Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois. He was the second of six children born to Clarence Edmonds Hemingway, a doctor, and Grace Hall Hemingway, a musician. He spent his summers at the family's cabin in Michigan, where he developed a love for the outdoors and adventure.
As a teenager, Hemingway was athletic and excelled in boxing, track and field, water polo, and football. He attended Oak Park and River Forest High School, where he wrote for the school newspaper and literary magazine. After graduating in 1917, he briefly attended Kansas City Star as a reporter before volunteering to serve as an ambulance driver in World War I.
After the war, Hemingway moved to Paris to work as a foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star. It was in Paris that he met and married his first wife, Hadley Richardson, in 1921. The couple had a son, John (known as Jack), before their marriage ended in 1927.
During his time in Paris, Hemingway became part of the expatriate community of writers and artists known as the "Lost Generation." He forged friendships with other writers, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, and James Joyce. It was during this period that he began to establish himself as a writer, publishing his first collection of short stories, "In Our Time," in 1925.
Hemingway gained international fame with the publication of his novel "The Sun Also Rises" in 1926. The novel, which is based on his experiences in Paris and Spain, captured the disillusionment and hedonism of the post-World War I generation. It was followed by other acclaimed works, including "A Farewell to Arms" (1929) and "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (1940).
Known for his terse, direct prose, Hemingway developed a writing style known as the "Iceberg Theory," in which the deeper meaning of a story is only hinted at, while the surface is spare and unadorned. He believed in the power of omission, leaving much to the reader's interpretation.
Despite his literary success, Hemingway's personal life was tumultuous. In addition to his failed marriage to Hadley Richardson, he went on to marry three more times. He married Pauline Pfeiffer in 1927, Martha Gellhorn in 1940, and Mary Welsh in 1946. He had two more sons, Gregory and Patrick, with his second wife, Pauline.
Hemingway's later years were marked by physical and mental decline. He struggled with alcoholism, depression, and a series of health problems. In 1961, at the age of 61, he died by suicide at his home in Idaho.
Ernest Hemingway's legacy endures as one of the most influential American writers of the 20th century. His novels and short stories continue to captivate readers with their raw emotion, vivid imagery, and unflinching portrayal of the human experience.