Fun Facts Friday: Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway (21 July, 1899 – 2 July, 1961) needs no introduction…

From the Collection of the United States Postal Service
Books by Ernest Hemingway*

1) Born in Oak Park, IL, Mr. Hemingway worked a bit for the Kansas City Star for a few months after he finished high-school before enlisting in the military for World War I. This was in response to a Red Cross recruitment effort.

2) The author served as an ambulance driver on the Italian front before being seriously injured.

3) Despite his serious injuries, the author assisted Italian soldiers to safety and got the Italian Silver Medal for Bravery.

4) Hemingway’s first love, Agnes von Kurowsky, was a nurse he met at the hospital while recuperating from his injuries. The couple planned on getting married, however Ms. Kurowsky left the author in favor of someone else. Hemingway was devastated and his biographer, Jeffrey Meyers, thinks that it’s because of this that the author had a habit of abandoning his wife before she abandons him.

5) Visiting Pamplona, Spain in 1923 with Hadley (his wife at the time),the Hemingways attended the Festival of San Fermin which sparked the author’s interest in bullfighting.

6) Mr. Hemingway wrote The Sun Also Rises in eight weeks (before revisions) and is recognized as the author’s greatest work.

7) For Whom the Bell Tolls was written in Cuba, Wyoming, and Sun Valley.

8) He was a war correspondent during World War II and was present at the liberation of Paris. Contrary to legend though, he was not the first to enter the city.

9) Hemingway was brought up on formal charges for breaking the Geneva Convention because he impersonated an infantry captain to a group of folks from the French Resistance.

10) In 1956, while in Paris, Mr. Hemingway was reminded of some trunks he stored at the Ritz Hotel… in 1928. The trunks were full of notebooks and writings from his years in Paris. Those were the basis for A Moveable Feast.

Books by Ernest Hemingway*

Zohar — Man of la Book
*Ama­zon links point to an affil­i­ate account