Hemingway, Ernest

1899–1961

American Novelist and Short Story Writer

Ernest Hemingway was one of the most popular writers of the twentieth century. His rich personal life, critically praised fiction, and declarative and unsentimental prose style all exerted a profound influence on twentieth-century American literature and shaped twentieth-century notions of manhood and masculinity.

Rather than rely simply on pure imagination for creative material, Hemingway lived a life that was in many ways influenced by the early twentieth-century ideal of the “strenuous life.” He sought out traditionally masculine adventures (often risking death in war, bullfighting, and hunting), and these dangerous experiences shaped and defined him and his works. Neither an armchair writer nor bookish intellectual, Hemingway was a man of action—he was an avid outdoor sportsman, big-game hunter, heavy drinker, bar brawler, ...