Ernest Miller Hemingway was one of the most memorable and astonishing writers of the 20th century. Hemingway wrote many short stories and many classic novels such as "Hills like White Elephants", "The Sun also Rises", "The Old Man and the Sea" and "Farewell to Arms." For many, it is hard to tell the myth from the man. Was he really a drunken womanizer or was he portraying that in some of his writings? Could Hemingway have been a hopeless romantic, or just one of the best writers that left such ambiguity we will never know?
One thing that is a fact is the interesting and disturbing childhood Hemingway was subjected to. His mother, Grace Hall Hemingway, was a dreamer who was resentful for having to give up her dreams of singing and living a lavish lifestyle in order to raise children. She disliked the dirty diapers and cleaning that came with motherhood, she felt it was just not fit for a lady like herself.
Ernest and Pauline Hemingway, Paris, ca. 1927.
Ernest Hemingway in Milan, 1918
Ernest Hemingway, Paris, circa 1924.Grace Hemingway always had control over the household and everyone in it, including Hemingway's father, Dr. Clarence Hemingway.
Dr. Clarence Hemingway was a man of great morale; he invented surgical forceps for which he would not accept money, for the sheer factor that one should not profit from something important for the good of mankind. He was strict; censoring the books Hemingway could read and forbidding Hemingway's sister to dance ballet, for dancing together lead to "hell and damnation".
When Hemingway was a child his mother dressed him in girl's dresses and completely humiliated him. His mother was also never satisfied with Hemingway. He relentlessly tried to please her and he still always felt like a failure. Later in his life when he became successful, his mother would not even praise him, she was jealous that...