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20 Working Nurse l WorkingNurse.com February 22-March 29, 2021 PROFILES IN NURSING by Aaron Severson N urses sometimes leave a lasting impression on their patients, but seldom one as literary as Agnes Von Kurowsky, the Red Cross nurse who inspired a central character in Ernest Hemingway's acclaimed novel A Farewell to Arms. Wartime Duty Born in Germantown, Pa., Agnes Von Kurowsky was the daughter of an aristo- cratic German immigrant (hence her sur- name's "Von" prefix) and spent her child- hood in rural Alaska and Vancouver, Canada. After attending high school in Washington, D.C., she went to work for the Washington Public Library, but found it dull and moved to New York City to train at Bellevue School of Nursing. After graduating in 1917, she joined the Red Cross Nursing Service and vol- unteered for wartime duty. On June 15, 1918, she sailed for Europe and was soon assigned, along with 17 other nurs- es, to a Red Cross hospital in Milan, Italy. Like many wartime nurses, she was initially unprepared for the gruesome- ness of battlefield injuries, but she had the right temperament for the work. She could detach herself from the horror without losing her gregarious attitude. Von Kurowsky was also a flirt who broke hearts while treating wounds. After the grind of nursing school — in her diary, she said she'd gone "practically three years without the least bit of senti- ment or romance, and very little atten- tion" — she was giddy at the romantic possibilities of her new assignment. Tall, shapely and attractive, she had her pick of suitors, including several dashing Italian officers. By her own account, she had "three ser[ious] affairs" in her first month overseas. ("I was very fickle in those days," she later explained.) The Boy From Illinois One of Von Kurowsky's patients in Milan was a young man from Oak Park, Ill., named Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway had joined the Red Cross ambulance corps after being rejected for military service, but after only five weeks in Italy, he was severely wounded by a mortar round and machine gun fire at Fossalta di Piave. When Hemingway arrived at the Milan hospital 10 days later, he'd already undergone surgery to remove the bul- lets and shrapnel from his legs, but his convalescence was protracted. Von Kurowsky soon took a liking to him; he was handsome, and quite jovial despite his injuries. By September, he'd become the latest of her whirlwind romances. By today's standards, Von Kurowsky's relationship with Hemingway was somewhat inappropriate. Not only was he a patient who'd just suffered a severe trauma, he was significantly younger than she: Von Kurowsky was 26 when they met, while Hemingway celebrated his 19th birthday shortly after arriving in Milan. In those days, it wasn't uncommon for wartime nurses to flirt with their patients, if only to bolster the morale of grievously wounded young men far from home. Von Kurowsky's relation- ship with Hemingway appears to have begun in much that way. "'Ernie' is far too fond of me, & speaks in such a desperate way every time I am cool, that I dare not dampen his ardor as long as he is here in the Hospital," she wrote that August. "Poor Kid, I am sorry for him." A Passing Fancy? Over the following weeks, however, they began to socialize outside the Agnes Von Kurowsky (1892–1984), Literary Muse The nurse who inspired Ernest Hemingway In those days, it wasn't uncommon for wartime nurses to flirt with their patients, if only to bolster their morale. ALL'S FAIR American nurse Agnes Von Kurowsky with a young Ernest Hemingway in Milan, 1918. During WWI, he suffered injuries in a mortar and machine gun attack.