If you've ever had to read "The Old Man and the Sea" as a teenager, you'll know who Ernest Hemingway is. I'll admit, I wasn't a fan of Hemingway at first. I dreaded reading "The Old Man and The Sea" in middle school.
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 - July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, journalist and sportsman. Some of his work includes: The Sun Also Rises, In Our Time, To Have and Have Not and The Old Man and the Sea.
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| Fun fact: Hemingway almost died in back-to-back plane crashes in 1954, and even had to read his own obituaries after journalists assumed his death following the plane crashes. Photo retrieved from Study Breaks Magazine |
In addition, Hemingway is known for coining the Iceberg theory. By not describing everything that happens, merely describing the "key parts that lead to the emotions and reaction, Hemingway could get the reader to think for himself and make the world of his story more immersive."
Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s. Hemingway was even awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. In total, he published seven novels, six short-story collections and two nonfiction works.
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| Fun fact: Hemingway wrote "The Old Man and the Sea" to prove he wasn't finished as a writer. Image retrieved from Amazon |
In Hemingway's memoir "A Moveable Feast," he calls what he told himself when he felt he couldn't write:
"I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, 'Don 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."
Below is a National Broadcasting company interview of Hemingway in Havana in 1954. As Hemingway mentions, he says that for medical reasons he won't be able to travel to Sweden for the Nobel Prize. He also speaks on a new book he is working on, specifically with the theme of Africa.
Hemingway's dedication to writing "simple, true" sentences began in his years as a journalist. Prior to the novels and receiving the Nobel Prize, he worked as a reporter in Kansas City, then in Toronto and finally as a European correspondent.
Side note: Hemingway even served on the staff of his high school newspaper: the Trapeze. And in a year's time, he was an editor. One of Hemingway's high school teachers identified his talent at a young age, and thank God for that.
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| Hemingway's high school graduation. Image retrieved from HuffPost |
After high school, Hemingway wanted to join the army. However, since he was only 17 years old, he instead moved to Kansas City. Hemingway was able to get a job as a reporter at the "Star."
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| An image of a column written by Hemingway for the "Star." Image retrieved from the Torontoist |
Upon joining the staff in 1917, he was given a style code that listed 110 mandates including:
- Use short sentences. Use short first paragraphs. Use vigorous English. Be positive, not negative.
- Eliminate every superfluous word.
- Numbers less than 100 should be spelled out, except in the matter of statistical nature, in ages, time of day, sums of money and comparative figures or dimensions.
- Do not use evidence as a verb.
"The night ambulance attendants shuffled down the long, dark corridors at the General Hospital with an inert burden on the stretcher. They turned in at the receiving ward and lifited the unconscious man to the operating table. His hands were calloused and he was unkempt and ragged, a victim of a street brawl near the city market. No one knew who he was, but a receipt, bearing the name of George Anderson, for $10 paid on a home out in a little Nebraska town served to identify him."
Needless to say, the article clearly shows Hemingway's ability to convey the raw, emotional truth of a scene whilst including sparse details.
Upon doing my own research, Hemingway wasn't painted in a bad light in the media. In fact, when "The Old Man and the Sea" was published, even his literary rival, William Faulkner, liked it.
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| Fun fact: The Sept. 1952 edition of "Time" magazine was only 20 cents at the time. Image retrieved from Amazon |
And when the "Life" magazine published an excerpt on Hemingway (Sept. 25, 1952 issue), it sold out immediately. There were five million copies of the magazine made and it sold out in merely two days.
Even further, the stop-motion animation of "The Old Man and the Sea" became an Oscar-winning film. The award-winning film uses 29,000 images that were printed on glass for over two years.
As for Hemingway's later years, he maintained residences in Key West, Florida (in the 1930s) and in Cuba (in the 1940s and 1950s). In 1954, Hemingway nearly died after a plane crashes on successive days. His injuries left him unfortunately in pain and poor health for the rest of his life.
In 1959, Hemingway bought a house in Ketchum, Idaho where he spent the last several years of his life. Hemingway died by suicide with a shotgun in mid-1961.
His last words were, "Goodbye, my kitten," spoken to his wife before he killed himself.
If you're fascinated by Hemingway's life, be sure to check out Ken Burn's and Lynn Novick's special entitled, "Hemingway," on PBS now.
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