Ernest Miller Hemingway was born in 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois. He was one of the two sons in a family of six children. He was named after both his father and his uncle. During his childhood, he took music lessons from his mother, who was a former musician.

Hemingway published his first articles during his high school years in the school newspaper, Trapeze. His early writing showed strong influence from Ring Lardner. He graduated from high school in 1917. Contrary to his family’s wishes, he chose not to attend university and instead began working as a reporter for the Kansas City Star.

During these years, World War I had begun in Europe. Although the United States initially remained neutral, it entered the war in April 1917. Hemingway applied to join the army but was rejected due to a defect in his left eye. Later in 1917, when he learned that the Red Cross was accepting volunteers, he applied immediately. His application was accepted in January 1918, and he was assigned as an ambulance driver.

Upon joining the Red Cross, Hemingway resigned from his job at the newspaper. During his short time there, he learned many techniques that would shape his writing style for life.

Paris was the first European city Hemingway arrived in. After initially serving in a regular position, he became an ambulance driver. On June 8, 1918, he was severely wounded when an Austrian artillery shell exploded nearby. One Italian soldier he tried to help was killed, another lost his legs, and Hemingway himself was wounded in both legs while carrying another injured soldier to safety. Italian newspapers declared him a hero, and he was awarded the Silver Medal of Honor by Italian authorities.

While recovering in a hospital in Milan, Hemingway met nurse Agnes von Kurowsky, an experience that inspired one of his immortal works, A Farewell to Arms. After returning to the United States, he lived for about a year on the compensation he received from the army, despite his family’s pressure to find work. In 1921, he met and married his first wife, Hadley Richardson, and moved to Chicago. He began writing for the Toronto Daily Star and soon relocated to Paris.

During his Paris years, Hemingway met many influential writers, including Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and James Joyce. In 1922, he was sent to Istanbul as a war correspondent, where he reported on the refugee crisis following the Great Fire of Smyrna, sending reports from Istanbul, Mudanya, Edirne, and Lausanne. In 1923, when his wife became pregnant, the couple returned to North America so their child could be born there. Their first child was born in 1924, after which the family returned to Paris.

Between 1925 and 1929, Hemingway produced some of the finest works of his career. During this period, he rose from being an unknown writer to one of the most famous authors in the world. His first major novel, The Sun Also Rises, was published during these years. In 1929, A Farewell to Arms was published and marked a major breakthrough. Through this novel, Hemingway explored the absurdity and tragedy of war.

In 1931, he wrote Death in the Afternoon, based on his experiences in Spain, and later published Green Hills of Africa, inspired by his African travels. In 1936, he met war correspondent Martha Gellhorn in Florida. Together they traveled to Spain during the Spanish Civil War as journalists. In 1937, Hemingway wrote the autobiographical play The Fifth Column in Madrid.

In 1939, Hemingway moved to Cuba and later married Martha Gellhorn. They traveled to China together as war correspondents before returning to Cuba. In 1940, Hemingway published one of his most successful novels, For Whom the Bell Tolls, reaching the peak of his literary career.

During World War II, Hemingway served as a war correspondent in Europe. He participated in the Normandy landings and witnessed the liberation of Paris in 1944. Despite violating the Geneva Convention by taking active combat roles, he was later awarded a medal for bravery in 1947.

After divorcing Martha Gellhorn in 1945, Hemingway married his fourth wife, Mary Welsh, in 1946. They lived in Cuba until 1959, when political changes forced them to move permanently to Idaho.

In 1950, he published Across the River and Into the Trees, which received mixed reviews. In 1952, he wrote his true masterpiece, The Old Man and the Sea. The novel explored humanity’s struggle, perseverance, and the meaning of life. It earned him the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.

After a life lived with great passion and intensity, Ernest Miller Hemingway ended his life on July 2, 1961, in Ketchum, Idaho, by shooting himself with a shotgun. He was sixty-two years old.

Marriages
Hadley Richardson (1921–1927)
Pauline Pfeiffer (1927–1940)
Martha Gellhorn (1940–1945)
Mary Welsh (1946–1961)

Works
The Old Man and the Sea
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Green Hills of Africa
Across the River and Into the Trees
Men Without Women
Islands in the Stream
A Dangerous Summer
A Farewell to Arms
The Sun Also Rises
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
Winner Take Nothing
To Have and Have Not
A Moveable Feast
On Writing
Death in the Afternoon
The Torrents of Spring
The Return of the Soldier
Hills Like White Elephants

Source: Biyografiler.com