Hemingway's life
An eye injury kept him out of the army in 1917 when he tried to enlist after high school graduation. Instead he began writing for the Kansas City Star. Less than a year later, he succeeded in entering the Great War as a driver in the Red Cross Ambulance Corps. Journalism and travel always proved his escape from the restrictions of family and small-town life.
Hemingway was married four times and each of his marriages marks a stage in his career that suggests an alignment of his personal and professional life.
Hemingway became very successful as a writer and earned a lot of recognition. For The Old Man and the Sea, he received the Pulitzer Prize in 1952, and it was also the impetus for his receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.
However, success and recognition also complicated his life. Falling into depression exacerbated by bouts of hard drinking and writer's block, Hemingway committed suicide at his ranch in Ketchum in 1961.

Hemingway's style of writing
· stark minimalistic nature (see quotation) · grade school-like grammar · austere word-choice · unvarnished descriptions · short, declarative sentences · uses language accessible to the common reader Hemingway is a master of dialogue. It's not so much that he is recreating precisely how individuals speak, but through his brilliant use of repetition, he is able to make the reader remember what has been said. Hemingway's style of writing was probably most influenced by his early work as a cub reporter for The Kansas City Star. There he was forced to adhere to a stylebook for young reporters, which included the following advice: 'Use short sentences. Use short first paragraphs. Use vigorous English, not forgetting to strive for smoothness. Be positive, not negative.'