Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois. In the nearly sixty two years of his life he built an unmatched literary reputation in the twentieth century . In doing so, he also created a hero in himself that attracted not only serious scholars but the common people as well. In a word, he was a star. As a boy he was taught by his father to hunt and fish along the shores and in the forests surrounding Lake Michigan. They had a summer house in northern Michigan, and the family would spend the summer months there trying to stay cool. Hemingway would either fish the different streams that ran into the lake, or would take the boat out to do some fishing there. He would also go squirrel ( 松鼠 ) hunting in the woods, discovering early in life the peace to be found while alone in the forest or a stream. It was something he could always go back to throughout his life, and though he often found himself living in major cities like Chicago, Toronto and Paris early in his career, once he became successful he chose somewhat isolated places to live in. When he wasn’t hunting or fishing, his mother taught him music. She was an accomplished singer who once had a career on stage, but eventually settled down with her husband and occupied her time by giving voice and music lessons to local children, including her own. Hemingway never had a talent for music and suffered through singing practices and cello ( 大提琴 ) lessons, however the musical knowledge he acquired from his mother helped him share in his first wife Hadley’s interest in the piano.