Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois, a prosperous suburb of Chicago that was also home to the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. His father, Clarence E. Hemingway, was a doctor; his mother, who was very religious, had given up a promising career as a singer in order to rear six children, of whom Ernest was the third and the oldest boy.
Hemingway attended public school in Oak Park, and the family vacationed in the north woods of Michigan, where Clarence taught Ernest hunting and fishing and a general love of the outdoor life. Later, Hemingway would portray Oak Park's bourgeois values in an unflattering light in stories like "Soldier's Home"; his parents' marriage was the subject of the bitterly resentful tale "The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife," among others. On the other hand, Hemingway wrote with nothing less than adoration about life "Up in Michigan," in the story of that name and many others featuring his fictional alter ego Nick Adams. Clarence Hemingway committed suicide in 1928.
