To Have and Have Not

The Old Man and the Sea is one of Hemingway's most enduring works. Told in language of great simplicity and power, it is the story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, and his supreme ordeal -- a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream.

Here Hemingway recasts, in strikingly contemporary style, the classic theme of courage in the face of defeat, of personal triumph won from loss. Written in 1952, this hugely successful novella confirmed his power and presence in the literary world and played a large part in his winning the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature.

In arguably his most famous work, Ernest Hemingway wrote, “A man can be destroyed, but not defeated.” It is perhaps this single line from The Old Man and the Sea that gives the most insight into the mind of one of the greatest writers in American history.

Hemingway was a man who rejected defeat at every opportunity. He was a man whose desire to be the best won him respect, but also lost him friends. He lived his life the way he wanted, rarely stopping to apologize. Even in death, Hemingway proved his determination, trying to take his own life at least twice before he ultimately succeeded with the final blast of a shotgun.

Hemingway served as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross in WWI. While in Italy on duty, he decided that he was not near enough to the action and went closer to the front. Just as he got to the front, an enemy mortar shell exploded in close proximity to Hemingway. Despite being injured in the blast, Ernest found a young Italian soldier who was severely hurt and carried him to safety, taking several rounds of machine gun fire to his leg. For his bravery, Hemingway was awarded the Italian silver medal of valor.

While in the hospital still recovering from his injuries, Hemingway fell in love with a nurse named Agnes von Kurowsky. Ernest had to return to America, but he vowed that one day he would marry von Kurowsky. It was not to be, however, as Hemingway received a letter only months after returning home saying that his love had fallen for an Italian officer. He was devastated, and his initial broken heart may explain why he made a habit out of leaving women before they could leave him. Hemingway was married four times and had affairs in each of his marriages.

When In Our Time was published in 1925, it was praised by Ford Madox Ford, John Dos Passos, and F. Scott Fitzgerald for its simple and precise use of language to convey a wide range of complex emotions, and it earned Hemingway a place beside Sherwood Anderson and Gertrude Stein among the most promising American writers of that period. In Our Time contains several early Hemingway classics, including the famous Nick Adams stories "Indian Camp," "The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife," "The Three Day Blow," and "The Battler," and introduces readers to the hallmarks of the Hemingway style: a lean, tough prose -- enlivened by an car for the colloquial and an eye for the realistic that suggests, through the simplest of statements, a sense of moral value and a clarity of heart.