Finca Vigia, Cuba
M ornings at the home on 907 Whitehead Street in 1930s-era Key West were filled with the faint sounds of a pencil on paper or fingers flicking the keys on a Royal-brand typewriter. By early afternoon, this illustrious inhabitant had finished his work for the day, satisfied with the progress on his latest novel and went for a walk. Sometimes, the destination was his favorite watering hole, Sloppy Joe’s. Other times, he’d head for the docks and cast off on a fishing trip aboard his beloved Pilar. Still other days, he went to the Key West Arena to referee in boxing matches featuring local fighters of Bahamian descent. Today, it’s possible to retrace the footsteps of one of Key West’s most recognizable past residents, Ernest Hemingway.The same is true of the Bahamian island of Bimini to the north and Cuba to the south.This trio of tropical locations is where Hemingway lived and visited for more than 30 years and inspired some of the Pulitzer and Nobel prize-winning author’s works. Born in 1899 in Oak Park, Chicago, Hemingway grew up excelling athletically and academically. High grades in English led to his first literary pursuit, as editor of his high school newspaper and yearbook. After graduation, he worked as a cub reporter for The Kansas City Star, where the periodical’s style guide shaped his writing – short sentences, short paragraphs, no slang, no superfluous words. Over the next decade, he served as a World War I ambulance driver, a Paris-based foreign correspondent, and then transitioned from journalist to writer with the novel, The Sun Also Rises, centered
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WINTER 2022
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