Ernest Hemingway – great American writer

Ernest Hemingway was an American writer, journalist, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1954. On the one hand Hemingway received wide recognition through his novels and numerous stories and on the other he was famous for his life full of adventures and surprises. His style greatly influenced the literature of XX century. He was a hero of several wars, a world-class sportsman in the fields of bullfighting, boxing, hunting, and fishing, and a connoisseur of food, wine, writing, and painting.
Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on July 21, 1898 in Oak Park, Illinois, USA. His father was a country physician, who taught his son hunting and fishing; his mother was a religiously puritanical woman, active in church affairs, who led her boy to play the cello and sing in the choir.
Hemingway’s father wanted him to study medicine but he left school at 16 and joined the staff of a newspaper.

In 1917, when the United States entered World War I, he volunteered for active service but was rejected because of eye trouble.

During the First World War he travelled to Europe as a reporter and fought with the Italians.
Shortly after the war Hemingway worked as a foreign correspondent in the Near East for the Toronto Star. When he returned to Michigan, he had already decided to commit himself to fiction writing.
Three of his novels, including A Farewell to Arms, were about the war.
In 1923 Hemingway published his first book, Three Stories and Ten Poems.
He lived in Paris, America, Cuba (where he wrote Death in the Afternoon) and Africa.
Hemingway’s African safari in 1934 provided the material for another nonfiction work, The Green Hills of Africa (1935), as well as two of his finest short stories, “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” and “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.”

In 1936 he went to Spain during the Spanish Civil War, again as a reporter. He based his most famous novel, For Whom The Bell Tolls (1940), on his experiences there. Hemingway was also one of America’s greatest short story writers.
In 1937 he collaborated on the documentary film The Spanish Earth.
In 1952 Hemingway wrote The Old Man and the Sea, an extraordinary battle between a tired old Cuban fisherman and a giant marlin. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1953.
In 1954 he won the Nobel Prize for literature.
Ernest Hemingway killed himself with a shotgun on July 2, 1961 in Ketchum, Idaho,

Personal life

Hadley Richardson (1891-1979) was his first wife.
Son – Bambi John (1923-2000)
Granddaughters: Margot (1954-1996), Mariel (born in 1961).

Pauline Pfeiffer (1895-1951) became his second wife.
Sons:
Patrick (b. 1928)
Gregory (1931-2001)
Grandson:
Sean Hemingway (b. 1967)

The third wife – Martha Gellhorn (1908-1998).

In 1944 while in London, Hemingway met and soon married Mary Welsh (1908-1986), a Time reporter.

Interesting facts
– In the ocean, there are fish, which bears the name of Hemingway. It was named Neomarinthae Hemingwayi.
– According to legend, Hemingway once in a bar said he would write the story of only 6 words and it would be the most touching story in the world. And he did it. Here is his story: “For sale: Baby shoes, never used”.
– Small planet discovered in 1978 by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Chernykh was named in honor of Hemingway.
– Stories Killers, Today is Friday, and Ten Indians Hemingway wrote for 1 day (16 May 1927).
– After the First World War, Hemingway had nightmares, and he could not sleep in the dark.
– Hemingway wrote the screenplay for the film The Spanish Earth. Money was sent to Spain for the purchase of equipment and ambulances for the Republican Army.
– In memory of the writer one of the characters in World of Warcraft (computer game) is named Hemet Nesingwary.
– Not only Hemingway committed suicide in his family. His father, brother Lester, sister Ursula and granddaughter Margot also killed themselves. The granddaughter of the writer Mariel Hemingway became a representative of the public organization for suicide prevention.

Ernest Hemingway – great American writer

Agnes von Kurowsky and Ernest Hemingway

The famous American writer, Nobel Prize winner, a great connoisseur of female hearts, the famous lover and admirer of women, devoted one of his most famous novels to the passionate young love – incomparable Agnes von Kurowsky. The novel A Farewell to Arms was dedicated to the American of Polish descent, who won the heart of passionate Ernest Hemingway.
Their love affair started at the beginning of the First World War. Ernest was eager to go to the front, but he didn’t receive medical permission because of poor eyesight. In addition, parents did not want even to hear about the crazy idea of their son. One day the future writer learned that the Italian army needed volunteers. The young man went to the Red Cross and asked to send him to Italy. The war seemed to him an amusing adventure. In 1918 American volunteers sailed on a huge ship Chicago to Europe. He was only eighteen years old.
At the front, the young man had to cook, wash clothes of the wounded, transport patients to hospitals and do other quite unpleasant work. One day, when a young American was transporting patients, a bomb exploded near the car, and Ernest was injured. He was taken to a hospital in Milan. And when a few days later Hemingway opened his eyes, he saw the face of a pretty, young girl. She was a nurse, beauty Agnes von Kurowsky.
She was on duty near his bed at night, and new friends could talk until the morning. When the dawn comes and Ernest could sleep for a few hours, the nurse left him and went to the other wounded. If he woke up and did not see her cute face, he wrote notes and asked others to give his little messages to sister Kurowsky. Soon, it was not a secret to anyone that young people were in love with each other.
Agnes and a writer left Italy for America. Born in Pennsylvania in 1892 in a family of intellectuals, she wanted to experience something interesting and unusual in her life. After her father’s death when she was barely 18 years old, she decided to become a nurse, secretly hoping that one day she would be able to go to the front. Her dream came true in 1917 when Kurowsky went to Europe to treat the wounded Italians.
When Agnes met Ernest, she was seven years older than ardent American. However, the age difference didn’t bother the young Ernest and was not a barrier to marriage proposal to his girlfriend. He asked her to marry him on the day of his 19th birthday. The girl’s reaction was unexpected. She refused, even though she was in love with the young American.

Agnes von Kurowsky was beautiful, independent and free. Brave girl made no secret that she wanted to enjoy life and love, regardless of the morals and standards. Wounded in the hospital were crazy about redheaded nurse. Of course, sensitive Ernest was jealous. Once, when she wished to go to relax in the company of her friends, Hemingway heard so unpleasant for him news and started shouting and demanding to cancel the trip. She knew that he not only had a bad temper but also was too dependent on the domineering mother. In fact, nineteen-year-old young man was so afraid of the parents, that he never mentioned the name of his beloved Agnes in his letter from Italy.
In early November 1918 the nurse was sent to a hospital in Florence. Hemingway was afraid to lose his beloved and demanded to marry him. But she only said nothing in response. She left, and Ernest sent her letters full of feelings. Their separation did not last long. Soon Kurowsky was passing through Milan, and young people were able to see each other. They were together for two hours. It was their last meeting.
In January 1919, Hemingway was released from the hospital and went home. Passionate letters flew from America to Italy. The writer begged Agnes to become his wife. She only replied: “Do not write so much …” On the first day of March of the same year, she wrote: “I am not the perfect woman… I believe in you. You will have a nice career, you deserve it… Goodbye, baby. Do not be angry …” In the same letter, she wrote that became engaged to a rich Italian aristocrat. The young man was so upset and even began to think about suicide.
Later Hemingway found solace in the company of other women. He wanted to prove that he was a perfect man. Hemingway always told that he had a great number of lovers, including well-known American beauties, the Italian countesses and the European actresses. Friends knew that the writer too exaggerated his amorous adventures.
There were a lot of women in his life, but he never experienced such passion as to Agnes von Kurowsky again.
A year after break up with his girlfriend, Ernest married rich Elizabeth Hadley, who was a few years older. A year later, she gave birth to the writer’s first son. The couple went to Paris, where Hemingway made new acquaintances. However, he could not forget Agnes. Three years after the tragic romantic story Ernest wrote a very long and emotional letter to his beloved. She said, she was glad to receive a message from her former lover, but there was no further correspondence.
In France Hemingway met a charming journalist from the famous magazine. Their wedding took place immediately after the divorce with Elizabeth Hadley in 1927. Pauline Pfeiffer was also a few years older than her husband. She gave birth to two sons.
Soon amorous writer married again. Journalist Martha Gellhorn became his third wife. She did not want to go into the shadows of the famous husband and successfully built her journalistic career. Ernest did not want such a family. In 1945 they divorced. Then the writer met the correspondent of Time magazine, Mary Walsh, and married her. Mary became the fourth and last wife of the famous American.
Eventually suspicious and sensitive writer wanted to commit suicide. The wife sent him to the asylum. But treatment only aggravated his depression. A few days after returning from the hospital, in 1961, the writer shot himself.