A Very Short Story by Ernest Hemingway

Authors Life

Ernest was born July 21, 1899. As writer of the “lost generation,” he gave a voice to the uncertainty of the American experience in the post—World War I world, addressing the moral void left by the first mechanized war. Hemingway had an enormous influence on twentieth-century American literary style, refining the craft of the short story and changing the way in which fictional characters spoke. His work tells us specifically about Americans in the twentieth century, home and abroad, as well as showing us that concerns of love, honor, and bravery are universal and will endure. Hemingway was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1953 for his novella, The Old Man and the Sea and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954 (Baker 96-105).

Author's Time

Like many of his peers, Hemingway honed his craft in Paris, developing under the tutelage of Gertrude Stein, who focused his attention on language. In Paris he also socialized with other key writers and artists of the day, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Archibald McLeish, Pablo Picasso, and Ezra Pound. Hemingway's cultural significance lies in his role as a constructed celebrity. Throughout his career Hemingway managed to create a public persona for himself—fisherman, big game hunter, womanizer, pugilist—the personification of machismo. His inability to be as heroic as his characters, however, often resulted in personal unhappiness and depression. (Bruccoli, 36-55).”

Hemingway's literary importance is rooted in his stylistic innovations. The advice that he received as a fledging reporter at the Kansas City Star—to cut out all unnecessary words and to concentrate on active verbs—led to plain, succinct prose that has proved easy to parody, but very hard to emulate.

Hemingway served as an ambulance driver in World War I, later turning to this experience in A Farewell to Arms (1929). ...