Print. Reynolds, Michael S. The Young Hemıngway. New York: W.W. Norton, 1986. Print..