While sorting through books for the annual Greater St. Louis Book Fair, a volunteer discovered a signed first edition of Ernest Hemingway's 1929 book, A Farewell to Arms. The book has an estimated value of $5,500 to $6,500 and will be sold at auction. Jean Riezman, the book fair's co-chairwoman, said: "We knew this was an exceptionally valuable piece that would be better protected and, hopefully, garner a higher selling price by allowing the experts at Ivey-Selkirk to handle the sale for us."

Proceeds from the book's sale will help support local non-profit education and literacy programs.

Twitter users channel the Hemingway style each time they compose a tweet. The stark minimalist nature, the grade school-like grammar, the short, declarative sentences. These are all techniques that Hemingway employed in his own writing.

Would Hemingway tweet if he were alive today? If so, what would he write? One can only imagine.

"For sale: Baby clothes, never used."
 about 1 minute ago from Papa

"The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."

This quotation is most often attributed to Mark Twain, though a growing number of quotation aficionados have attempted to put it under Ernest Hemingway's pen.

On a visit to San Francisco in July of 1937, Hemingway told reporters: "Say, this is great! After frying in New York, stewing down in Florida and sweltering in Los Angeles this is something like summer weather. I can't for the life of me see why anybody would ever move out of San Francisco, particularly in the summer time."

This is the closest Hemingway ever came to saying that "the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."

Korczak asked 100 more people (ages 16 to 20) if they knew who Ernest Hemingway was. 98 out of 100 did not know. The two people who had heard of Hemingway said that they were yet to read any of his novels or short stories.

Given the cultural and literary impact of Ernest Hemingway as well as his strong commercial presence, it is remarkable to find teenagers who have never heard of him. Does Korczak's study indicate a failure in the Minnesota school system or is this a problem on a national scale? What value do great American authors hold for today's youth?

As expected, Anthony Hopkins will play Ernest Hemingway. Garcia will play Gregorio Fuentes and Annette Bening will play Mary Welsh, Hemingway's fourth and final wife. Garcia was thrilled to have Hopkins in the lead role and is quoted as saying: "Anthony is one of the greatest actors, and I'd heard he'd been interested in playing the character in the past. I'm blessed that he responded."

The film is being produced by Garcia's production company, Cineson Productions and is set to be released in 2010. Hemingway's niece, Hilary Hemingway, co-wrote the screenplay.

The photos were taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt in 1952 while he was in Cuba on assignment for Life Magazine. Life wanted Eisenstaedt to take pictures of Hemingway, which would accompany the author's new novella being printed in the magazine. The novella, of course, was The Old Man and the Sea. It would appear in book form soon after its appearance in Life.

Eisenstaedt often referred to this assignment as the most difficult he ever had. The captions featured with the photos give a good indication as to why. You can view the entire set of unpublished photos at life.com.

Ernest Hemingway never spotted a German submarine, but that may have been the goal all along. According to Mort, the true appeal of the mission was: "the quest, the adventure, the serious purpose, the voluntary service, the fun, the satisfaction of command and comradeship, the joy of being at sea, the craft of seamanship and navigation, the possibility of danger, and the piquancy of not knowing whether it will come, the reality and the metaphor of an unseen enemy suddenly rising."

If you want to read Hemingway's own fictional account of chasing German sailors of a sunken U-boat, see part III ("At Sea") of his 1970 book, Islands in the Steam.

Join a Hemingway lecture held at the JFK Library in Boston, MA. Take a tour of the Hemingway Home & Museum in Key West, FL. Listen to Ernest Hemingway in his own words.

Videos from YouTube, A&E, and the JFK Library in Boston, MA are now available for your viewing pleasure.

To learn more, watch the below video clip produced by Simon & Schuster.

The Ernest Hemingway Primer contains the following sections:

I. Biography

II. Books by Ernest Hemingway

III. The Life: Top 5 Frequently Asked Questions

IV. The Literature: Top 5 Frequently Asked Questions

V. Notable Quotables

VI. Further Reading

Download your free copy of The Ernest Hemingway Primer now! In order to view The Ernest Hemingway Primer, Adobe Reader is required.

The script contains several references to Ernest Hemingway. Below are some memorable quotations.

Dr. David Bruce Banner: "His Hemingway hallucinations, and his delusions about his wife and the doctor finally come together. Now you can't protect him, because your friend Tom doesn't exist anymore."

Dr. David Bruce Banner: "You know how Ernest Hemingway died. He put a gun in his mouth, and he pulled the trigger."

In addition to directing the film (presently titled Hemingway & Fuentes), Andy Garcia will appear in the role of Hemingway's long time fishing companion/mentor, Gregorio Fuentes. Garcia's agent Clifford Stevens said the project has been a "labor of love" for Garcia and that he's "been talking about it with me for 15 or 20 years."

Annette Bening is being considered for the role of Mary Welsh, Hemingway's fourth and final wife. According to imdb.com, Hemingway & Fuentes is slated for a 2010 release.