Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American writer, journalist, recipient of the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature and the 1953 Pulitzer Prize. He was born on July 21, 1899, in the privileged Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, USA. His father, Clarence Edmonds Hemingway, was a doctor, and his mother, Grace Hall, devoted her life to raising children.

From early childhood, his father tried to instill in Ernest a love of nature, hoping that he would follow in his footsteps and take up medicine and natural science. When Ernie was 3 years old, Clarence Hemingway gave him his first fishing rod and took him fishing. By the age of 8, the future writer already knew by heart the names of all the trees, flowers, birds, fish, and animals that lived in the Midwest. Another favorite pursuit for Ernest was literature. The boy spent hours reading the books he could find in the family library, especially enjoying the works of Darwin and historical literature.

Mrs. Hemingway dreamed of a different future for her son. She made him sing in the church choir and play the cello. Many years later, already an old man, Ernest would say:

My mother kept me out of school for a whole year so I could study music. She thought I had talent, and I had no talent at all.

Nevertheless, resistance to this was suppressed by his mother — Hemingway had to practice music every day.

In addition to their winter home in Oak Park, the family also had the cottage “Windemere” on Walloon Lake. Every summer Hemingway went there with his parents, brothers, and sisters. For the boy, trips to Windemere meant complete freedom. No one made him play the cello, and he could do as he pleased — sit on the shore with a fishing rod, wander through the woods, or play with children from the Indian settlement. In 1911, when Ernest was 12, Hemingway’s grandfather gave him a single-shot 20-gauge shotgun. This gift strengthened the friendship between grandfather and grandson. The boy adored listening to the old man’s stories and kept warm memories of him for life, often later transferring them into his own works.

Hunting became Ernest’s greatest passion. Clarence taught his son how to handle weapons and track game