Ernest Hemingway was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist, recognized as one of the most influential figures in 20th-century literature. Born in Oak Park, Illinois, Hemingway is known for his minimalist writing style and his profound exploration of themes such as courage, love, war, and human endurance. His works, often inspired by his own adventurous life, earned him both critical and popular acclaim, including the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. Ernest Hemingway was the second of six children in a conservative middle-class family. His father, Clarence Hemingway, was a physician, and his mother, Grace Hall Hemingway, was a music teacher. Hemingway's upbringing in the outdoors of Michigan, where his family spent summers, shaped his lifelong love of nature and adventure. After high school, he worked as a journalist for The Kansas City Star, where he developed a concise and straightforward writing style influenced by the newspaper's guidelines: "Use short sentences. Use short first paragraphs. Use vigorous English." Hemingway's literary career was profoundly influenced by his experiences in World War I, where he served as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross in Italy. Wounded in the war, his experiences formed the basis for A Farewell to Arms (1929), a poignant love story set against the backdrop of the war. His postwar years in Paris, where he joined a group of expatriate writers known as the "Lost Generation," further solidified his literary voice.