<P> In May 1953, the novel received the Pulitzer Prize and was specifically cited when in 1954 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature which he dedicated to the Cuban people . The success of The Old Man and the Sea made Hemingway an international celebrity . The Old Man and the Sea is taught at schools around the world and continues to earn foreign royalties . </P> <P> The Old Man and the Sea served to reinvigorate Hemingway's literary reputation and prompted a reexamination of his entire body of work . The novel was initially received with much popularity; it restored many readers' confidence in Hemingway's capability as an author . Its publisher, Scribner's, on an early dust jacket, called the novel a "new classic," and many critics favorably compared it with such works as William Faulkner's short story The Bear and Herman Melville's novel Moby - Dick . </P> <P> Gregorio Fuentes, who many critics believe was an inspiration for Santiago, was a blue - eyed man born on Lanzarote in the Canary Islands . After going to sea at age ten on ships that called in African ports, he migrated permanently to Cuba when he was 22 . After 82 years in Cuba, Fuentes attempted to reclaim his Spanish citizenship in 2001 . Critics have noted that Santiago was also at least 22 when he immigrated from Spain to Cuba, and thus old enough to be considered an immigrant--and a foreigner--in Cuba . </P> <P> Hemingway at first planned to use Santiago's story, which became The Old Man and the Sea, as part of an intimacy between mother and son . Relationships in the book relate to the Bible, which he referred to as "The Sea Book". Some aspects of it did appear in the posthumously published Islands in the Stream . Hemingway mentions the real life experience of an old fisherman almost identical to that of Santiago and his marlin in On the Blue Water: A Gulf Stream Letter (Esquire, April 1936). </P>

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