Marriage
While recuperating in hospital for six months, he fell in love with Agnes von Kurowsky, a Red Cross nurse seven years his senior. He believed they would be married, but Agnes sent him a letter saying she had met and fallen in love with an Italian officer. She was the one who got away.
While filing stories for the Toronto Star, Hemingway became infatuated with Elizabeth Hadley Richardson, later saying, “I knew she was the girl I was going to marry.” Red-haired, with a nurturing instinct, she was eight years older than him. The two corresponded for months and decided to marry and travel to Europe. They tied the knot on September 3, 1921. Two months later, Hemingway received a promotion to Foreign Correspondent for the Star, and the couple departed for Paris. Hemingway had everything he had hoped for: the love of a beautiful woman, a comfortable income as a writer, a life in Europe, and, in 1923, a son – Jack.
