Hemingway's House

Oh, the stories it could (and does) tell

"Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another."

-Ernest Miller Hemingway

The Hemingway Home and Museum, located in Key West, Florida, is a stately yet welcoming and bright home located at 907 Whitehead Street. Hemingway lived there between 1931 and 1940, but since he was born in 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois, he had lived a very full and intriguing life before that.

I gained some insight about Hemingway on this trip that I'm sure my English teacher at Central Catholic, Sr. Jonathan, must have told me, but now I understand better. It is my hope that my students who have just read The Old Man and the Sea (and also those who have read it with me in the past) can reconsider Hemingway as not only a prize-winning author, but also a man whose life circumstances influenced his profession. In his case it was his writing. (In your cases, only you know what that may be.)

I debated including the part of Hemingway that involved his 4 wives, yet it was his story, his circumstances. His wives, however, fit in as he found his way from a newspaper reporter in Kansas City to ambulance driver in Italy in World War I, to war Correspondent in Paris....and that was only the beginning. 

His first book The Sun Also Rises was written during his marriage to Hadley Richardson in 1921. Hadley's best friend, Pauline Pfeiffer, an editor, encouraged Hemingway to seek publication of this novel; not only did she help with that...she and Hemingway were married in 1927. (Wife #2)

It was Pauline's uncle who purchased the house for $8000 as a wedding gift.

The second picture is the carriage house that Hemingway converted to a writing studio.

Inside the writing studio

In 1937 Hemingway took a position as reporter for an American news group to report on the Spanish Civil War. It was there that he met his soon-to-be third wife, Martha Gelhorn, fellow journalist and reporter. Somehow, Pauline heard about the affair that was going on in Spain (I wish someone could explain how in the world she found out...) and she did a little revenge purchase while Hemingway was away:

This is the $20,000 revenge pool. Pauline knew he wouldn't like it , but I don't think she cared too much at this point. To her credit, she was responsible for the first private pool in Florida and the first in-gound pool in Key West.

When Hemingway returned home, he wasn't pleased over the money Pauline spent. They argued, and he threw a penny at her and said something like,"Well you might as well have my last cent."

Here is that penny. I missed the part of how it got there...it may have been the CAT brushing against my leg.....but more on that on a future blog....)

It is no secret that Hemingway enjoyed a good drink every now and then--probably more "nows" than "thens." One cannot go to Key West without having one of his favorite bars being a feature on a tour---EVERYONE knows "Sloppy Joe's."

When the original Sloppy Joe's was being relocated, Hemingway was upset that he would have to change his happy hour location. He asked the owner (I think) if he could remove one of the urinals in the building (claiming something crude about having put much of his money in it through the years). He brought it home to create a water feature for the yard. Pauline wasn't too happy (he would show her who's boss!), but she made the best of it by adding a water urn from Cuba. The result turned out very nicely!

Pauline even added some decorative tiles around the side---nice DIY project!

In 1939 Hemingway  made his way to Cuba 

(Only 90 miles away)

and he and Martha married. It was during this time the he wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls. From 1944-45 he was in Europe during the war. Martha was supposed to join him. For some reason , he did not get her the proper paperwork to come over on a plane, so she had to travel on a ship filled with explosive material. When she got there she wasn't happy (and didn't show sympathy to his injuries from a car accident). As a matter of fact, she wasn't having it at all, and she left him. No worries, because Hemingway already had his eyes on Mary Welsh, a journalist. They married in 1946, his 4th and final wife.

I 've taken you on the "path of wives," but please remember that all through these years Hemingway was writing short stories, novels, and even one play. He was also a journalist. During the World War II he was awarded a Bronze Star for his bravery. Apparently he put himself in some dangerous situations just to get the true story so others could understand the atrocities of war.

Difficult to read, but this is the citation for his Bronze Star Medal

Most of what Hemingway wrote were "instant best sellers" (according to my tour guide.) Interestingly, the one negative review of a novel Across the River and Into the Trees is what inspired him to turn the critics around. He wrote The Old Man and the Sea in 1952 in 8 weeks. It won a Pulitzer Prize.

He obviously knew a thing or two about fishing! There were many photos like this throughout the house.

As you recall, The Old Man and the Sea is the story of Santiago, the old man who has been unlucky in fishing. His young friend Manolin never loses hope in him, and therefore Santiago continues to fish. He not only finally catches one, but hooks a marlin larger than his boat. His 3-day battle to bring him home (although just a skeleton after a shark attack) gives the reader the message of never losing hope and enduring through adversity, a common theme in his literature

WHO CAN'T BE INSPIRED WITH A MESSAGE LIKE THAT?

***A side note that makes me wonder----all his life Hemingway was traveling around: many states of the US  (including , obviously, Florida), to Europe, to Africa, to Asia, to Cuba, not just once, but many times back again and again! How was this happening? Even today those who travel like this are in a special nomadic bracket. Yes, it's easy to get in a plane and go, but just think of all that is involved in travel! His "story" made it look so easy. Perhaps that is part of where we can gain our inspiration---the cliche of "where there's a will there's a way."*****

I wish I could end Hemingway's mini-biography on a happier note, but sadly his life ended by suicide. He had many injuries though accidents in his life (war wounds, car accidents, plane crashes) that made him live with much pain but he worked through it all (like Santiago.) It is believed he suffered from alcoholism and depression, a hereditary trait in his family.

I am now inspired to go back and read again his novels, and find those I haven't read. Knowing a person's life circumstances (the "details of how he lived") changes our perceptions, don't you think?

Coming up: Stanza Saturday....and more about those CATS!!!!!!!!