"The writer's job is to tell the truth."
He's remembered as a veteran, an adventurer, a hard drinker (he invented several mixed drinks, including "Death in the Afternoon") -- and for having once accidentally shot himself in both legs on a fishing trip. (He was aiming at a freshly-captured shark.) But in his time, Ernest Hemingway was considered one of the most influential authors of the early twentieth century -- admired by his peers, and idolized by up-and-coming writers. Though his sparse prose and nearly description-less writing style does not appeal to all readers today, there is no denying the mark Hemingway left on the world of American fiction.
Hemingway graduated from high school in 1917, and became a reporter for the Kansas City Star before joining the war effort. He served as a Red Cross ambulance driver during World War I, and would go on to be decorated for heroism after being injured in the line of duty.
After the war, Hemingway became a reporter for the Toronto Star. His job as a foreign correspondent landed him in Paris, where he would become fast friends with such authors as Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. He published his first book in 1925 (In Our Time, a collection of short stories), followed a year later by his first novel.
My first exposure to Hemingway was reading his short story Hills Like White Elephants while I was in high school. I was captivated by the lean description and simplistic language -- because, despite such bare-bones writing, Hemingway told a story about relationships, feminism, and human interaction, all centered around a topic that was taboo at the time: abortion. (It's a topic the story addresses, in fact, without ever using the actual word.) I'd go on to read A Farewell to Arms in college, and I was once again captivated by Hemingway's ability to use such simple language to speak so profoundly. He's an author who, as he said, always strove to tell the truth as he saw it.
"I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, 'Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.' So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there. It was easy then because there was always one true sentence that I knew or had seen or had heard someone say."
Five of Hemingway's best-loved books:
- The Sun Also Rises: Set in the aftermath of World War I, Hemingway's first novel features a group of British and American travelers who leave Paris to attend the Festival of San FermÃn in Pamplona and witness the running of the bulls.
- For Whom the Bell Tolls: Taking place during the Spanish Civil War, Robert Jordan is a young American soldier serving in a guerrilla unit. His eventual assignment: to blow up a bridge during an attack on Segovia.
- To Have and Have Not: Harry Morgan is a fishing boat captain and smuggler who operates between Cuba and Florida. Morgan, desperate to continue supporting his family, eventually starts smuggling alcohol -- and illegal immigrants -- into the country. The story is a look at the era of Prohibition and the Great Depression.
- A Farewell to Arms: Set during World War I, this novel is a tragic love story between American Lieutenant Frederic Henry and British nurse Catherine Barkley.
- The Old Man and the Sea: The last major work of fiction written and published in Hemingway's lifetime, this novel won the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. It tells the story of Santiago, an old fisherman locked in a struggle with a giant marlin -- Captain Ahab-style.
-- Books and Short Stories by Ernest Hemingway
-- Audiobooks by Ernest Hemingway
-- Films based on the works of Hemingway
-- Post by Ms. B
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