Ernest Hemingway (1899

Talk to Ernest Hemingway

Have a conversation with this historical figure through AI

Biography

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized for his adventurous lifestyle and outspoken, blunt public image. Some of his seven novels, six short-story collections and two non-fiction works have become classics of American literature, and he was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature.

In Their Own Words (5)

'How did you go bankrupt?' Bill asked.'Two ways,' Mike said. 'Gradually and then suddenly.'

Book 2, Ch. 13 , 1926

'Darling, would you like to grow a beard?''Would you like me to?''It might be fun. I'd like to see you with a beard.''All right. I'll grow one. I'll start now this minute. It's a good idea. It will give me something to do.'

Catherine and Henry discussing whether he should grow a beard, in Ch. 38 , 1929

You're an expatriate. You've lost touch with the soil. You get precious. Fake European standards have ruined you. You drink yourself to death. You become obsessed by sex. You spend all your time talking, not working. You are an expatriate, see? You hang around cafés.

Bill Gorton to Jake Barnes, in Book 2, Ch. 12 , 1926

'Listen Jake... don't you ever get the feeling that all your life is going by and you are not taking advantage of it?'

Robert Cohn to Jake Barnes, in Book 1, Ch. 2 , 1926

The age demanded that we danceAnd jammed us into iron pants.And in the end the age was handedThe sort of shit that it demanded.

"The Age Demanded" in Der Querschnitt (February 1925); as quoted in Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation (1983) by Noel Riley Fitch , 1983

Timeline

The story of Ernest Hemingway, told in moments.

1918 Event

Red Cross ambulance driver on the Italian front. He's delivering chocolate and cigarettes to troops when a mortar shell hits. Shrapnel in both legs. He's 18. "When you go to war as a boy you have a great illusion of immortality," he'll say later. "Then when you are badly wounded the first time you lose that illusion."

Shrapnel in both legs at 18. Did you lose something more than the illusion of immortality? Were you delivering chocolate and cigarettes when the mortar hit?

1926 Event

The Sun Also Rises is published. He wrote the first draft in eight weeks, starting on his 26th birthday after the Festival of San Fermin in Pamplona. Scribner's publishes it. His marriage to Hadley is already falling apart. He's sleeping with Pauline Pfeiffer from Vogue. The divorce goes through in January 1927.

First draft in eight weeks starting on your birthday in Pamplona. Was writing always that fast? Your marriage was already falling apart while you wrote it. Was Hadley in the book?

1929 Event

A Farewell to Arms is published. He may have rewritten the ending seventeen times. His father shot himself the previous December. Hemingway had mailed him a letter saying not to worry about money. It arrived minutes after the suicide.

Your father shot himself while your letter about money was in the mail. Do you think about the timing? Seventeen rewrites of the ending. Which one was right?

1954 Event

Wins the Nobel Prize in Literature. He can't attend the ceremony. He's recovering from two consecutive plane crashes in Africa. The first crash left him with cracked ribs. The rescue plane crashed on takeoff the next morning. He walked out of the burning wreckage holding a bunch of bananas and a bottle of gin.

Walking out of a burning plane with bananas and gin. Was that bravery or absurdity? You couldn t attend your own Nobel ceremony. Did that bother you?

1961 Death

Dies of a self-inflicted shotgun wound at his home in Ketchum, Idaho. He is 61. His father killed himself. His brother Leicester killed himself. His sister Ursula killed herself. His granddaughter Margaux killed herself.

Your father, your brother, your sister, your granddaughter. Was there ever a way to break the pattern? Is there anything you wish you d said before Ketchum?