If you want to write a guide on how to be the manliest of men, there’s only one person you need to look up
Ernest Hemingway was a writer of 10 novels and a few collections of short stories
Which are considered classics of American literature
He received the Nobel Prize and influenced many writers to come
Hemingway's one-of-a-kind writing style didn’t care for long sentences
Or anything girly like, you know, emotions, or descriptions, or adjectives
But perhaps the greatest story he ever produced was his very own life
He grew up in Illinois and was pretty much a regular kid, he went fishing and hunting with his dad
Hated playing the cello and also the fact that his mom named him Ernest
It was the last year of WWI when the 18-year-old Hemingway enlisted for the army
And was sent to the Italian front as an ambulance driver
He was sent to an exploded munitions factory where, in his own words
They first collected whole bodies and then went after different body parts
During this time, he met John dos Passos, an American writer
Whose wartime experiences inspired Hemingway's novel Farewell to Arms
One time, he was going to the frontline to bring the soldiers some cigarettes when mortar fire inflicted him
With serious shrapnel wounds to both legs
Despite being severely injured, he helped the soldiers to safety and only then did he leave for the hospital
In which he had to spend 6 months
After the war, Hemingway spent some time in Toronto and Chicago, where he met his first wife, Hadley
With Hadley, he left for Paris and worked there as a correspondent
There, he met artists that were a part of the so-called Lost Generation
He met people such as Gertrude Stein, Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, James Joyce and many more
During the 1920s, Hemingway was often traveling to Pamplona
He would go there with Hadley, and a few others, including his mistress Pauline and Dos Passos
In Spain he became fascinated with bullfighting, seeing it to be literally a game of life and death
In Paris, he injured himself in the bathroom – mistaking it for a toilet chain, he pulled down a skylight on his head
He returned to the US with his now second wife Pauline, where he heard the news about his father’s health
He was very depressed and had financial worries
Hemingway sent him a letter to tell him that he’ll sort everything out
A letter that arrived just minutes after his father’s suicide
After his father's death, he moved to Florida with Pauline, where they got a house as a wedding gift
The house was near a lighthouse, which was a useful clue to Hemingway
When he searched his way home after drinking at Sloppy Joe’s
Hemingway decided to take a short trip to the African Safari where he hunted
And then contracted amoebic dysentery
Ernest then bought a boat and started sailing and drinking across the Caribbean
He was asked to be a correspondent in the Spanish Civil War
And you didn’t need to ask Hemingway twice to go to a place of danger
He went there with Dos Passos, but Dos Passos didn't hang around long
And although the reason Dos Passos left is because his friend was arrested and executed
That didn’t stop Hemingway to accuse him of being a coward
Ernest then spent some time in Cuba with his third wife Martha
And with the arrival of WWII, he got Cuban authorities to adapt his boat for fighting
As he intended to ambush German submarines alone
He was in London the last year of the war, working as a correspondent
Where he was hospitalized again for a concussion from a car accident
Martha had to travel there with soldiers since Ernest wouldn't give her a journalist pass
So, she left him
Unable to move on, he was emotionally struggling so much that he immediately met and proposed to Mary, his fourth wife
He was present at the D-Day invasion and the liberation of Paris
And, of course, the American journalist became a leader of a group of French Resistance
Something he had to go on a trial later for, because journalists aren't really supposed to do that…
Cowards!
He was down with a fever when a battle in Luxembourg was taking place
But that didn’t stop him and he organized himself a ride there
So, yeah, after that he contracted pneumonia
After the world war, he suffered from head and knee injury, he had blood pressure
Weight and diabetes problems
Deaths of some of his close friends, including Fitzgerald, Stein and Joyce had affected him badly
And let to depression
In an attempt to cheer himself up a little bit, he booked a sightseeing flight to Africa for him and Mary
The plane they were on crashed and he received a concussion
The following day, a rescue plane came for them but it exploded during the take-off
Giving Hemingway burns, two cracked discs, a kidney and liver puncture, a dislocated shoulder
A broken skull and his brain juices were leaking. A lot of newspapers reported his alleged death
Being the crybaby he was, two months after the crashes he went on a fishing trip with his family
During this trip, a bushfire broke out and Hemingway sustained second degree burns on his legs, arms, torso and face
The following year, Hemingway received the Nobel Prize in literature. Although he never hid that he had wanted it
Hemingway thought that the award was influenced by the reports about his death
And that kind of spoiled the fun for him
His last years were marked by illnesses and depression
Which was boosted by the lifelong habit of heavy drinking
His close friends revealed he was paranoid, thinking that the FBI followed him
Although it later turned out that he wasn’t paranoid at all and the FBI really did follow him
Hemingway secretly went to a clinic for electroshock treatment.
It left him in ruins, he was very depressed and worried about financial difficulties and paying taxes
On July 2, 1961, his wife Mary arrived home
Just minutes after Ernest Hemingway killed himself with his favorite shotgun