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Hemingway 1899 - 1961 (62)

As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.


QUOTES



The old man

and the sea

“He no longer dreamed of storms, nor of women, nor of great occurrences, nor of great fish, nor fights, nor contests of strength, nor of his wife. He only dreamed of places now and the lions on the beach. They played like young cats in the dusk and he loved them as he loved the boy. He never dreamed about the boy. He simply woke, looked out the open door at the moon and unrolled his trousers and put them on.”

Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 - July 2, 1961) was one of the most important American writers of the 20th century, also known for his journalistic work and adventurous life. Born in a Chicago suburb, his father was a doctor and Ernest was the second of six children. At the age of 18, Hemingway took a job as a journalist for a Kansas newspaper and the following year volunteered as an ambulance driver during World War I. He was seriously injured and twice awarded for his services. He returned to America in 1919 and had his first marriage in 1921. He worked as a war correspondent in the Greek-Turkish war of 1922 and two years later resigned from journalism to devote himself entirely to writing. He settled in Paris and was a member of the so-called "Lost Generation" of American writers in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. His direct, lively and sophisticated style was followed by generations of imitators who could not reach him. His most famous works include "The Old Man and the Sea", "For whom the bell rings" in which he recounted his experiences from the Spanish Civil War and "The Farewell to Arms". In 1953 he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and the following year he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He passionately loved women (he had 4 weddings), bullfighting, hunting and fishing on the high seas, travel (he worked as a war correspondent and lived in many different parts of the world).

In the last years of his life he had several health problems both physical and psychiatric, which stood in the way of the continuation of his work. His condition was aggravated by excessive alcohol use, despite adversity, he managed to complete the autobiographical novel "A Mobile Celebration", a work that was finally published after his death. On November 30, 1960, Hemingway voluntarily entered a psychiatric clinic, where he underwent electroshock treatment to combat paranoia symptoms. He was released in January '61, with no significant change as he continued to see agents chasing him. On July 2, 1961 he woke up and went straight to the basement where he was holding his shotgun. He took a carbine and returned to the living room where he shot himself in the mouth. He died instantly.