The novel For Whom the Bell Tolls is based on Ernest Hemmingways own experiences in the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s This novel depicts how irony and love get in the way of a war and how devastating these affects can be Ernest Hemmingway was born on July 21 1899 in Oak Park Illinois and the second of six children Clarence Hemmingway his father was a physician and his mother was a religious woman with a talent for music When he was young he got the nickname champ which he felt it showed his ro