Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899. Named after his grandfather, Hemingway was the second of six brothers in his family. He was born and raised in a town called Oak Park, known for being an upper-middle class suburb just ten miles from Chicago. Hemingway would later refer to his birthplace as a “neighborhood of broad lawns and narrow minds.” This was likely due to the fact that Oak Park was primarily a conservative town trying to separate itself from the liberal views of the big city. Hemingway grew up with very strict and conservative values, which taught him that the most important things in life are religion, hard work, physical fitness and self-determination. Hemingway's father, Clarence Edmonds Hemingway, taught him to hunt and fish in the forests of Lake Michigan. Hunting soon became one of Hemingway's most beloved passions; he often uses his knowledge of the sport to his advantage in his writings. Hunting is just one of the many inspirations that Ernest Hemingway uses to develop one of his stories. A major influence on his pieces was the First World War; he was drafted into the ambulance drivers of the First World War. In 1918 he was seriously injured after being hit by a mortar shell in Italy and returned to his homeland (Lost Generation). The effects of war on Hemingway's mind and body played a huge role in the short stories he wrote, but also in perhaps his most famous novel of all time, A Farewell to Arms. In an interview with Matthew J. Bruccoli, Hemingway listed the following writers as influences on his work: Ring Lardner, Sherwood Anderson, Ezra Pound, and Gertrude Stein (Conversations with EH). It's safe to say that Hemingway's family was quite wealthy. They had enough money to house, feed themselves and... means of paper... known as a very descriptive writer and this story shows how he could push his boundaries to the limit (Stukas). Ernest Hemingway was an immensely skilled writer who left his everlasting mark on the writing community. He is a source of inspiration for writers young and old around the world. Hemingway was taken from the world too soon (at age 61) when he was killed by "self-inflicted gunshot wounds." Even today it is not clear whether it was suicide or an accident while cleaning his favorite rifle. Furthermore, it is unclear what stories Hemingway still had to offer the world and what writing would be like today if he published a couple more novels and short stories to the public. One thing is certain: Hemingway had a way with words that transformed ordinary things, like leopards, goats or elephants, into unimaginable things that can only be experienced by reading his works..