Ernest Hemingway ( )

Hemingway’s Life Born in Oak Park, Illinois (July 21, 1899) WASP Suburb of Chicago (later he called it a “town of wide lawns and narrow minds.” Hunted and fished with his father in Michigan Learned to play the piano from his mother. Early in his career he lived in major cities (Chicago, Toronto, & Paris). Once he became successful, he chose to live in isolated places that were close to nature- Key West, Florida; Ketchum, Idaho; & San Francisco de Paula (Cuba).

Hemingway’s Key West Home

Writing Studio Behind House

Hemingway’s Writing Studio

Hemingway’s 6-toed Cats

Salt Water Swimming Pool

Hemingway’s Favorite Bar

Kansas City Star Hemingway graduated in H.S. in 1917 and went to work as a reporter for the Kansas City Star. In the short time that Hemingway worked at the newspaper, he picked up the writing style that would later become the hallmark of his fiction. Short sentences Brief paragraphs Active verbs Authenticity Compression Clarity Immediacy Hemingway later said, “Those were the best rules I ever learned for the business of writing. I’ve never forgotten them.”

World War I When Hemingway turned 18, he tried to enlist in the War, but was deferred because of poor vision. He signed up to be a Red Cross ambulance driver. The day he arrived in Milan, Italy, a munitions factory exploded and he had to carry mutilated bodies and body parts to a makeshift morgue. July 8, 1918, he was seriously wounded. He was awarded the Italian Silver Medal for Valor. Hemingway later utilized his war experience in his acclaimed novel A Farewell to Arms- focusing on his injuries, subsequent recovery in a Milan hospital, and his romantic relationship with an American nurse – Agnes von Kurowsky

Hemingway In Hospital

Hemingway Recovering from War Wounds

Return to Oak Park in 1919 Found Oak Park to be dull and refused to go to college. He lived off the $1,000 in insurance payments for his war wounds. Wrote the short story “Soldier’s Home” In 1920 moved to Toronto, then Michigan, then Chicago all while writing for the Toronto Star. In 1921 married Hadley Richardson & moved to Paris to take a job with the Toronto Star as its European correspondent.

Life in Paris Serious and impressive reporting, covering the Geneva Conference, Greco-Turkish War, and the post-war convention in the Ruhr Valley in Along with political articles, Hemingway wrote lifestyle pieces covering fishing, bullfighting, European social life, skiing, bobsledding, and hunting.

A Shooting Star From 1925 to 1929 Hemingway produced some of the most important works of the 20 th Century fiction: 1925: The short-story collection In Our Time 1926: The novel The Sun Also Rises 1927: The short-story collection Men Without Women 1929: The novel A Farewell to Arms In four short years, he went from obscurity to fame and was suddenly ranked as one of the most important novelists of his generation.

Bullfighting Hemingway’s work on Death in the Afternoon, a powerful look at bullfighting, gave him the excuse to visit Spain and take in Spain’s national pastime.

War Correspondent Hemingway traveled to Spain in July of 1936 to report on the Spanish Civil War. During WWII, he served as a war correspondent for various magazines, accompanying American troops as they pushed the German forces back across Europe.

Hemingway’s Style “I always try to write on the principle of the iceberg. There is seven-eighths of it underwater for every part that shows. Anything you know you can eliminate and it only strengthens your iceberg. It is the part that doesn’t show. If a writer omits something because he does not know it then there is a hole in the story.”----- Hemingway, 1958

Hemingway’s style is... Concise Direct Spare – few adjectives, short paragraphs Objective – focused on reality Precise Rhythmic Hemingway used simple sentences and direct words to help readers look beyond the surface to the reality underneath the words.

Hemingway was not shy about criticizing other writers who didn’t embrace his deceptively simple style. Speaking about Faulkner’s lush language, for example, Hemingway said, “Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I don’t know the ten dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use.” Hemingway Kept It Real

Hemingway’s Code “The Lost Generation” “You are all a lost generation.”—Gertrude Stein Remember Europe was blown apart by WWI. After being exposed to the horrors of war, people were searching for meaning. Not just those who had seen action but also those who had kept the home fires burning were filled with despair making them the “lost” generation. It seemed that all hope was gone; even God and religion offered little sanctuary. From this despair, Hemingway fashioned his famous code of behavior.

Hemingway’s Life Philosophy: Accept that there are no guidelines, no rules, for life. Face reality: See things exactly as they are, no matter how difficult, rather than as you might wish them to be. Contain your despair and self-pity by sheer will power. Give into despair only in private or in the company of another member of the breed, someone who thinks the way you do. Don’t make trouble for others. Impose some meaning on the meaningless universe by achieving form through ritual. Don’t judge others; instead, view the unenlightened with “irony and pity.”

The Hemingways’ Deaths His father, Clarence, shot himself in 1928, ill with high blood pressure and diabetes. Hemingway shot himself in 1961, battling high blood pressure and depression at his home in Ketchum, Idaho. Grandaughter Margaux committed suicide in California by overdosing on phenobarbital in 1996, one day before the anniversary of her grandfather's own suicide.

Hemingway Loved Women Lovers, Wives, & Love – Lover- Agnes von Kurowsky (nurse) Wife 1- Elizabeth Hadley Richardson (28) in 1921 Wife 2- Pauline Pfeiffer (editor of Vogue) in 1927 Wife 3- Martha Gelhorn (journalist, met in 1936) in 1940 Wife 4- Mary Welsh (met in London in 1944) in 1946 Longed For- Adriana Ivancich (Italian 19 year old) Hemingway was almost 50

The End