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Literary Bios

The Life of Ernest Hemingway: Modernist, Realist, Storyteller

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It should go without saying that Ernest Hemingway is an extremely important writer to literary history. For example, his novel The Old Man and the Sea is an important book for a few reasons. First, it shows a modernist at the top of his game with robust prose and a deeply thematic story. It is also just as fine an example of modernist literature as one can find. In this way, Hemingway is a fixture in literary discussion. Not only is he one of the most important writers to come out of the early 1900s, but perhaps he’s one of the most influential and important writers in American history. Yet, the life of Ernest Hemingway was a difficult one, rife in ware, trauma, and death.

Hemingway: A Biography of a Modernist

Early Life, Journalism, and World War I

Ernest Hemingway was born in 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois. In his early life, Hemingway would learn to fish and hunt in Northern Michigan, which would inform his storytelling interests later in life. He was a sportswriter in High School, writing for the school newspaper Trapeze and Tabula, and later worked for The Kansas City Star. One could certainly argue that journalism contributed to his realistic approach to writing. He enlisted in the army in 1918 to fight in World War I. There, he served as an ambulance driver in the Italian Army. Through the course of duty, he earned the Italian Silver Medal of Bravery and a few battle wounds.

Hemingway and The Lost Generation

After the war, he worked at the Toronto Star and eventually moved to Paris with his first wife and worked as a foreign correspondent. In Europe, he met Gertrude Stein and became to frequent her artists boutique. As such, he became a member of “The Lost Generation,” which was a group of disenfranchised artists impacted by the Great War. It was there with Gertrude Stein that Hemingway met a plethora of famous artists, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, Pablo Picasso, and James Joyce.

Hemingway’s Publishing Career

While in the throes of modernist debate, Hemingway published The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms, which more or less cemented him as an important writer in literature history. Inspiration for these great works were his adventurous spirit and real-life experiences. He also wrote realistic, albeit dramatic, short stories, such as Hills Like White Elephants and The Three Day Blow.

In Farewell to Arms, Hemingway showcases his style, which is often referred to as muscular or robust prose.

In the jolt of my head I heard somebody crying. I thought somebody was screaming. I tried to move but I could not move … I pulled and twisted and got my legs loose finally and turned around and touched him. It was Passini and when I touched him he screamed. His legs were toward me and I saw in the dark and the light that they were both smashed above the knee. One leg was gone and the other was held by tendons and part of the trouser and the stump twitched and jerked as though it were not connected.

Ernest Hemingway
A Farewell to Arms

Hemingway’s Later Life and Death

Toward the end of his career, Hemingway won the Pulitzer with the publication of The Old Man and the Sea. He also won the Nobel Prize in Literature for his literary contributions. On July 2, 1961, after a battle with mental health issues that included paranoia and depression, Hemingway killed himself. In examining the life of Ernest Hemingway, one can see that he contributed a great deal to the writing craft. He also left a lasting style that is emulated and utilized even into the 21st century.

Hemingway’s Other Works

  • In Our Time (1926)
  • The Sun Also Rises (1927)
  • A Farewell to Arms (1929)
  • To Have and Have Not (1937)
  • For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940)
  • The Old Man and the Sea (1951)
Literary Bios

The Life and Legacy of Henry Fielding: A Literary Pioneer

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In this post, we are going to look at the life of Henry Fielding. Fielding was a pioneer of novel writing, a playwright, and a London judge. He was also a satirist, and he had many successes at making the elite cringe.

Biography

Early Authorial Years

Fielding was born April 22, 1707 in Sharpham Park in Somerset, England. As a young man he studied classics and law at the university in Leiden. The Theatrical Licensing Act of 1737, which happens to be an important and pivotal moment that we discussed on the blog, saw Fielding resume his pursuits of law because the theatre had become heavily censored by the British Government.

In contrast, Fielding was a fan of producing rather scathing plays critical of the ruling class. Obviously, these two competing ideas cannot coexist peacefully. As such, he assumed the role that many writers of his era assumed and tackled complex issues in his writing.

As Nasrullah Mambrol states in Analysis of Henry Fielding’s, that the the author himself focused his criticisms and writings through textual expertise. “It is through the role of the narrator that he most clearly and successfully experiments in the methods of teaching a moral lesson,” the author states. “Starting with the voice of direct literary parody in Shamela and moving through the varied structures and voices of the other novels, Fielding’s art leads in many directions, but it always leads to his ultimate concern for finding the best way to teach the clearest moral lesson”(Mambrol).

Turning to Writing

While involved with the law, Fielding continued to write. In 1742, he wrote Joseph Andrews, which is considered by some historians as one of the first novels ever produced in the English language. However, his fame as a playwright takes precedence due to the lowly opinion of novelists during his time. Playwrighting netted the larger audience. As for novels, Fielding wrote Shamela, (1741) The Life and Death of Jonathan Wild, the Great, (1743) The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, (1749) and Amelia (1751) (Britannica).

A Forthright Judge and Final Days

Later in his life, Henry Fielding became London’s chief magistrate and garnered a reputation as incorruptible throughout his career. He started one of the first police forces. They were called the Bow Street Runners. Fielding suffered from gout, asthma, and dropsy, or a swelling of soft tissue due to excess water. He died on Oct. 8, 1754.