Ernest Hemingway, born in Oak Park, Illinois, in 1899, left home to join the Kansas City Star as a reporter at age seventeen.
He later volunteered to serve in the Red Cross during World War I. After being severely wounded he was awarded the Croce di Guerra. He moved to Paris in 1921, devoting himself to writing fiction. His novels include The Sun Also Rises (1926), A Farewell to Arms (1929), To Have and Have Not (1937), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940), and The Old Man and the Sea (1952). In 1954, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for
literature. He died in Ketchum, Idaho, on July 2, 1961by a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His book, Death in the Afternoon, is considered one of the best books ever written about
bullfighting. It reveals bullfighting as more than just a sport to the author and as an inspiration. It is a deep contemplation of the natures of both bravery and cowardice and grace under pressure. It is written in the first person with vivid thoughts and imagery to draw the reader into the story right away. Hemingway shows a sharp commentary on both life and literature through Death in the Afternoon.