Educated at River Forest High School, Hemingway graduated in 1917 and embarked on a writing career, initially as a reporter for the Kansas City Star. Failing the physical to enlist in the army, he joined the Red Cross Ambulance Corps during World War I and spent time at the front in Italy, where he was wounded. He was awarded a medal of valor by the Italian government for saving the life of an Italian soldier. After the war, Hemingway returned for a time to Oak Park, but soon traveled to Canada to work for the Toronto Star. He returned to Chicago in 1920 and in 1921 married Hadley Richardson. Still working for the Star, he moved to Paris and covered the Greco-Turkish War. Hemingway was soon part of the Modernist Movement in Paris and became friends with many notables including Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein and James Joyce. In 1923, he published his first book, Three Stories and Ten Poems, but his first real breakthrough came with In Our Time (1925), a collection of short stories which were very popular. His first novel, The Sun Also Rises, appeared the following year to critical and popular acclaim. Divorced in 1927, he then married Pauline Pfeiffer and converted to Catholicism. They moved to Key West, Florida in 1928, but the death of Hemingway's father by suicide disrupted his plans. He returned to Oak Park for the funeral and then spent the next two years in Arkansas at his wife's family home. In 1931, they returned to Key West and Hemingway published some of his greatest work over the next nine years. In 1937, he went to Spain to cover the Civil War and became a supporter of the Republicans against Franco. In 1940, he was again divorced, but soon remarried; this time to Martha Gelhorn, who had been with him in Spain. During World War II, he acted as war correspondent for Collier's magazine. Divorcing yet again in 1944, he then married Mary Welsh, a fellow war correspondent. They then spent a number of years in Cuba, but left shortly after the overthrow of Batista by Castro in 1959. They moved to Ketchum, Idaho where Hemingway received treatment for high blood pressure and liver problems, the latter brought about by his excessive drinking. He also began receiving ECT treatment for depression and this is said to have contributed significantly to his subsequent suicide. Hemingway lived life to the full, traveled widely, was a huge sportsman, and was one of the biggest personalities of the 20th century. In 1954 he received the Nobel Prize in Literature. His other works include The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1936), To Have and Have Not (1937), For Whom the Bells Toll (1940) and The Old Man and the Sea (1952), all of which were made into films. |
