Ernest Hemingway

Born: 21 July 1899 Birthplace: Oak Park, Illinois Died: 2 July 1961 (suicide) Best Known As: Famously manly author of For Whom the Bell Tolls Hemingway is one of the 20th century's most famous American writers. His books include The Sun Also Rises (1926), A Farewell to Arms (1929), and For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940). Hemingway's plainspoken no-frills writing style became so famous that it was (and is) frequently parodied. His dashing machismo was almost as famous as his writing: he lived in Paris, Cuba and Key West, fancied bullfighting and big game hunting, and served as a war correspondent in WWII and the Spanish Civil War. He sealed his own notoriety when he killed himself with a shotgun in 1961. Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954... Hemingway is sometimes called by his familiar nickname "Papa"... His birthdate is sometimes listed in error as 1898. According to a 1954 article in the New York Times, "In most reference books and in his own conversation he is one year older because he gave 1898 as his birth date when he tried to enlist [in the army] early in 1917, and stuck to that date ever since"... Hemingway's father also committed suicide, shooting himself with a Civil War pistol in 1928.