The Red Cross sent him to Italy. There, he soon saw the first wounded. This was when a weapons factory in Milan exploded. Later, he was sent to the battle front. He went close to the fighting to see how he could act in the face of danger. Soon, he was seriously wounded.
Soon after healing, the war ended. Hemingway returned to the United States. After less than a year he had changed forever: he needed to write about what he had seen. Hemingway wrote many short stories about people who experienced World War I.
Some time later, Hemingway left home for Chicago to prove to himself, and to his family, that he could earn a living from his writing.
But he ran out of money and began to write for a newspaper again. The Canadian newspaper, the Toronto Star, loved his reports in Chicago. They hired him and paid him well.
In Chicago, Hemingway also met Sherwood Anderson. Anderson was one of the first American writers to write about common people. Hemingway saw that Anderson's stories showed life as it really was. This was similar to what he wanted to do.
Anderson gave Hemingway advice about his writing. He told Hemingway to move to Paris. Life was less costly there. Anderson said that Paris had many young artists and writers from many nations.
Hemingway decided to move to Paris. Before he did, in America, he married a woman he had recently met. Her name was Hadley Richardson.
Paris was cold and grey when Hemingway and his new wife arrived in 1921. They lived in one of the poorer parts of the city. Their rooms were small and they did not have water from pipes. But the "Toronto Star" employed him as its European reporter, so they had enough money for the two of them to live. That job gave Hemingway time to write his stories.
Hemingway enjoyed exploring Paris, learning French customs, and meeting friends. Some of these new friends were artists and writers who had come to the city in the 1920s. Among them were poet, Ezra Pound, and writers Gertrude Stein, John Dos Passos, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Seeing that Hemingway was a good writer, they helped him publish his stories in the United States. He was thankful for their support at the time, but later denied that he had received their help.
Hemingway travelled all over Europe. He wrote about politics, peace conferences, and border disputes, as well as sports, skiing, and fishing. Later he would write about bullfighting in Spain. The "Toronto Star" was pleased with his work, and wanted more of his reports, but Hemingway was busy with his own writing.
He said this: "Sometimes, I would start a new story and could not get it going. Then I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think. I would say to myself: 'All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know.' So finally, I would write a true sentence and go on from there. It was a wonderful feeling when I had worked well."
Hemingway's first book of short stories was called "In Our Time". One of its stories, "Big Two Hearted River," told of the effects of war on a young man who was taking a long fishing trip in Michigan. Hemingway had learned from his father, when he was a boy, about living in the wild.
The story is about two kinds of rivers. One is calm and clear, and is where the young man fishes. The other is a dark, threatening swamp. The story shows its main character trying to forget his past, as well as the war. He does not talk much about the war. The reader learns about the young man, not because Hemingway tells his readers what the man thinks, but because he shows that man learning about himself. Many people believe it is one of the best modern American stories of all time. Because of this, "Big Two Hearted River" is often published in collections of best writing.
After the book was published in 1925, Hadley and Hemingway returned to the United States for the birth of their son, after which they quickly returned to Paris.
Hemingway was working on a long story. He wanted to publish a novel so he would be recognized as a serious writer. And he wanted the money a novel would earn.
The novel was called "The Sun Also Rises". It is about young Americans in Europe after World War One. The war had destroyed their dreams and had given them nothing to replace those dreams. The writer Gertrude Stein later called these people members of "The Lost Generation."
The book was an immediate success. At the age of 25 Ernest Hemingway was famous. Many people, however, did not like Hemingway's art because they did not like what he wrote about.
Hemingway's sentences were short, the way he had been taught to write at the Kansas City Star newspaper. He wrote about what he knew and felt. He used few descriptive words. His statements were clear and easily understood.
He had learned from earlier writers, like Ring Lardner and Sherwood Anderson, but Hemingway brought something new to his writing. He was able to paint in words what he saw and felt. In later books, sometimes he missed. Sometimes he even looked foolish. But when he was right he was almost perfect.
With the success of his novel, Hemingway became even more popular in Paris. Many people came to see him. One was an American woman, Pauline Pfeiffer. She became Hadley's friend. Then Pauline fell in love with Hemingway.
Hemingway and Pauline saw each other secretly. One time, they went away together on a short trip. Years later, Hemingway wrote about returning home after that trip:
"When I saw Hadley again, I wished I had died before I ever loved anyone but her. She was smiling and the sun was on her lovely face. "
But the marriage was over. Ernest Hemingway and Hadley separated. She kept their son. He agreed to give her money he earned from his books.
In later years, he looked back at his marriage to Hadley as the happiest time of his life.
At twenty-five, Hemingway was living in Paris. He was a famous writer. But the end of his first marriage made him want to leave the place where he had first become famous.
Much later he said, "the city was never to be the same again. When I returned to it, I found it had changed as I had changed. Paris was never the same as when I was poor and very happy."
Hemingway and his new wife returned to the United States in 1928. They settled in Key West, an island with a fishing port near the southern coast of Florida.
Before leaving Paris, Hemingway sent a collection of his stories to New York to be published. The book of stories, called "Men Without Women", was published soon after Hemingway arrived in Key West.
One of the stories was called "The Killers." In it, Hemingway used a discussion between two men to create a feeling of tension and coming violence. This was a new method of telling a story:
Nick opened the thingy and went into the room. Ole Andreson was lying on the bed with all his clothes on. He had been a heavyweight prizefighter and he was too long for the bed. He lay with his head on two pillows. He did not look at Nick.
"What was it?" He asked.
"I was up at Henry's," Nick said, "and two fellows came in and tied me up and the cook, and they said they were going to kill you."
It sounded silly when he said it. Ole Andreson said nothing, "they put us out in the kitchen," Nick went on. "They were going to shoot you when you came in to supper."
Ole Andreson looked at the wall and did not say anything. "George thought I ought to come and tell you about it."
"There is not anything I can do about it," Ole Andreson said.
Any new book by Hemingway was an important event for readers. But stories like "The Killers" shocked many people. Some thought there was too much violence in his stories. Others said he only wrote about gunmen, soldiers, fighters, and drinkers.
This made Hemingway angry. He felt that writers should not be judged by those who could not write a story.