Ernest Hemingway's Remarkable Life in Photos
There's so much we didn't know about one of the greatest American novelists.
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Whether you've read one of his novels or have simply heard something described as "Hemingway-esque," chances are you're familiar with the direct prose the influential author adopted in the 1920s. It shouldn't come as a huge surprise that Hemingway's personal life is just as interesting as what lives on his pages. Now, more than 50 years after his death, take a look back at rare photographs of the American writer's life.
1915: Growing Up in Chicago
Ernest Hemingway was born in 1899 and the eldest son to a wealthy family. Although he grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, Hemingway has written fondly about his childhood summers in Walloon Lake, Michigan.
1917: Becoming a Journalist
After graduating from high school, Hemingway entered the workforce, rather than attend college. The young writer moved to Kansas City where he began a career as a journalist for the Star.
1917: Enlisting in World War I
Before the United States even entered World War I, Hemingway volunteered for the Red Cross in France.
1918: Wounded Overseas
While serving on the Italian front, specifically along the Piave delta, Hemingway was struck by an Austrian mortar shell and wounded. He was awarded an Italian Medal of Valor for his service. His time during the war later served as inspiration for his novel, A Farewell to Arms.
1921: Moving Abroad
After his return to Chicago, Hemingway met musician Hadley Richardson in 1920. The couple got married in 1921 and moved to Paris, where he fell in with the American literary crowd, such as James Joyce, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein. After two years, they moved to Toronto, where Hemingway worked for the Toronto Star.
1922: Lost Manuscripts
In 1922, Hemingway's career suffered a major setback when the manuscript he was working on, and all of its carbon copies, were lost while traveling to Switzerland.
1925: His First Book
The author was praised for his first major publication in 1925. The collection of stories titled, In Our Time, quickly raised the young author's profile.
1927: Marrying His Mistress
Hemingway met his second wife after returning to Paris—and while he was still married to his first. In fact, journalist Pauline Pfeiffer was a good friend of the couple's. Hemingway divorced Richardson in 1927 and married Pfeiffer that same year. He later used the experience as inspiration for his novel, A Moveable Feast.
1928: Literary Success
Despite his personal life squabbles, Hemingway's career was on the fast track. In the late 1920s, he published renowned works such as The Sun Also Rises, The Killers, A Canary for One, and A Farewell to Arms. Well into the next decade, Hemingway's simple prose continued to transform the literary world.
1930: Living in Key West
Hemingway left Paris behind and bought a house with his second wife in Key West, Florida in the late 1920s. They lived there throughout their 13-year marriage.
1933: Life as a Father
Hemingway was the father of three boys and had a complicated relationship with fatherhood. The novelist welcomed his eldest son, John "Bumby" Hemingway, with his first wife when he was 24 years old. During his second marriage to Pauline Pfeiffer, he had Gregory and Patrick.
1937: Returning to War
In the late '30s, war once again called to Hemingway—but he wouldn't be fighting this time. Instead, Hemingway used his journalistic skills and high profile to cover the events of the Spanish Civil War. He sent more than 30 dispatches and produced the film The Spanish Earth in support of Spain's Republican party.
1938: Another Mistress
In the late 1930s, Hemingway became infatuated with a young journalist named Martha Gellhorn. Similarly to what happened between Richardson and Pfeiffer, Gellhorn was a friend to Hemingway and his wife before their affair began. The couple became involved as they traveled together covering the Spanish Civil War. By 1940, Hemingway was divorced again.
1940: Marrying Martha
Martha Gellhorn became Hemingway's third wife only 16 days after the author's divorce from Pfeiffer was finalized. However, as Gellhorn continued to work as a war correspondent, the couple's marriage suffered. They divorced in 1945 and the union was the shortest of all of Hemingway's marriages.
1940: A Hollywood Friendship
Gary Cooper and Hemingway were one of Hollywood's greatest bromances back in the day. After meeting on the set of the film adaptation of Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms in 1932, which Cooper starred in, they became good friends. Here, they take a break from pheasant shooting at Cooper's ranch in Sun Valley, Idaho.
1941: Making a Movie
In 1941, Hemingway went to lunch with film star Ingrid Bergman to discuss her role in the film adaptation of his novel, To Whom the Bell Tolls. A number of his other were novels were adapted for film, including To Have and Have Not (starring Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart), The Snows of Kilimanjaro (starring Ava Gardner and Gregory Peck), and A Farewell to Arms (starring Helen Hayes and Gary Cooper).
1944: Reporting on World War II
Hemingway traveled to Europe once again in 1944 as a war correspondent, this time for World War II. As a journalist, he traveled with United States troops throughout Europe.
1944: Working at His Typewriter
While working as a war correspondent, Hemingway sits at his famous typewriter to pen a dispatch for back home.
1946: His Final Marriage
After divorcing Martha Gellhorn in 1945, Ernest Hemingway married once again. The novelist said "I do" to journalist Mary Welsh Hemingway in Cuba in 1946 and afterwards relocated to the island.
1946: Living in Cuba
The couple settled into Cuba on a plantation named Finca Vigía. They would live in the village outside of Havana for more than a decade.
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