ERNEST HEMINGWAY
American author (1899-1961)
Biography:
Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, near Chicago. In 1917, he began as a reporter for Kansas City Star. He wanted to join the Army and go to war, but he was declared unfit for service. Thus, he enrolled the Red Cross as ambulance driver on the Italian Front. He becomes a very successful writter thanks to his The Sun Also Rises (1926) and his A farewell to Arms (1929). After the war, Hemingway works in Europe as journalist and becomes correspondent with the Spanish Republican Army. He takes part in the War of 1939-1945 and witnesses the liberation of Paris.
He travelled a lot around Europe but also Cuba and other more exotic places. For Whom the Bell Tolls was published in 1940. The Old Man and the Sea was awarded with Pulitzer Prize in 1953. The following year, he was given the Nobel Prize for Literature.
He was a schooled expert in the arenas of war, bullfighting, deep-sea fishing, boxing and hunting --hobbies included in almost all his works. His personnal life was quite difficult, for he got married four times, had a debilitating addiction to alcohol and he suffered marked periods of literary stagnation. He committed suicide on the 2nd July 1961.