Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) was born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. He began his career as a journalist before serving as an ambulance driver in World War I, an experience that deeply influenced his early writing. His first major literary success came with The Sun Also Rises (1926), which established him as a leading voice of the Lost Generation.
Over the next two decades, Hemingway produced some of the most enduring works of twentieth-century American literature, including A Farewell to Arms (1929), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940), and The Old Man and the Sea (1952), for which he won the Pulitzer Prize. His signature style—marked by sparse prose, understated emotion, and a focus on courage, war, and human endurance—became one of the most influential in modern literature.
Hemingway’s adventurous life took him across Europe, Africa, and Cuba, and he covered several major conflicts as a war correspondent. In 1954, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his mastery of narrative and the powerful influence of his writing. He died in 1961, leaving behind a legacy that continues to shape American and world literature.
