Hemingway in Key West

For a librarian, a vacation to Key West would not be complete without a visit to Ernest Hemingway's home. Hemingway lived in Key West in the 1930s with his wife Pauline. During his time there, he worked on Death in the Afternoon, Green Hills of Africa, To Have and Have Not, and For Whom the Bell Tolls. I thought this was a perfect opportunity to do a little Hemingway reading. I've had Green Hills of Africa sitting on my bookshelf for several years, so I thought it would make perfect sense to read it in the place where it was written. I really don't remember what prompted me to buy this particular book; probably just because it was written by Hemingway. Green Hills of Africa is based on the month Hemingway spent on safari in Africa. Hunting animals. I must not have known the subject of the book, because I can't imagine that I would have ever been interested in reading about hunting. So I kind of skimmed over the hunting parts. When he wasn't hunting, Heminway spent much time reflecting on and discussing writing and other authors. He identifies Henry James, Stephen Crane and Mark Twain as the good writers, and believes that all modern American literature comes from Huckleberry Finn. He also has some thoughts on why there are so many bad writers:

"We destroy [authors] in many ways. First, economically. They make money. It is only by hazard that a writer makes money although good books always make money eventually. Then our writers when they have made some money increase their standard of living and they are caught. They have to write to keep up their establishments, their wives, and so on, and they write slop. It is not slop on purpose but because it is hurried. Because they write when there is nothing to say or no water in the well. Because they are ambitious. Then, once they have betrayed themselves, they justify it and you get more slop."

This certainly was not one of my favorites of Hemingway's works, but I like that part. I wonder if he considered himself to be one of these writers who fall into this trap.

One of the best parts of visiting the house is the abundance of cats roaming around. Hemingway had a six-toed cat named Snowball, and today there are 49 of Snowball's descendants living on the property (not all have six toes). There have been some arguements over whether the cats should be allowed to stay, and I just read that the cats won and will get to stay. Yay! Below, for your enjoyment, are a few pictures of the cats.



(The first two pictures were taken by me. The third was taken by Rob O'Neal for the Florida Keys News Bureau and appears in the attached article. It was too good to leave out.)