The Old Man and the Sea

The Old Man and the Sea is a novella by Ernest Hemingway written in Cuba in 1951 and published in 1952. It was the last major work of fiction to be produced by Hemingway and published in his lifetime. One of his most famous works, it centers upon an aging Cuban fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. Though it has been the subject of disparate criticism, it is noteworthy in twentieth century fiction and in Hemingway's canon, reaffirming his worldwide literary prominence and significant in his selection for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.

Background and publication

Most biographers maintain that the years following Hemingway's publication of For Whom the Bell Tolls in 1940 until 1952 were the bleakest in his literary career. The novel Across the River and Into the Trees (1950) was almost unanimously disparaged by critics as self-parody. Evidently his participation as an Allied correspondent in World War II did not yield fruits equivalent to those wrought of his experiences in World War I (A Farewell to Arms, 1929) or the Spanish Civil War (For Whom the Bell Tolls).

Related Topics:
Biographer - For Whom the Bell Tolls - 1940 - Career - Across the River and Into the Trees - 1950 - Self-parody - Allied - Correspondent - World War II - World War I - A Farewell to Arms - 1929 - Spanish Civil War

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Hemingway had initially planned to use Santiago's story, which became The Old Man and the Sea, as part of a larger work, which he referred to as "The Sea Book." Some aspects of it did appear in the posthumously published Islands in the Stream. Positive feedback he received on Santiago's story led him to write it as an independent work.

Related Topics:
Posthumous - Islands in the Stream

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The novella first appeared, in its 26,500-word entirety, as part of the September 1 1952 edition of Life magazine. 5.3 million copies of that issue were sold within two days. The majority of concurrent criticism was extravagantly positive, while a streak of dissenting criticism has since emerged.

Related Topics:
September 1 - 1952 - ''Life'' magazine

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bizarrely, the title was misprinted on the cover of an early edition as The Old Men and the Sea.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Inspiration for character

While Hemingway was living in Cuba beginning in 1940 with his third wife Martha Gellhorn, one of his favorite pastimes was to sail and fish in his boat, named the Pilar http://www.pbs.org/hemingwayadventure/cuba.html

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

. General biographical consensus holds that the model for Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea was, at least in part, the Cuban fisherman Gregorio Fuentes.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Fuentes, born in 1897 on Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, migrated to Cuba when he was six years old and met Hemingway there in 1928. In the 1930s, Hemingway hired him to look after his boat. During Hemingway's Cuban years a strong friendship formed between Hemingway and Fuentes. For almost thirty years, Fuentes served as the captain of the Pilar; this included time during which Hemingway did not live in Cuba.

Related Topics:
1897 - Lanzarote - Canary Islands - 1928 - 1930s

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Fuentes, suffering from cancer, died in 2002; he was 104 years old. Just prior, he had donated Hemingway's Pilar to the Cuban government. He had never read The Old Man and the Sea.

Related Topics:
Cancer - 2002 - Government

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~