On the date of July 21, 1899 Ernest Hemingway, a now known brilliant writer, was
born. Hemingway was conceivably the only writer to achieve the combination of
international celebrity and literary stature in the twentieth century. Hemingway was
brought up in the village of Oak Park, Illinois, close to the prairies and woods west of
Chicago. Both here and in Michigan, he could explore, camp, fish and hunt with his father,
Dr. Clarence Hemingway. In Chicago he would attend concerts, operas and visit art
museums with his mother, a musician and an artist. Hemingway attended Oak Park and
River Forest High School, where he was an active writer. He wrote articles, poems and
stories for the school's publications largely based on his own experiences.
The year Hemingway graduated he quickly secured a job with the Kansas City Star.
There he received a writing style sheet that instructed: "Use short sentences. Use short
first paragraphs. Use vigorous English." (Parshall 1). These were rules he never forgot to
incorporate into his works to get to the heart of a story.
The following year he entered World War I as a volunteer with American Red
Cross ambulance unit as a driver. There he was wounded near the Italian/Austrian front.
Hospitalized, he fell in love with his nurse, who later called off their relationship.
After World War I, Hemingway returned to northern Michigan to read, write, fish,
and later to work for the Toronto Star in Canada. In 1921 married his first wife and
moved to Paris. In Paris he continued to write for the Toronto Star as a foreign
During his stay in Europe through the 1920's, Ernest was influenced by eccentric
writers like Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound their literary compression. Hemingway's use of
these methods in short stories and novels that captured the attention of critics and the
In the 1930's, he turned to writing for causes, including democracy as he k...