Are you curious to learn some weird and wonderful facts about Ernest Hemingway?
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It’s time to chat about Ernest Hemingway facts.
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Facts about Ernest Hemingway
1 – Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899.
2 – He was a pioneer of the modernist movement in literature and one of the most influential American writers of the 20th century.
3 – His first novel, The Sun Also Rises (1926), is considered one of his finest works and remains popular today.
4 – In 1954 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature “for his mastery of vernacular style as exemplified in his work.”
5 – He died from a shotgun wound to the head on July 2, 1961 at age 61. His wife insisted he had killed himself accidentally while cleaning the weapon and that it wasn’t suicide.
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6 – Ernest Hemingway was married four times. First time to Hadley Richardson from 1921 to 1927, second time to Pauline Pfeiffer from 1927 to 1940, third time to Martha Gellhom from 1940 to 1945 and his final wife Mary Welsh Hemingway from 1946 to 1961.
7 – In 1928 he published his second novel, “A Farewell to Arms” which also received much critical acclaim.
8 – Hemingway’s last full-length book was “Islands in the Stream,” which came out posthumously in 1970.
9 – He was a journalist in his early years and then became a war correspondent during World War I.
10 – In 1954 he won the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea which is about Santiago’s battle with a giant marlin.
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11 – His father, Clarence Edmonds Hemingway, was a doctor and his mother Grace Hall-Hemingway was a musician.
12 – His writing style is often described as “hard-boiled,” meaning that it’s straightforward and direct.
13 – For Whom The Bell Tolls (1940) is considered one of his finest novels; it is about an American who fights with guerrilla forces against Franco’s fascists during the Spanish Civil War.
14 – His last work published before his death on July 2nd 1961 was Across The River And Into The Trees(1950) which received mixed reviews but sold well because of its autobiographical content and controversial themes such as war-weariness, impotence, sexual frustration, marital infidelity and male chauvinism.
15 – The term “Hemingway code” refers to his style of writing which includes short sentences with heavy punctuation, such as commas or periods.
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16 – In 1928, Ernest’s father Clarence committed suicide by shooting himself with a pistol at their home in Oak Park.
17 – Ernest Hemingway had three sons: Gregory, Patrick and Jack.
18 – His best-known quote is “There are only three sports – bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.”
19 – Ernest Hemingway was accused and ultimately cleared of war crimes.
20 – His work has become one of America’s most celebrated literary legacies and some have called him “the father of American literature.”
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21 – In 1917 he volunteered for the Red Cross as an ambulance driver in Italy during World War 1. He returned from war with a wound to his leg that later became infected and caused him pain for the rest of his life.
22 – After the war he published poems under pseudonyms before publishing The Sun Also Rises in 1926 which received widespread acclaim.
23 – Hemingway dedicated a book to each of his wives (he had four!).
24 – Hemingway’s last words to his wife Mary were “Goodnight my kitten.”
25 – In 1954, Hemingway survived two different plane crashes in two days. In one instance his death was reported in the media.
