July 21st 1899 – July 2nd 1961
Born in Oak Park, Illinois
One of six children
Participated in numerous high school sports
First published at age 17
Hemingway’s Generation
Hemingway wished to
enlist in the military, but
his parent’s objections and
his poor eyesight prevented
him from attempting to join up.
In 1918, Hemingway
served briefly as an
ambulance driver in
Italy. After only a short
time serving, he was injured
by mortar shrapnel, and
was not able to return
to duty.
Hemingway moved to Paris in 1921
with his wife Hadley. By 1926 he
had divorced Hadley and married
his second wife, Pauline.
He met and befriended several
authors there, including Ezra
Pound, Gertrude Stein, and F.
Scott Fitzgerald, who had just
published The Great Gatsby, and
was already considered a success.
These authors and other
Americans who chose to live in
Europe at the time were called
“expatriates.” Gertrude Stein is
credited with naming this group a
“lost generation”
Why “lost?”
Imagine that you dream to serve…..
…to fight for your country and come
home a hero…
…and the reality of war is not exactly what
you expected.
Hemingway served in the war, but spent the
majority of his time in an army hospital.
The WWI era was a time
of great social change in
America. Hemingway
and many soldiers
returning to the U.S.
had a difficult time
readjusting to life in the
states.
Picture waving goodbye to your
mom and dad in 1915, and
they look like this:
By the time you get back in
1919, they look like this.
Seriously. Is a guy who grew up
expecting the dating scene to
look like this…
…supposed to know how to
deal with women like this?
In 1923, Hemingway witnessed his first bull fight in Pamplona,
Spain. He was fascinated with this ancient blood sport, and even
began learning the craft himself. He used these experiences to
write The Sun
Also Rises.
Hemingway published Sun in 1926, and Farewell in 1929. Critics
loved his crisp, bold style. His mother was embarrassed by how
frankly he discussed sexual matters in his novels.
Passion: Women
4 wives!
Elizabeth Hadley Richardson
Married Hemingway after less than one
year of dating
Their life in Paris is chronicled in A
Moveable Feast
Produced one son: “Bumby”
Pauline Pfeiffer
Hemingway’s women
overlap…met her while still
married to Hadley
Key West
Two sons: Gregory and Patrick
Another affair & divorce
Hemingway in Key West, FL
Avid fisherman
Denizen of “Sloppy
Joe’s”
Modern Day
Hemingway LookAlike Contest
1930s – While married to
Pauline
Wife #3 Martha Gellhorn
1940-1945
Martha Gellhorn
He was single for three
weeks before marrying
Gellhorn
Journalist herself
Resented the title
“Hemingway’s 3rd Wife”
(Wanted her own notoriety)
She cheated
Wife #4 Mary Welsh
1946-1961
Civil War in Spain
 ForWhom the Bell Tolls (1940)
World War Two
World War II
 Returned to France and worked as a war correspondent
 Often over-stepped his bounds:
 'Hemingway got into considerable trouble playing infantry
captain to a group of Resistance people that he gathered because
a correspondent is not supposed to lead troops, even if he does
it well.'
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okQtr6ERIrU
Final Novel
 The Old Man and the Sea (1952)
 Nobel Prize
Passions:
Hunting
Passions: Dangerous Sports
Passions: Writing
Short Stories
 Nick Adams Stories
 “Men Without Women” (1927)
 “The Fifth Column and the Forty-Nine Stories” (1938)
 “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”
 “Hills Like White Elephants”
 “The Short Happy Life of
Francis Macomber”
Passions: CUBA
- Purchased “Finca Vigia” in 1939
Passions: Alcohol
Battles alcoholism, depression
Death: Front page of New York Times
July 2, 1961
Hemingway’s Late Life Troubles:
 Things are not always as they seem. Hemingway suffered
from severe clinical depression at a time when there were not
drugs available to control its effects like we can today. The
Hemingway that took his own life in 1961 simply was not the
same man he was in his early years.
“All you have to do is write
one true sentence”
His writing style
 “Do 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.”
 Hemingway, A Moveable Feast
“He was a genius, that uneasy word, not so
much in what he wrote as in how he wrote;
he liberated our written language.”
3rd wife, Martha Gellhorn
A “Hemingway” Short Story
For Sale. Baby shoes. Never worn.
Although he didn’t write this story, it has been attributed to
him over the years. It can be considered an example of his
“type” of writing. What do you notice? What do you, the
reader, have to do in order to understand what’s going on?
 Static sentences
 Photographic "snapshot" style to create a collage of images
 Short sentences build one on another; events build to create
a sense of the whole.
 Multiple strands exist in one story; an "embedded text"
bridges to a different angle.
 He also used other cinematic techniques of "cutting"
quickly from one scene to the next; or of "splicing" a scene
into another.
 Intentional omissions allow the reader to fill the gap
Style – Fitzgerald vs. Hemingway
The Great Gatsby
When I came home to West Egg that night I
was afraid for a moment that my house was on
fire. Two o’clock and the whole corner of the
peninsula was blazing with light, which fell
unreal on the shrubbery and made thin
elongating glints upon the roadside wires.
Turning a corner, I saw that it was Gatsby’s
house, lit from tower to cellar.
At first I thought it was another party, a
wild rout that had resolved itself into “hideand-go-seek” or “sardines-in-the-box” with
all the house thrown open to the game. But
there wasn’t a sound. Only wind in the trees,
which blew the wires and made the lights go
off and on again as if the house had winked
into the darkness.
The Sun Also Rises
In the morning, I walked down the
Boulevard to the Rue Soufflot for coffee
and brioche. It was a fine morning. The
horse-chestnut trees in the Luxembourg
gardens were in bloom. There was the
pleasant early-morning feeling of a hot
day. I read the papers with the coffee and
then smoked a cigarette. The flowerwomen were coming up from the market
and arranging their daily stock.
The first six sentences of Chapter 5 in each novel
Hemingway’s style:
 Direct, simple statements.
 Irony
 Sarcasm
 Understatement
 “Iceberg Theory”
 Characters reflect what is known as the “Hemingway Code”
The “Hemingway Code” Hero lives by the
following criteria:
 Take risks! Be a man of action, not words!
 React “properly” to dangerous, life-threatening situations. Don’t be afraid to arrange these
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situations by yourself…by participating in dangerous sports, like bullfighting!
Show grace under pressure—never let them see you sweat!
Believe that there is a proper way to do almost all of life’s important activities. Know what this
“proper way” is at all times.
Appreciate the deep beauty and purity of nature and sports.
Be highly skilled in at least one particular field or activity, and have a bit of flair when you
perform this activity.
Live passionately! Seek pleasure! Food! Women! Wine!
Possess NO self-pity.
Never lose control in public, and never discuss personal problems or beliefs.
Be very loyal to your like-minded friends.
Never allow yourself to be controlled by anyone—especially a woman!
Take what life has to offer. Ignore danger!
Know the difference between illusion and reality.
Ignore pain.
Know who’s “in” and who’s “out.” Be the ultimate “insider.”
Hemingway’s Impact
 His hotel room in Pamplona (running of the bulls) is booked
until 2040!
Ernest Hemingway’s rugged,
masculine good looks set
female fans “aquiver,”
according to Dorothy Parker
(one of Hemingway’s
contemporaries).
His passion for hunting, boxing,
and bull fighting made him an
interesting and romantic
character to all audiences.
He lived by the code.