53 Ernest Hemingway Facts For Kids To Learn About The Writer

Ernest Hemingway, or Ernest Miller Hemingway, is best known for his unique writing style which he termed the iceberg theory.

By profession, Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, journalist, writer of short stories and a man widely known for his adventurous lifestyle.

Hemingway wrote a number of novels and short stories but some of his best works include the likes of 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' in 1940, 'The Old Man and the Sea' in 1952 and many others as well.

Ernest Hemingway's writing style, typically known as the iceberg theory, greatly influenced the fiction of the 20th century. According to Hemingway's iceberg theory, the deeper meaning of the prose or its underlying themes must not be evidently visible on the surface but should rather be implicitly visible.

Ernest Hemingway's lifestyle was one of a kind; he loved adventure and it was his public image which earned him admiration from those who weren't very familiar with his works as a writer.

Hemingway achieved some notable accolades throughout his life including the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. These honors came after Ernest Hemingway produced some of his best works from the mid '20s to the mid '50s.

Let's now delve deeper into the topic to learn about some more little known Ernest Hemingway facts.

Facts About Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway is most famously known for his six short story collections, seven novels and two non-fiction works but apart from his literary works, Ernest Hemingway lived a very interesting life.

• Ernest Hemingway was a part of the First World War where he served as an ambulance driver in Italy.
• Sadly, on July 8, 1918, Ernest Hemingway was injured by mortar fire but he stuck to his duty and helped an Italian soldier to safety.
• Ernest Hemingway was awarded the Italian Silver Medal of Valor for his actions during the First World War.
• Interestingly, Ernest Hemingway was also a part of the Second World War but on this occasion he served as a journalist instead of an ambulance driver.
• For Ernest Hemingway's courageous service as a journalist in the Second World War, he earned a Bronze Star from the United States.
• Ernest Hemingway's mother yearned for a daughter instead of a son and thus often dressed up Hemingway in pink flowery dresses and referred to him as 'Ernestine'.
• Ernest Hemingway was an adept hunter and killed a porcupine at the tender age of three and ate it too.
• Ernest Hemingway was a part of the Spanish Civil War and was also a part of the proceedings when France was invaded during the Second World War.
• Hemingway had over 50 polydactyl cats at his home in the Key West and had named his first polydactyl cat Snowball.
• Polydactyl cats are those which more than the normal number of toes on each of their feet.
• Ernest Hemingway was a part of two plane crashes but fortunately survived both of them. On top of that, both plane crashes took place over a span of two days.
• Hemingway once held the world record of catching as many as seven marlins in a day back in 1938. He was also the first person to catch a giant tuna without inflicting any considerable harm.
• Hemingway wrote for hours at a stretch by standing rather than sitting.
• Ernest Hemingway once killed 400 jack rabbits; this was after he had finished writing 'For Whom the Bell Tolls'. Hemingway was accompanied by two of his kids and his third wife.
• Ernest Hemingway, unlike many other authors, turned down opportunities to write for a movie but he had no objection to his stories being used for making movies.
• Ernest often suffered from severe depression and referred to his depression attacks as 'black bog days'.
• Ernest Hemingway's favorite meal was a baked potato along with a New York strip steak and accompanied with Caesar salad and Bordeaux wine.

Ernest Hemingway's Education

Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois in the United States in the year 1899 to Grace Hall Hemingway and Edmonds Hemingway. Ernest had five other siblings and was raised in the house of Ernest Miller Hall, the father of his mother, Grace Hall.

Let's now take a look at where Ernest Hemingway gained his education and how he shaped himself to become such a reputed author and eventually go on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

• From 1913 to 1917, Ernest Hemingway attended the Oak Park and River Forest High School.
• Ernest Hemingway excelled in sports during his high school days. Ernest played a number of sports including the likes of water polo, football, boxing and even track and field.
• Ernest had an elder sister, Marcelline, who went to the same school as Ernest. Both of them were a part of the school orchestra for a span of two years.
• Ernest Hemingway excelled in the English language and also earned laudable grades in his English classes.
• Ernest Hemingway, during his school days, used a pen name, Ring Lardner Jr, for editing his school's yearbook and newspaper.
• The name of Ernest's school yearbook was Tabula and that of his school newspaper was Trapeze. Hemingway edited both of them during the last two years of his school life.
• Once Hemingway finished high school, he went on to work for a Kansas City based newspaper known as The Kansas City Star where he worked as a cub reporter.
• Interestingly, studies have noticed a pattern where many novelists, prior to becoming a recognized novelist, work as a journalist. Ernest Hemingway was also one such man just like Mark Twain, Theodore Dreiser, Stephen Crane and Sinclair Lewis.
• Hemingway worked at The Kansas City Star for only half a year but it was here that he laid foundation to his unique writing style, the iceberg theory.

Ernest Hemingway's Family

Ernest Hemingway was born in America in Oak Park, Illinois, which is located in the western part of Chicago. Ernest had a number of siblings and his parents were both educated individuals.

• Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899 to well educated parents who lived in Oak Park and were highly respected individuals in society.
• Ernest Hemingway's father, Edmonds Hemingway, was a physician by profession who lived in Michigan and was visited by his family every summer.
• Ernest Hemingway's mother was Grace Hall Hemingway who was an opera singer by profession and had taught her son to play cello despite his disinterest.
• Ernest was named after his grandfather, Ernest Miller Hall, the father of his mother. Ernest lived at his grandfather's house during his childhood.
• Ernest had three younger sisters, a younger brother and an elder sister.
• Marcelline, who was born in 1898, was the only sibling older than Hemingway. The two had an age gap of hardly an year and went to the same high school.
• The other siblings of Ernest included Ursula born in 1902, Madelaine born in 1904, Carol born in 1911 and Leicester born in 1915.
• Ernest Hemingway got married for the first time in 1921 to Hadley Richardson who was the first of his four wives.
• The couple eventually moved to Paris where they worked as foreign correspondents.
• In 1927, Ernest Hemingway separated from Hadley Richardson and married Pauline Pfeiffer the very same year.
• Once Ernest returned home after working as a journalist on the Spanish Civil War, he divorced Pauline Pfeiffer in the year 1940.
• The third wife of Ernest Hemingway was Martha Gellhorn whom he married in 1940. However, they separated after five years of marriage when Ernest Hemingway came across Mary Welsh in London.
• Mary Welsh Hemingway was the fourth wife of Ernest Hemingway in 1946 following his divorce from Martha Gellhorn in 1945.
• During his lifetime, Ernest Hemingway had three children: Jack, Patrick and Gregory.
• Jack was the eldest of the three children and was born to Ernest Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley Richardson.
• The other two children of Ernest, Patrick and Gregory, were born to Pauline Pfeiffer.
• Sadly, Ernest passed away in 1961 as he committed suicide in his home at Idaho.
• Hemingway's death had left the entire world in shock as he had shot himself with his favorite shotgun just the way his father had died earlier.
• Interestingly, Hemingway's granddaughter, Margaux Hemingway, also committed suicide in the year 1996, exactly 35 years after Ernest's death.

Ernest Hemingway's Writing Style

If you read a novel or a short story written by the Nobel Prize winner Ernest Hemingway, you will realize that his writing style is different from that of many other American authors. Let's take a look at some of the features of Hemingway's style of writing which differentiated him from other authors.

• The Ernest Hemingway style of writing has been named as the iceberg theory owing to the way his stories and novels are written. The surface of the text reveals minimal information and portrays a simple meaning but there is always a deeper, underlying meaning.
• People have often described the writing style to be natural and simple on the surface but artificial and deliberate on the inside.
• Hemingway's literature has vivid descriptions, brief sentences and a simple structure.
• The Nobel Prize winner used easy to understand and simple language in all of his works. His work 'The Old Man and the Sea' best depicts his writing style.
• Ernest was a fan of brief sentences as they helped in engaging the audience and added a rhythm to the literature.
• The Nobel Prize winner was known for re-writing his own works on multiple occasions and had once said, 'The only kind of writing is rewriting.'
• Interestingly, Ernest only wrote in the mornings and usually wrote around 500 words in one day which usually spanned over five to six hours.