The Old Man and the Sea, a short heroic novel by Ernest Hemingway, was published in 1952 and awarded the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. It was his last major work of fiction. The story centers on an aging fisherman who engages in an epic battle to catch a giant marlin. THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA by Ernest Hemingway is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. About Author Ernest Hemingway July 21, 1899-July 2, 1961 Ernest Hemingway was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style including his iceberg theory-had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his adventurous lifestyle and public image brought him admiration from later generations.