Ernest Hemingway was an American novelist famous for his short, direct writing style and adventurous life, from ambulance driving in World War I to deep-sea fishing in Cuba. He survived two plane crashes in Africa within two days in 1954 — so severe that several newspapers ran his obituary, which he reportedly enjoyed reading. He wrote classic novels like The Old Man and the Sea and A Farewell to Arms, won both the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize in Literature, and his clear, simple writing style influenced generations of authors after him.