Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist and short story writer whose works, drawn from his wide range of experiences in World War I, the Spanish Civil War, and World War II, are characterized by terse minimalism and understatement; they exerted a significant influence on the development of twentieth century fiction. Hemingway's protagonists are typically stoic male individuals, often interpreted as projections of his own character, who must master "grace under pressure". Many of his works, like The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms and The Old Man and the Sea, are now considered classics in the canon of American literature.

World War II and its aftermath

The United States entered World War II on December 8, 1941, and for the first time in his life, Hemingway took an active part in a war.

Related Topics:
World War II - December 8 - 1941

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Aboard the Pilar, now a Q-Ship, Hemingway's crew was charged with sinking Nazi submarines threatening the coasts of Cuba and the United States. As the FBI took over Caribbean counter-espionage, he went to Europe, first as war correspondent for Collier's magazine.

Related Topics:
Q-Ship - Nazi - Submarine - Cuba - FBI - Collier's

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Hemingway took part in the D-Day invasion of France as a correspondent on a landing craft. Later, at Villedieu-les-Poêles, France, he threw three grenades into a cellar where SS officers were hiding. It was the first time he had killed a man. Seemingly encouraged, he declared he would be an unofficial intelligence unit. Later, he acted as an unofficial liaison officer at Château de Rambouillet, and afterwards, formed his own partisan group which took part in the liberation of Paris, France. Some have argued that Hemingway was trying to emulate the characters he had created in his fiction.

Related Topics:
D-Day - Villedieu-les-Poêles, France - SS - Château de Rambouillet - Paris, France

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After the war, Hemingway started work on The Garden of Eden, which was never finished and would be published posthumously in much abridged form in 1986. At one stage he planned a major trilogy which was to be comprised of "The Sea When Young", "The Sea When Absent" and "The Sea in Being" (the latter eventually published in 1953 as The Old Man and the Sea). There was also a "Sea-Chase" story; three of these pieces were edited and stuck together as the posthumously published novel Islands in the Stream (1970).

Related Topics:
The Garden of Eden - The Old Man and the Sea - Islands in the Stream

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Hemingway's first novel after For Whom the Bell Tolls was Across the River and Into the Trees (1950), set in World War II Venice. He derived the title from the last words of General Stonewall Jackson. In Across the River and Into the Trees, his now-divorced third wife appeared as the third wife of the protagonist, Adriana Ivancich, as in his lover Renata (which means "Reborn" in Latin). The novel received poor reviews, many of which accused Hemingway of bad taste, stylistic ineptitude and sentimentality. Perhaps the last charge was most true, and fit an emerging pattern: Hemingway was growing old.

Related Topics:
Across the River and Into the Trees - Venice - Stonewall Jackson - Adriana Ivancich - Latin

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Later years

One section of the above-mentioned sea trilogy was published as The Old Man and the Sea in 1952. That novella's enormous success satisfied and fulfilled Hemingway, probably for the last time in his life. It earned him both the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954, and restored his international reputation.

Related Topics:
The Old Man and the Sea - 1952 - Novella - Pulitzer Prize - 1953 - Nobel Prize in Literature - 1954

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Then, his legendary bad luck struck once again; on a safari he was in two successive plane crashes. Hemingway's injuries were serious; he sprained his right shoulder, arm, and left leg, had a grave concussion, temporarily lost vision in his left eye and hearing in his left ear, had paralysis of the sphincter, a crushed vertebra, ruptured liver, spleen and kidney, and first degree burns on his face, arms, and leg.

Related Topics:
Plane crash - Concussion - Sphincter - Vertebra - Liver - Spleen - Kidney

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As if this were not enough, he was badly injured one month later in a bushfire accident which left him with second degree burns on his legs, front torso, lips, left hand and right forearm. The pain left him in prolonged anguish, and he was unable to travel to Stockholm to accept his Nobel Prize.

Related Topics:
Bushfire - Second degree burn - Stockholm

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A glimmer of hope came with the discovery of some of his old manuscripts from 1928 in the Ritz cellars, which were transformed into A Moveable Feast. Although some of his energy seemed to be restored, severe drinking problems kept him down. His blood pressure and cholesterol count were perilously high, he suffered from aortal inflammation, and his depression, aggravated by alcoholism, had already become aggravated.

Related Topics:
1928 - A Moveable Feast - Alcoholism

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He also lost his Finca Vigía, his estate outside Havana, Cuba that he had owned for over twenty years, and was forced to "exile" to Ketchum, Idaho, when the situation in Cuba began to escalate.

Related Topics:
Havana, Cuba - Ketchum, Idaho

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His very last years, 1960 and 1961, were marked by severe paranoia. He feared FBI agents would be after him if Cuba turned to the Russians, that the "Feds" (Burgess (9.), p. ??) would be checking his bank account, and that they wanted to arrest him for gross immorality and carrying alcohol. (The FBI was in fact surveying Hemingway due to his activities in Cuba.)

Related Topics:
Paranoia - FBI

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Hemingway was upset by perfectly normal photographs in his The Dangerous Summer article. He was receiving treatment in Ketchum, Idaho for high blood pressure and liver problems—and also electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for depression and his continued paranoia.

Related Topics:
The Dangerous Summer - Ketchum, Idaho - High blood pressure - Liver - Electroconvulsive therapy

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Hemingway was friendly with the World War II British General Eric Dorman-Smith, who was a godfather to one of his children.

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