1899
Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on 21 July in Oak Park, Illinois, the second of the five children of Clarence Edmond and Grace Hall Hemingway.
1918
Ernest volunteered to be a medical orderly for the Red Cross on the Italian front. He was wounded in Fossalta and, after treatment in a field hospital, was sent to a hospital in Milan, where he met Agnes von Kurowsky.
1919/20
Hemingway returned to Oak Park and went to work for the Toronto Star. Another assignment as a journalist took him to Chicago. Here the most important people he met were Hadley Richardson and Sherwood Anderson, with whom he developed a deep friendship.
1921
Hadley and Hemingway married in Horton Bay. In December they travelled to France together, were he was working as the Toronto Star’s correspondent. He travelled extensively, both for the newspaper and privately, visiting Switzerland, Spain, Italy and the Middle East.
1923
His first trip to Spain, where he visited Pamplona. Hemingway’s first son – John Hadley Nicanor (Bumby) – was born.
1925
He published “Three Stories and Ten Poems”. Hemingway met Pauline Pfeiffer for the first time and got to know Scott Fitzgerald, with whom he formed a friendship that lasted through the years. Hemingway published “In Our Time”.
1927
Hadley and Hemingway divorced and he married Pauline. “Men without Women” was published in the same year.
1928
Both returned to Key West in the USA and his second son Patrick was born. In December, Hemingway’s father Clarence took his own life. “A Farewell to Arms” was published in the same year.
1931
Hemingway bought the house 907 Whitehead Street in Key West and set off on another journey to Spain. The book “Death in the Afternoon” was published. His third son Gregory was born.
1933
Hemingway travelled to Africa for the first time with Pauline and went on a safari.
1936
Hemingway met Martha Gellhorn in Sloppy Joe’s in Key West. He started to raise funds to support the Spanish Republic. “Snows of Kilimanjaro” was published.
1938
Hemingway worked on the play “The Fifth Column”.
1939
Hemingway spent time in Cuba and started work on the novel “For Whom the Bell tolls”.
1940
Hemingway divorced Pauline and married Martha Gellhorn in Wyoming. He purchased Finca Vigía.
1944
Hemingway went to London for Collier’s. There he met Mary Welsh. Bumby was reported missing.
1945
Hemingway returned to Cuba with his sons Patrick and Gregory. His son Bumby, who had been reported missing, returned from prisoner of war camp. In October Hemingway began his trilogy “The Land”, “The Sea” and “The Air”, which later became the four novels “Across the River and into the Trees”, “The Old Man and the Sea”, “Islands in the Stream” and “The Garden of Eden”. Divorce from Martha Gellhorn in December.
1946
In March, Hemingway married Mary Welsh in Havanna.
1948
He started work on the novel “The Garden of Eden”. He met Adriana Ivancich while travelling in Italy with his wife Mary.
1950
Stays in Venice and Paris – as he was travelling through, he stopped in Heidelberg and drank Tyrolean wine in what was then the Deutscher Kaiser and is now Hemingway’s. Exhilarated, he returned to Cuba and started work on “The Garden of Eden” and the middle section of “Islands in the Stream”.
1952
What is probably his most famous novel – “The Old Man and the Sea” – appeared in LIFE. Five million copies were sold within 48 hours. He received the Pulitzer Prize.
1954
Hemingway survived two plane crashes in Africa. Work started on “True at First Light”. He was awarded the Nobel Prize.
1959
Revolution on Cuba. Purchased the house in Ketchum, Idaho and travelled to Spain for LIFE, where he saw the bullfights at Ordónez and Dominguín for “The Dangerous Summer”.
1960
He started to suffer from severe depression on Cuba. During his stay in Spain he became paranoid that he was being followed. Return to New York and Ketchum. The bouts of depression became worse and, as a result, he was given electric shock therapy for the first time.
1961
Hemingway was discharged from the Mayo Clinic. He tried to commit suicide again and was once more given electric shock treatment.
1961
On 2 July, Ernest Hemingway shot himself with a double-barrelled shotgun at his house in Ketchum. He was buried on 5 July, deeply mourned by the public.
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