Ernest Hemingway and Lauren Bacall in Spain (photo:public domain)

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)

American writer and journalist. He was born in the small town of Oak Park, Illinois. At a young age he was interested in nature and belonged to the Klub Miłników Przyrody im. Agassiz, with whom he went on forest hikes every Saturday. He was passionate about journalism at school, and after graduating, he became a reporter for "Kansas City Star".

When the United States entered the war, he joined the Red Cross and traveled to Europe, where he was an ambulance driver. He was seriously injured, which meant that he did not return home until 1919. In 1921, he got married and, together with his wife, went to Paris, where he found himself in the circle of Gertrude Stein. He was working at that time as the foreign correspondent of the Toronto Star.

In 1924, he quit his job as a reporter and started writing. He divorced and remarried, and traveled around Europe and the world. In 1937 he acted as a correspondent from war-plunged Spain. He divorced again and went to live in Cuba, where he met his third wife, Marta Gellhorn. During the Second World War, they were both correspondents. Eight years later, he returned to Cuba and devoted himself to writing. In 1953 he was awarded a Pulitzer for "The Old Man and the Sea". In 1954 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. On July 2, 1961, he committed suicide.