Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois. Hemingway, his father, invented surgical forceps for which he would not accept money. Ernest's father, a man of high ideals, was very strict and censored the books he allowed his children to read. He forbad Ernest's sister from studying ballet for it was coeducational, and dancing together led to "hell and damnation".

             Grace Hall Hemingway, Ernest's mother, considered herself pure and proper. Mrs. Hemingway treated Ernest, when he was a small boy, as if he were a female baby doll and she dressed him accordingly. This arrangement was alright until Ernest got to the age when he wanted to be a "gun-toting Pawnee Bill". He began, at that time, to pull away from his mother, and never forgave her for his humiliation.

             The town of Oak Park, where Ernest grew up, was very old fashioned and quite religious. The townspeople forbad the word "virgin" from appearing in school books, and the word "breast" was questioned, though it appeared in the Bible. Ernest loved to fish, canoe and explore the woods. In spite of his mother's desire, he played on the football team at Oak Park High School. As a student, Ernest was a perfectionist about his grammar and studied English with a passion. It seems that the principal did not approve of Ernest's writings and he complained, often, about the content of Ernest's articles.

             Ernest loved having fun. If nothing was happening, mischievous Ernest made something happen. Ernest, though wild and crazy, was a warm, caring individual. During World War I, Ernest, rejected from service because of a bad left eye, was an ambulance driver, in Italy, for the Red Cross. Ernest is shot in his knee and recuperates in a hospital, tended by a caring nurse named Agnes. He fell in love with the nurse and was given a medal for his heroism. Ernest returned home after the war, rejected by the nurse with whom he fell in love.