Hemingway Stories

When in Key West, I figured a visit to the Hemingway Home should not be missed. So I went there, and, boy, that man knew how to live, at least money-spending wise. Wasn't his own money, though. Later he earned his own, but when he started out in his career, he was a money-less trophy husband to his wife. Her rich uncle bankrolled their lifestyle, including the house, car, and custom-built boat, the Pilar. I wonder how these conversations went. “Hey wifey's rich uncle. Can you buy me a boat?” - “Of course! I have no use for all the money anyway, and I could think of nothing better than throwing it out for my mid-aged penny-less nephew-in-law!” Or so it must have gone down...

There were a few nice stories about that house. Like when Hemingway was away, his wife removed his beloved boxing ring from the garden, where he had hosted amateur fights, and had a pool installed. It was the island's first pool, and had to be dug manually into rock, which cost $20.000. The whole house and ground had cost only $8.000, and it was a grand house, built about hundred years earlier by a wealthy man. It was built from massive coral rocks, in order to be hurricane proof, on a high point to guard against floods, on the biggest private piece of ground on

A flushed-down fortune.

the island. Hemingway was furious when he came back, and gave her a penny with the words “If you spend so much money, you can as well have my last penny.” She pressed it into the wet concrete, and it is still there. He got his revenge, though. Later, when Hemingway's

A birthing chair
Hemingway took to
events to sit on, just
to shock society.

favorite bar, the Sloppy Joe's, moved because of a rent increase of $1 per week, the guys at the bar went so far as to rip out the urinals from the walls in the bathroom and throw them on the streets. Hemingway felt that he owned one, since he must have flushed a fortune down one of these over the years. The bar owner didn't object, so Hemingway took one home as a drinking basin for his cats. His wife was horrified, but Hemingway wouldn't let her talk him out of it. Her gardener helped out and built some stuff around it, to at least make it bearable for her. Some time later she tried again to convince him to let go of it. He answered “When you get rid of your pool, I get rid of mine!” He also considered the idea of having a saltwater pool silly, given that the island is surrounded by one...