by Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois, on July 21, 1899. After a brief stint as a reporter for the Kansas City Star, Hemingway joined a volunteer American Red Cross unit as a driver in World War 1. He served in Italy and was seriously wounded during an Austrian attack. Shortly after the war, Hemingway lived in Paris, where he became a key figure of what is sometimes called the "Lost Generation." The term refers generally to the post-World War I generation, whose members felt disillusioned with the war and its consequences; more specifically, the term refers to a group of leading writers and artists of the period. This was the time in which Hemingway began work on A Farewell to Arms, a novel that epitomized his disillusionmcnt with the war.

Events in History at the Time the Novel Takes Place