Hemingway

July 2nd, 1961 marks the death of a famed and accomplished writer. Born in Illinois on July 21, 1899, Hemingway would end up traveling to different parts of the country and various areas of the world. As a child, he was a star in the classroom, showing excellent writing skills, and as an athlete, boxing and playing football. Instead of going to college, Hemingway became a reporter for the Kansas City Star, and shortly after this he joined the United States Army as an ambulance driver for World War I, in which he received the Silver Medal of Military Valor for, despite his own wounds, aiding a wounded Italian soldier. After returning from the war, Hemingway moved into a neighborhood in Toronto, Canada, working for a local newspaper, and beginning to write his first novels. In Our Time and The Sun Also Rises were among Hemingway’s first pieces. In 1936, Hemingway traveled to Spain to report for America during the Spanish Civil War. Later, in 1941, Hemingway was active in World War II, participating in naval battles, and later traveling to Europe and reporting for Collier’s magazine on D-Day and other wartime events. During his lifetime, Hemingway traveled to Cuba, Spain, and various places in Europe as a result of military duties, journalism duties, or sheer pleasure. In 1953, Hemingway received the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea, and the following year he won the Nobel Prize for literature. Hemingway’s style is characterized by terse sentences and “macho,” nature-loving protagonists, evolving writing during the 1900s. During Hemingway’s later years, the writer’s health was declining. During the early 50s, Hemingway suffered multiple injuries, including a concussion and lacerations and burns to his face, arms, and legs, due to two plane crashes and a bushfire accident. Hemingway ended his life on July 2nd, 1961 by shooting himself with a shotgun, possibly the result of alcoholism and constant depression. It is without question that Hemingway will be considered “one of the great innovators of twentieth-century [writing] form,” and that he will have much influence on future novelists. (The Influence of Ernest Hemingway)

Source: "The Influence of Ernest Hemingway." Enotes. 2009. 1 June 2009 <http://www.enotes.com/twentieth-century-criticism/influence-ernest-hemingway>.