American novelist Ernest Hemingway

Of America’s classic authors, the most influential on my life has been
Ernest Hemingway. Characterized by understatement and direct, honest
prose, Hemingway forged a unique place among American novelists. The
peak of his career came in 1954, when he received the Nobel Prize in
Literature. After graduating from high school in Illinois, where he was
born and raised, Hemingway spent a few months writing as a reporter
before joining the World War I efforts in Italy as an ambulance driver.
Before his first year in Italy had ended, Hemingway suffered serious
wounds and subsequently returned to the United States. In 1922,
Hemingway left for Paris where he served as a foreign correspondent.
This period of his life, when he was able to interact with a number of
expatriate writers and artists, proved to be crucial to his career as a
writer. Hemingway’s first novel, The Sun Also Rises, was written two
years after his move to Paris.

My favorite Hemingway novel is For Whom the Bell Tolls, which is largely
based on Hemingway’s own experiences in the Spanish Civil War. The plot
revolves around Robert Jordan, an American who finds himself in Spain,
fighting against General Francisco Franco’s nationalist militia. Working
with a group of local guerilla forces, Jordan’s order requires that he
travel behind enemy lines and destroy a vital bridge. Jordan meets a
beautiful local named Maria for whom he quickly falls. The novel
contrasts Jordan’s love for Maria and resulting disinterest in war with
his own leader’s hesitation to complete the covert operation for fear of
the immediate consequences. All of this is set against the backdrop of
realistic brutality that Hemingway intimately knew.