Did Hemingway and Agnes von Kurowsky have an affair? Or was Agnes just an exceptional flirt?
Agnes Von Kurowsky was Hemingway’s first real love interest. Before meeting her, he had been only faintly aware that the opposite sex existed. Agnes’s beauty coupled with the kindness and gentleness she exhibited in her duties as a Red Cross nurse was too much for any red-blooded American boy to ignore. Whether or not Agnes was just stringing Ernest along will vary from biographer to biographer. (She always attested that there was never anything sexual between herself and Ernest, though her letters to him reveal a very clear love and affection.) Most biographers will agree that when Agnes broke off whatever relationship she had had with her former patient, the lovesick Hemingway was truly crushed. It was his first major rejection, one he would never forget. In A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway fictionalizes the so-called love affair. The thought of Agnes also prompted Hemingway’s short story, “A Very Short Story,” which is a fitting title to sum up the relationship between the two.
