Remembering Nobel Laureate Ernest Hemingway On His Birth Day–Prof. P K Sharma
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The twenty first day of JULY !
The year 1899 saw Ernest Miller Hemingway- the sun of creativity
dawning in Oak Park Illinois.
The recipient of two world famous honours- the Pulitzer in 1952 and
then Nobel Prize for literature in 1954 for his masterpiece
”The Old Man And The Sea”, Hemingway left an indelible imprint and
influence as a master craftsman and great stylist on the authors world
over, lovers of literature and journalism.
Sans an iota of doubt, Hemingway makes an interesting, absorbing and
enchanting study even to this day whether wielding his pen as a fictionist,
scribe and short story writer, excelling leaving his deep footprints in these
arts for more than five decades.
Apart from rendering a yeoman’s contribution in the annals of fiction,
short story writing and reporting, Hemingway is still remembered as a
literary journalist. Hemingway,the fictionist and journalist enriched these
genres by evolving and inventing a sublime style of his own.Being a strong
votary of laconic, simple, plain and child like writing style,he offered five
wonderful tips-use of short sentences, short paragraphs, vigorous
English, positive instead of negative and never have four rules only for
writing well.
Here, it is indeed worthwhile to dwell on some of the many memorable,
fascinating and fantastic tales concerning Ernie ‘s(Hemingway) illustrious
career.
To begin with,his expertise in the finest display of short sentence was once
put to test when he was challenged to narrate a story in only six words.
Accepting the challenge,Hemingway won a bet telling a story in exactly
half a dozen words in this mode,
“ For Sale: Baby Shoes Not Worn.”
Hemingway took the bond of marriage quite lightly.That is why he entered
into wedlock four times. His better halves included Hadley Richardson,Pauline
Pfeiffer,Martha Gelhorn and Mary Welsh.
His stints as foreign and war correspondent attracted him into harmony with
many fellow fair-sex correspondents including war correspondents covering war
ultimately becoming his life partners.Divorcing his first wife Hadley he wedded a
fellow journalist Pfeiffer.Reporting Spanish Civil War in 1937, he met a female war
reporter Gelhorn who soon became his third wife.In 1941 when United States of
America joined World War,Hemingway served as a war correspondent
covering key moments including D-Day landing.The fag end of the war proved to be instrumental in bringing into his life another war scribe Mary Welsh making her his
fourth wife.
Like eminent Swedish Inventor-Chemist Alfred Bernhard Nobel( the founder of Nobel
Prize),Hemingway too had erroneously been declared dead before his actual
death.Following the death of Ludvig(Alfred Nobel’s brother) in 1888 in France, a
French newspaper published Alfred Nobel’s obituary instead of Ludvig’s
condemning Nobel for his invention of Dynamite.In the same fashion in 1954 while in
South Africa Hemingway suffered serious injuries in two successive plane crashes.
When he alongwith injured Mary- his fourth wife reached Entebbe they were amazed
to find scribes covering story of Hemingway’s death.Briefing reporters, he spent few
weeks recuperating going through his erroneous obituaries.
Hemingway was very much fond of keeping cats as his pets. Ironically, Winston
Churchill was also the name of one of the many cats Hemingway kept as his pets.
Hemingway ‘s family was the victim of the evil shadow of committing
suicide.Clarence Hemingway (his father),he himself,Ursula( his sister)and
Leicester(his brother) committed suicide.
All in all, Hemingway is very much relevant in the present world too because of the
universal appeal of his vision and philosophy of life reflecting varying contours of
love, struggle,courage,adventure,endurance,valour,purity,nobility and optimism.
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Contributed by :
Prof PK Sharma,
Associate Professor of English(Retired),
Former Reporter The Tribune-Freelance Journalist ,
Pom Anm Nest,Barnala (Punjab)
Mobile : 94170-02504,Phone : 01679-230304
e-mail : profpksharma504@gmail.com
Prof.Sharma has been an Alumnus of prestigious SCD Govt. College, Ludhiana.