Ernest Hemingway's Biography-Contribution

To understand an author and his/her writings first we have to uncover their past. Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899. Hemingway grew up in Oak Park, Illinois where he was shaped by his father, Clarence Edmunds Hemingway, a physician, whom taught him how to respect knowledge and love learning. His mother, Grace Hall Hemingway, introduced him to the world of the arts and made sure they were made available to him. Through his high school years Hemingway wrote for the school newspaper, The Trapeze, and also a literary magazine called the Tabula. Writing for the school prepared himself for his first job outside of high school writing for the Kansas City Star, which at the time was considered one of the best newspapers in America. The Kansas City Star had lots of rules when it came to writing, and according to Hemingway shaped his writing and gave him a different style. Hemingway said it was the best thing he had ever learned. Hemingway then left the Kansas City Star in in April of 1918, to help in the war efforts by joining the American Red Cross and later on received an injury overseas and came back home in January of 1919. When he returned home he continued to write for mass-marketing magazines but had trouble finding his own voice by working for them. Hemingway was married to Hadley Richardson on September 3, 1921 and divorced and remarried to Pfeiffer in May 1928. He continued his writing and traveling over the years, writing numerous books, stories, magazine articles, and much more. Hemingway died in Ketchum, Idaho on July 2, 1961 from a gunshot wound to the head. His wife claimed he had been cleaning his gun, and no foul play was suspected. Ernest Miller Hemingway was an astounding writer, had a list of very broad characters, but according to others his best character was himself.

Best of all he loved the fall
The leaves yellow on the cottonwoods
Leaves floating on the trout streams
And above the hills
The high blue windless skies
…Now he will be a part of them forever

Ernest Hemingway - Idaho - 1939

 Works cited:

Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 330: Nobel Prize Laureates in Literature, Part  2: Faulkner-Kipling. A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book. Gale, 2007. pp. 309-325.

“Ernest Hemingway FAQ: Death.” TimelessHemingway.com. n.p., n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2012.

 

“Hemingway Dead of Shotgun Wound; Wife Says He Was Cleaning Weapon.”   nytimes.com. NY Times. 1999. Web. 20 Nov. 2012.