by Ernest Hemingway

Born in Oak Park, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago), on July 21, 1899, Ernest Hemingway was the second of six children. His father, Clarence, a general practitioner of medicine, taught his son to hunt and fish, and, like his mother, was a strict disciplinarian. When Hemingway graduated from high school, he wanted to volunteer for the war effort, but his father arranged for him to work for the Kansas City Star as a reporter instead. In 1918, at the age of 18, Hemingway finally did join the war effort. He signed up with the Red Cross ambulance service and was assigned to the Italian Front as a Second Lieutenant. Hemingway served only a brief tour of duty before he was seriously wounded when an Austrian shell exploded just a few feet away from him. By the time he was well enough to return...