RP224 Ernest Hemingway

 RP224 Ernest Hemingway

The American writer Ernest Hemingway was an artist whose life seemed to fuel his work. While 1918 this helped him become a king of American literature, it also left him battered, conflicted, and depressed.

Hemingway was born in 1899 in Illinois. Though he lived in a suburb, he spent summers at the family's summer home in the wilderness, giving him a passion for nature and hunting. He published articles and poems in his high school newspaper. After graduating, he worked at a newspaper, but stayed just briefly before leaving to drive ambulances in Italy during World War I. That short stunt, however, influenced his writing forever. The newspaper's style stuck with him: "Use short sentences. Use vigorous English. Be positive, not negative."

Hemingway covered both World Wars and the Spanish Civil War, witnessing destruction, death, loyalty, and betrayal. He was injured; he fell in love. These experiences inspired works like *A Very Short Story*, A Farewell to Arms, and For Whom the Bell Tolls. Many of his heroes are soldiers or hunters. They are solitary, tough, but generally honest men in conflict with a brutal society.

Between the wars, Hemingway lived in Paris, which inspired The Sun Also Rises. He lived for some years in the USA and traveled to Spain and Africa, which would provide fodder for fiction and non-fiction. He married and divorced several times. That and his mostly male characters earned Hemingway a reputation for misogyny.

After WWII, with friends dying, Hemingway grew depressed. A holiday in Africa turned disastrous when he and his fourth wife were seriously injured in two plane crashes. The physical and emotional pain led Hemingway to drink more. Recovering in Cuba and in Europe, he continued to write, but mentally he declined. Even winning the Nobel Prize in 1954 didn't help. He left Cuba in 1960 for Idaho, where he committed suicide in 1961.

Hemingway believed writing was a lonely art. He and his characters sought companionship but struggled alone. Readers reap the benefits of their hardships.