Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, a small town in the state of Illinois. After finishing school Hemingway worked as a reporter in Kansas City. When World War I broke out he joined the volunteer ambulance unit in France. During one of the attacks he was wounded and came home a hero.

Hemingway's first novel "The Sun Also Rises" ("Fiesta") was published in 1926 in Paris. It deals with the expatriated Americans broken by the war. They felt bitter disillusioned and lost.

"A Farewell to Arms" describes the experience of an American ambulance lieutenant at the Italian front in World War I. In 1937 Hemingway went to Spain. In his articles Hemingway denounced the fascist regime of Franco. "The Fifth Column" is a play about the Civil War in Spain. In 1940 Hemingway completed the novel "For Whom the Bell Tolls". It's a story of a young American teacher of Spanish who joins the Spanish partisans and gives his life for the cause of freedom.

During World War II Hemingway was a war correspondent in the East.

In 1952 Hemingway finished his tale "The Old Man and the Sea". This story of an old Cuban fisherman is a hymn to human courage and endurance. "A Moveable Feast", a record of Hemingway's stay in Paris in the 1920-s, was published posthumously.

In 1954 Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature.