Postcard from Hemingway’s Key West

Even if you aren’t an Ernest Hemingway fan, it would be remiss for a bibliophile to skip the Hemingway Home & Museum when visiting Key West, Florida.  

I visited two weeks ago. Not only is it a beautiful building that contains much of the original furniture and antiques owned by Hemingway and his second wife, Pauline Pfeiffer, but the grounds are lovely, too, especially the infamous pool--infamous because it was so expensive it precipitated their divorce; also, it is still maintained today even though no one is allowed to use it.

The highlight, of course, is Hemingway’s writing room, located on the second floor of an outbuilding, that, according to our tour guide, hasn’t changed since the author left the house (and his wife) in 1940. One of his personal typewriters remains at the ready.  

There’s more to literary Key West, as we reported back in December 2020, and there are other places that stake a claim to the Hemingway legend, such as Havana, Cuba, as covered in our winter 2015 issue. But this one is magical, and if you have the chance to see it, I heartily recommend.