<P> In the final section, Frederic and Catherine live a quiet life in the mountains until she goes into labor . After a long and painful birth, their son is stillborn . Catherine begins to hemorrhage and soon dies, leaving Frederic to return to their hotel in the rain . </P> <P> The novel was based on Hemingway's own experiences serving in the Italian campaigns during the First World War . The inspiration for Catherine Barkley was Agnes von Kurowsky, a nurse who cared for Hemingway in a hospital in Milan after he had been wounded . He had planned to marry her but she spurned his love when he returned to America . Kitty Cannell, a Paris - based fashion correspondent, became Helen Ferguson . The unnamed priest was based on Don Giuseppe Bianchi, the priest of the 69th and 70th regiments of the Brigata Ancona . Although the sources for Rinaldi are unknown, the character had already appeared in In Our Time . </P> <P> Michael Reynolds, however, writes that Hemingway was not involved in the battles described . Because his previous novel, The Sun Also Rises, had been written as a roman à clef, readers assumed A Farewell to Arms to be autobiographical . A Farewell to Arms was begun during his time at Willis M. Spear's guest ranch in Wyoming's Bighorns . Some pieces of the novel were written in Piggott, Arkansas, at the home of his then wife Pauline Pfeiffer, and in Mission Hills, Kansas while she was awaiting delivery of their baby . Pauline underwent a caesarean section as Hemingway was writing the scene about Catherine Barkley's childbirth . </P> <P> The novel was first serialized in Scribner's Magazine in the May 1929 to October 1929 issues . The book was published in September 1929 with a first edition print - run of approximately 31,000 copies . The success of A Farewell to Arms made Hemingway financially independent . </P>

Is a farewell to arms fiction or nonfiction
find me the text answering this question