Ernest Hemingway, an American newspaper writer, novel writer, and short-story writer, was born in Oak Park, Illinois on July 21, 1899. Hemingway won the Pulitzer for his novel The Old Man and the Sea in 1953 and the Nobel Prize in 1954. Hemingway was best known for his style of writing that was simple, and was made up of direct sentences. Not only was he known for his style of writing, but his characters in his writings were depicted by real people in his life and real places which created a great setting for his readers. Some more novels that Hemingway wrote include: The Sun Always Rises, A Farewell to Arms, To Have and Have Not, and For Whom the Bell Tolls. Experiences and likings in Hemingway’s early life ultimately led to events that transpired in his later life.
Ernest was a child of five other siblings. His father Clarence Edmonds Hemingway or Ed Hemingway was a doctor while his mother Grace Hemingway was a musician. He had an older sister, Marcelline, which was born in January 1898. Ernest also had three younger sisters and younger brother: Ursula, Madelaine or Sunny, Carol and Leicester. Ursula was born in 1902, Madelaine in 1904, Carol in 1911 and Leicester in 1915 (Dearborn 18).
Ernest’s mom, Grace Hemingway recorded things about Ernest as a child in his baby book, she would write embarrassing things he said or did. There were photos of Ernest as a baby wearing dresses, with bonnets and long hair. In that century, boys were commonly dressed as girls, but after boys were taken out of dresses Grace alternated Ernest and Marcelline to being dressed as girls and boys. As a child Ernest was very close with his oldest sister Marcelline. Grace always treated his two older kids as twins, by dressing them alike and making them do everything together like fishing, hiking, and wheeling their dolls around in their dolls’ carriage.
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Not only did Grace dress up Ernest like Marcelline but she also made Marcelline repeat a year so Ernest and Marcelline could enter a grade together. Ernest and Marcelline’s relationship were really close as they were children and continued to grow as they became older but their relationship soon became toxic as they reached adulthood. There were certain traits in Marcelline’s personality that were similar to their moms, but those traits were the bad traits and Ernest didn’t like that (Dearborn 22).
Ernest’s parents bought a house on Walloon Lake in northern Michigan the year before he was born. A third of Ernest’s summers were spent at this Michigan lake house. This summer home had a big impact on Ernest as he was growing up and later on in his writings. Michigan is where Ernest experienced the fun in nature and the wilderness in the world. His time was spent fishing, hunting, and drinking. All the Hemingway kids were taught how to shoot a gun and the safety about them by Ed Hemingway, he taught them how to shoot an animal and catch a fish.
There were consistent appearances of the Michigan house in many of his later works, but one major work that it appeared in was The Nick Adam Stories. The Nick Adam Stories were a group of short stories describing major events in Ernest’s life, from childhood to adulthood. Not only did the summers going to Walloon Lake help develop some of his writings, but I believe that it caused Ernest to have a liking for traveling to places and seeing the world (O’Connor, “When Hemingway Was a Young Fisherman in Michigan”).
As Ernest entered in as a freshman into Oak Park and River Forest High School, he wasn’t serious about English and actually had plans to become a doctor. After taking English classes and courses in writing, his plan began to change and he became serious about English. Marcelline and Ernest enjoyed reading magazines that came to their house and competed to see who could finish reading things first, like King James Bible.
The later years in high school was when Ernest really began to grow an inspiration and love for writing. Two teachers influenced him extremely, Margaret Dixon and Fannie Biggs. Both teachers took a special interest in Ernest, but each helped him differently. Ernest was encouraged and motivated by Miss Dixon when he was beginning to write. Miss Biggs had an elite Story Club that both Ernest and Marcelline sent short stories to.
Throughout the club, students would send in work and critique each other’s work with help from Miss Biggs. Miss Biggs was a big influence for Ernest to focus on the genre of short stories, but Miss Biggs was more influential to Ernest in his journalism course. Miss Biggs’s journalism class was known for being ran like an actual newspaper office, there was an appointed rotating student editor for their hypothetical newspaper. Both Ernest and Marcelline were picked to be two out of the eight rotating editors for the newspaper.
Ernest found that sports writing was the easiest for him especially since he played on a couple of sports teams in high school. Ernest’s passion for writing definitely started from high school and flowered into something amazing as can be seen in his writings. His teachers gave him the motivation and opportunity to further his English and writing skills (Dearborn 37-38).
In Ernest’s senior year of high school, he started thinking about college. Ernest’s father wanted him to enroll in Oberlin with his sister Marcelline, but Ernest leaned towards Cornell. Although, Ernest leaned towards Cornell he told his grandfather and his classmates that he was going to the University of Illinois. Soon, Ernest’s interest in college disappeared and was more interested at apprenticing as a journalist at The Kansas City Star.
The newspaper gave Ernest a full-time job in the fall. Ernest was assigned the duty of covering the police station on 15th street, Union Station, and the emergency room of Kansas City’s largest hospital. Ernest would have to note and interview people, especially important people. Ernest got to meet and talk to many people on the streets of Kansas City. He was taught the paper’s house style and recommendations for good writing by Pete Wellington.
