Ernest Hemingway is acknowledged to number among the elite of America's great writers. He was also a "larger than life" personality himself, as complex as any of the characters in the books he wrote.

Hemingway was born in Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago in 1899. His mother had been an opera singer before her marriage and insisted on dressing young Ernest in dresses, as a girl, much too long -- an act for which he never forgave his mother. Perhaps, as a result of such treatment he was very much interested in high school sports, though he was not very good at playing the games, and had to settle for being the student manager of the football team.

But being "one of the guys" was important to Ernest and for the rest of his life he gravitated toward "he-man" activities, with male friends who shared his macho spirit. The heroes of his books tended to be strong males who coped in dangerous situations under difficult circumstances.

When Hemingway graduated from high school in 1917 he spurned his parents' wishes that he go on to college. Instead he attempted to enlist in the Army, which was gearing up prior to the United States entry into World War I. When poor eyesight caused him to fail the army physical, Ernest volunteered to serve as a Red Cross Ambulance Driver in Italy. He was determined to "get out of Oak Park, which he described as a place of "wide lawns and narrow minds" Almost from the moment he arrived at the Italian Front he was thrust into the thick of battle, and had only been in Italy for a few weeks when he was severely wounded by Austrian mortar fragments. After regaining consciousness he carried a severely wounded Italian soldier away from the front lines, despite carrying over 200 pieces of shrapnel in his legs. For this act he earned the Italian Silver Medal of Valor, and an early trip home to recover from his wounds -- but not before he fell in love, for the first time, with his nurse, an "older woman," who spurned his proposal of marriage, citing the difference in their ages as the reason.

Back in the United States Hemingway gravitated to the newspaper business and went to work with the Toronto Daily Star, but found that he sorely missed Europe and longed to find a way to return. By 1920 he had married Hadley Richardson, and had been named the Toronto Star's European correspondent. Stationed in Paris, Ernest found a home with kindred Bohemian spirits---other expatriates, writers like Ezra Pound, James Joyce, and Gertrude Stein, all deeply engaged in their own writing careers.

The Hemingways returned to North America in 1923 so that their first child (John Hadley Nicanor Hemingway, the father of Margaux and Muriel) could be born in the United States. Hemingway again went to work for the Toronto Star. Over the next few years Hemingway was able to develop his writing style and to begin his stellar writing career with short stories and the novels, "The Sun Also Rises", and "A Farewell to Arms" -- both of which were Best Sellers and critically acclaimed.

But even as Hemingway's writing career flourished, his private life was beginning to unravel. In 1928 Ernest launched into a new phase of his life, in Key West, Florida, with a new wife, the former Pauline Pfeiffer. Pauline had a rich Uncle Gus, who made it possible for the couple to purchase a fine new home on the highest point in Key West (elevation 10 feet above sea level).

Though Ernest and Pauline only lived here for 12 years these were the years when fully half of his literary output took place. He worked hard -- writing in the mornings, fishing with his buddies in the afternoons, and drinking and listening to stories he would later write about, in the evenings. But he also took time out to cover the Spanish Civil War for The American Newspaper Alliance, (from which his book, "For Whom The Bells Toll" was conceived, completed his masterpiece on Bull Fighting, "Death In The Afternoon", and took an extended Safari in Africa, where he gathered material for his widely acclaimed, "The Snows of Kilamanjaro".

Hemingway loved Spain, but by 1940 the Dictator, General Franco, whom he hated, had taken over the country, so he could not live there. Also, he and Pauline were finished, so he and wife No. 3, Martha Gellhorn, moved to Cuba. Cuba was very much like Spain, the fishing was very good, and he found congenial friends. During World War II Hemingway volunteered his boat, Pilar, to the U. S. Navy and had it equipped with armaments -- machine guns, sonar, and anti-sub depth charges. Hemingway and his buddies had a fine time "patrolling" the waters around Cuba, hunting for German Submarines. Nothing ever came of those missions, but they did enjoy their fishing/drinking parties.

During World War II Hemingway again served as a reporter for the News Alliance in Europe and covered theNormandy Invasion, while embedded with American troops. He was on hand to "liberate" The Ritz Hotel and Bar -- his favorite bar from the time he had spent in Paris.

Then, for the next four days he acted as the host at the bar, celebrating the Liberation of Paris with old friends in the Military and Newspaper business. The end of the war also brought to an end his marriage to Martha Gellhorn, and brought him new hope, with his marriage to Mary Welsh, his fourth wife(in 1946), with whom he would spend the rest of his life.

Ernest and Mary settled down, mainly in Cuba, but with frequent excursions to Africa and the Rocky Mountains for extended hunting trips. Hemingway even bought a mountain home in Idaho, where he thought he might "retire" someday.

When Castro came to power in Cuba Ernest at first supported him, believing that the reforms Castro promised would be good for the people. Those good feelings quickly turned sour, when the dictator's actions toward "foreigners" affected Hemingway.

Hemingway did complete his book, "Old Man and the Sea" in Cuba during this period. Some critics believe this was his greatest book. But life "After Castro" was never the same, and by 1959 Castro actually appropriated Hemingway's Cuban property, and he was forced to leave Cuba forever -- which he found very difficult to do.

Hemingway's last years were not happy ones. He had sustained various injuries over the years -- his World War I wounds, two severe airplane crashes while he was on hunting safaris in Africa, and a lifetime of carousing. He suffered from deep depression. His relationship with his wife, Mary was good, but his relationship with his children was at best mixed.

Hemingway's first son, John (with Hadley 1923-2000) had a distinguished career. In the army during World War II, he parachuted behind enemy lines. After his army career he became a world class fly fisherman, an avid hunter and respected editor of some of his father's unpublished works. Second son, Patrick, (with Pauline 1928-) spent most of his adult life as a white hunter and guide in Africa.

He has suffered from alcoholism (Hemingway himself had taught the boy to drink when he was 12 years old), but has emerged as the keeper of his father's papers. His third son, Gregory (with Pauline 1931-2000) was a transvestite and a drug addict (she called herself Gloria and died in a women's prison in Florida in 2000, at the age of 69).

By 1959 Hemingway's depression had become so bad that he went to the Mayo Clinic for a series of electric shock treatments. Not only did they not cure his depression, but he was left with short term memory loss and could no longer write, or hunt, or fish. In 1961, while at his home in Idaho, he used his favorite shot gun to end his own life.His father, two siblings, and a grand daughter also died of self inflicted wounds.

Source: Hemingway Resource Center