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The Hemingway Home & Museum in Key West houses an extensive array of Ernest Hemingway’s personal items, each providing insight into the life and work of one of America’s most celebrated writers. Whether or not you believe the Hemingway cats will give you good luck, the cats themselves are certainly lucky. They have the run of the property, and you’ll often find them napping in unexpected places in and around the house. The cats don’t seem to mind their human visitors and enjoy pets and scratches from their adoring fans. Hemingway loved polydactyl cats, especially because sailors believed they bring good luck. Hemingway suffered multiple serious injuries and survived numerous accidents during his life.
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Hemingway's 'last red cent' - VC Star
Hemingway's 'last red cent'.
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She used the perfect mix of humor and history to keep our group entertained and engaged while we learned about the house and Hemingway’s time in Key West. Those tourists bothered him, knocked on his door, distracted him from his writing. For a literary retreat like no other, step back in time to the Hemingway Key West days! You can’t get closer to the work and life of Hemingway than by stepping back in time here in Key West. To take your Hemingway adventure one step further, weddings can also be held at the Hemingway Home and Museum.
History
From “A Farewell to Arms” to “The Old Man and the Sea,” this space holds the energy and inspiration of one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. Visitors can catch a glimpse of this sacred space through a screen, gaining a deeper appreciation for Hemingway’s creative process. After touring the house, make sure to visit the museum’s shop, where you can find a range of items related to Hemingway and Key West. From books and souvenirs to unique treasures inspired by the author’s life and works, the shop offers a chance to bring a piece of Hemingway’s legacy home with you. Whether you’re a fan of his writing or simply curious about the man behind the words, the Hemingway House tour is a must-do experience for visitors to Key West.
The Cat Cemetery and Its Significance
The Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum in Key West is a national historic landmark where one can explore the life and work of the famous author. This section guides you through tours, operating hours, ticket details, shopping options, and events including weddings. His writing studio at the home was on the second floor of the converted carriage house.
This collection not only highlights Hemingway’s achievements and hobbies but also helps contextualize his place within the literary world and the broader historical events of his time. Ernest Hemingway was gifted a white six-toed cat named Snow White in the 1930s by a ship’s captain. This breed, known for its polydactylism, was thought to bring good luck by sailors. Polydactyl cats are not a specific breed, rather they are defined by their multiple toes; most cats have five front toes and four back toes, while polydactyl cats may have as many as eight. During his time in Key West, Hemingway wrote many notable books and short stories, including Green Hills of Africa, Death in the Afternoon, To Have and Have Not, and The Snows of Kilimanjaro.
Home & Museum
Returning time and time again to hunt, fish, write, Hemingway established a permanent residence in the Valley before his death in 1961. Enjoy the beauty of the Wood River Valley as Hemingway once did – grab cocktail at one of his favorite local watering holes, fish the same grounds he once explored, or visit his final resting place at the Ketchum Cemetery. After high school, he spent six months as a cub reporter for The Kansas City Star before enlisting in the Red Cross. He served as an ambulance driver on the Italian Front in World War I and was seriously wounded in 1918. His wartime experiences formed the basis for his 1929 novel A Farewell to Arms.
A two-month African safari in 1933 left him dangerously ill but provided both the inspiration for his famed short story “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” and trunks full of animal trophies, put on display in Key West. When Hemingway left to report on the Spanish Civil War in 1937, Pfeiffer decided to surprise him by building a pool, the first to be built on Key West. Pfeiffer, well acquainted with her husband’s often unstable moods, calmly had the penny embedded in concrete, forever immortalizing his outburst. Hemingway helped make Key West famous, and he and the city became almost impossibly intertwined during his years there.
How Ernest Hemingway's cats became a federal case - The Christian Science Monitor
How Ernest Hemingway's cats became a federal case.
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The Historic Ernest and Mary Hemingway House
Hemingway lived in the home with his wife and their two sons from 1931 until 1939. When Hemingway left for Cuba in 1939 to pursue another relationship, Pauline stayed in the home and lived there until her death in 1951. Tift owned the home until his death in 1889, living in it alone for much of his life after the death of his wife and two sons from yellow fever in the 1850s, and his daughter’s passing in 1869. The home’s location is on the second-highest point on Key West, about 16 feet (4.88 m) above sea level. Tift chose an elevated spot in order to excavate limestone from the property to construct the house. The excavation also allowed for a basement under the home, a rarity on Key West.
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If you’re planning to also visit the famous Southernmost Point Buoy, it’s right down the road. From there I stand on the veranda and gaze down at the swimming pool, the first swimming pool in the city, and beyond that to the bungalow where, surrounded by animal heads and stuffed fish, he wrote in longhand. Writers have always loved the Keys, none more famous than Ernest Hemingway, who bought a beautiful Spanish colonial home at 907 Whitehead Street in 1931 and stayed eight years. Regardless of the legend behind the pool, it was an architectural feat in 1937. To construct the first in-ground pool in Key West, solid coral had to be excavated with picks and sledgehammers. The only pool within 100 miles, it measured 24 feet by 60 feet and was filled with 80,000+ gallons of salt water which had to be drilled because there was no running water (at the time).
At age 16 his first piece of short fiction was published in his high school literary magazine. The Community Library honors the House as a contemplative, non-commercial space, and they are prioritizing ongoing preservation efforts and a writer-in-residence program there. You can take a virtual tour of the House[8] and learn more about Hemingway's time in Idaho through the Library's digital Hemingway library. The writing studio at the Hemingway House is not only a physical space but also represents a sanctuary of creativity. Hemingway was known for his disciplined writing routine, dedicating each morning to his craft.
To quote Hemingway, “One cat just leads to another.” Walking around the property you will see how accurate this is as descendants of that original cat freely roam the property. And just as the famous author once did, the cats are named after famous people. Until the 1940s when Key West first had fresh water piped in and the pool was converted to a fresh water system, the pool was very high maintenance. Using the salt-water pump, it took two to three days to completely fill the pool. During the summer months, the salt water would remain fresh for only about two to three days. Then the pool would need to be completely drained, another day or two would be required to scrub down and remove the algae and debris, and then the cycle would start again.
He certainly followed a rogueish pattern of meeting women, falling desperately in love, and marrying them soon after the last wife served him with divorce papers. Asa Tift was a slave owner, and enslaved people likely were the primary labor source for the excavation, stone cutting, and construction of the home. To this day, the Hemingway House remains the largest residential property on Key West. The Ernest Hemingway house in Key West is nearly 170 years old, but has been preserved to look much as it did when Hemingway lived there for nine years in the 1930s. One of the six-toed "Hemingway cats" at the Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum in Key West.
This room became his refuge, a place where he could focus his thoughts and immerse himself in his storytelling. The museum provides guided educational tours that cater to both school groups and individuals seeking to learn about Hemingway’s life, his literature, and his influence. Tour guides offer detailed insights into Hemingway’s years spent in Key West, with a particular emphasis on how the location impacted his writing. On exhibit are several typewriters that Hemingway used throughout his career, tangible tools of his trade that produced some of his most famous works. Original manuscripts and early drafts showcase Hemingway’s writing process, his revisions, and his thoughts as he created stories that would captivate readers for generations.
Ernest’s presence can still be felt in his studio where he produced some of his most well-known works. In addition, a very visible and living link to the past are the descendants of Hemingway’s cats. The story goes that Hemingway made the acquaintance of a sea captain who owned an unusual six-toed tomcat, which captured Ernest’s fancy. Upon his departure from Key West, the captain presented the cat to Hemingway. Today many of the numerous cats that inhabit the grounds still possess the unusual six toes. Aside from the house itself, the museum also features a shop where visitors can find a range of items related to Hemingway and Key West.
Weddings are held in the garden, and the property can be rented for daytime or evening events, large or small. Private evening tours can also be arranged for you and your guests, so you can experience Hemingway like never before. While you can explore the home on your own, we recommend that you go on one of the guided tours. One of the things you may first notice is the remarkable resemblance of some of the staff members to the writer. In addition to its historical significance, the Ernest Hemingway House also serves as a reminder of one of America’s most iconic authors and his lasting impact on literature. The pool has a mammoth 80,784 gallon capacity, and at the time of installation there was no fresh running water in Key West.
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