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- A childhood spent
- hunting in the
- lake district of
- Michigan
- followed by
- service in Italy in
- the first world
- war gave
- Hemingway his
- lifelong obsession
- - the relationship
- between man and
- death, the foe
- even the most
- courageous could
- not beat
- #
- After the war, Hemingway moved to Paris and worked as a journalist.
- He met Ezra Pound, who helped him to develop his unique style, in
- which powerful physical images engender an emotional response in
- the reader
- #
- In the Twenties, Paris was a centre of American literary life. Scott
- Fitzgerald became Hemingway's drinking partner, though Fitzgerald's
- wife Zelda disliked Hemingway, thinking him boorish. Hemingway
- drew a picture of the expatriate scene of cafes and affairs in his
- novel The Sun Also Rises
- #
- Despite the gaiety
- of Paris, death
- was never far
- away. After the
- suicide of his
- father in 1928,
- Hemingway
- wrote Death
- in the Afternoon,
- about bull-
- fighting in Spain.
- For Hemingway,
- the courageous
- artistry of the
- matador was the
- perfect metaphor
- for mankind's
- struggle with
- his extinction
- #
- In his travel book
- The Green Hills of
- Africa (1936),
- Hemingway
- wrote of his
- safaris in
- Tanganyika,
- many of which
- nearly ended in
- tragedy. Self-
- destruction,
- along with
- big-game hunting,
- had become an
- central part of
- the Hemingway
- mythology
- @
- Hemingway
- craved danger.
- He returned to
- Spain in 1937
- to cover the civil
- war, his strong
- anti-fascist
- views informing
- his novel For
- Whom the Bell
- Tolls, which sold
- an astonishing
- half-a-million
- copies in six
- months
- #
- For Hemingway,
- war was a unique
- and moving
- human experience.
- He went back to
- journalism to
- report on the
- second world
- war, and could
- not keep out of
- the action. He
- famously liber-
- ated the Ritz
- Hotel in Paris,
- and somehow
- managed to
- become a tank
- commander
- #
- Hemingway spent
- much of the last
- 30 years of his
- life in the
- Florida Keys.
- He visted Cuba,
- where he became
- a friend of the
- revolutionary
- leader Fidel Castro.
- In 1954 he was
- awarded the Nobel
- prize for Liter-
- ature, but his
- best writing was
- by now already
- behind him
- #
- Increasingly
- depressed,
- drinking heavily,
- Hemingway
- followed his
- father by
- committing
- suicide in 1961.
- Hemingway had
- succumbed to
- death, his great
- love and his ever-
- present enemy
- #
- By his own
- admission,
- Hemingway had
- many faults -
- liar, braggart,
- drunkard. But he
- was capable of
- great gestures of
- humanity (he
- donated most of
- his personal
- fortune to
- Spanish Medical
- Aid) and his
- writing helped
- shape America's
- distinctive
- contribution to
- twentieth-
- century literature
- @
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