Backroad Odyssey : Travel, Van Life & Lost Locations
Traveling America's backroads, road trip experts - Noah and Noodles - explore fascinating locations overlooked while traveling.
Living out of a van, they unravel the - often shocking - story behind each neglected story or location.
If you love travel, exploration and unique locations - join us on the road!
Backroad Odyssey : Travel, Van Life & Lost Locations
Hemingway's Key West - Behind the Persona
Why should we care about Ernest Hemingway's time in Key West?
What did this great American novelist REALLY do and accomplish during his brief residency on the island from 1931 to 1939?
My dog and I spend a week on the island to answer these - and more - questions ...
Works Cited:
Great, concise book about Hemingway's time in Key West:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/104236.Hemingway_s_Key_West
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/guide-hemingways-paris-180950079/
https://www.hemingwayhome.com/his-life
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/july-21/ernest-hemingway-is-born
https://www.ernesthemingwaycollection.com/about-hemingway/ernest-hemingway-in-paris
https://sloppyjoes.com/history/
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/hemingway-s-last-penny
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=223742
https://www.hemingwayhome.com/our-cats
https://fla-keys.com/keysvoices/hemingway-days-celebrates-legendary-writers-key-west-life/
https://www.clappisonvet.com/resources/blog/september-2017/the-many-cats-of-ernest-hemingway
Noah and Noodles here!
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Hey there, welcome to the Van. We're recording now in Nantahala National Forest in western North Carolina, far away and much different than our topic today, hemingway's Key West, a town that in so many ways seems to be a product of the author's presence there some 80 years ago. Today we find out. Why Is this claiming of Hemingway by Key West deserved? What did this great American novelist really do and accomplish during his brief stint in Key West from 1931 to 1939? Most importantly, why is this worth looking into? We answer all of this and more in this week's episode of Backroad Odyssey. Safe travels, losing down the street. I wonder where this road would lead. So many possibilities. Care to share what you think. Oh, noodle Dolls, what do you see? Back road odyssey. Tipsy conversations meld with the gentle movement of the Atlantic. Duval Street illuminates, nearby trees, waking, roosting, roosters. It's a Tuesday and just another night. In Key West.
Speaker 1:The name Hemingway has become synonymous with influential literary icons of the 20th century. At the same time, hemingway the man, his life, has been condensed into a kind of simplified caricature. A mustached fighter, a lover of drink, a writer, To be fair, yeah, he was all of these things, but the complete story of anyone's life, of anything, deserves a closer look. In reality, hemingway is more complex. His sensitive observations of human nature are confusingly contradicted by his macho, hard-drinking, fighting reputation. And nowhere is this contradiction more evident than during Hemingway's Key West period. His time in Key West and the legacy he's left behind is as layered as the old papa himself.
Speaker 1:We're driving currently down Route 1 to Key West, really one of my favorite drives in the entire country. The road connects a series of islands south of Miami down to where the road stops, in the southernmost island, in the town of Key West. The water as you drive across is a calm turquoise blue. For hours you pass people fishing off bridges, on beaches, off boats. It's a fast, it's an easy, it's a beautiful drive, but it wasn't always this way. Before the highway, the masses of fishermen, the flux of tourism, it was just a sparsely populated series of islands, the southernmost of which, where we're going now, happened to attract one of America's most talked about and celebrated writers, ernest Hemingway. In the next few days we'll go to his house, we'll visit the places he would frequent, we'll tell stories of the years that he spent there, but first, as always, we need context. Who was Hemingway before he was called by the humidity, the blue waters and the active, very active bars of Key West. And what about Key West? Back then, a glorified tropical backwater deeply impacted by the recent depression, spoke to this person at this time.
Speaker 1:Born July 21st 1899, the second of six children, hemingway showed an early prowess for prose as a reporter for the Kansas City Star in Missouri, right after high school. But the quiet Midwestern town of his birth, oak Park, illinois, would be far from what he would go on to experience later in life. As war rages across Europe, hemingway first displays what will become a lifelong propensity for the zealous life. His life from here onwards, whatever its path, would be an eventful one. And after being denied entry into the US Army due to poor eyesight, ernest volunteers as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross. He then is seriously wounded by mortar fire. But his experiences during the war would shape his worldview, consequently would shape his writing style and serve as the foundation for his novel A Farewell to Arms.
Speaker 1:And here's an important thing to remember about Hemingway Hemingway, throughout his life, wrote what he knew, wrote what he experienced. Okay, we stopped about a half hour down to get a food truck, taco and a key lime pie. Went in Rome. But I wanted to record in the car after we did this, because stopping here reminded me of a Hemingway quote that's always stayed with me. Quote in order to write about life, you first must live it. Life, you first must live it. I could have driven all the way to Key West and guessed how life-changing this taco key lime combination would be, but I can tell you now, because I've tried it it is life-changing. The tacos, the taco Jalisco, are fantastic. The key lime pie, a keys chocolate and ice cream are life-changing. And the point is this the seeds of Hemingway's writing are important to understand. He lived then. He wrote about living Wherever he found himself.
Speaker 1:Hemingway returns to the Midwest, marries his first wife, hadley Richardson, and accepts a job as a European correspondent for the Toronto Daily Star. This marks the beginning of the couple's extended stay in Paris. Well, in the city, hemingway meets fellow expatriate artists, including Ezra Pond, james Joyce and a certain Gertrude Stein. He also hones his writing and uses experiences and people in the city as inspiration for his novels. The Sun Also Rises is published in 1926, a novel heavily influenced by people and events around him at that time in Paris. Remember this for Hemingway in order to write about life, you need to live it first. The good and the bad and the bad does come. Hemingway and Hadley divorce after an affair by Hemingway with an American fashion reporter living in the city at the same time. This hazel-eyed fashionista's name was Pauline Pfeiffer and her and Hemingway would marry shortly after the divorce. One month after, hemingway and Pauline, now heavily pregnant, want to have their child in the United States and they also want a change of scenery. Paris had soured somewhat for Hemingway after the divorce, but the city and the stories that he found there would travel with him as he and Pauline sailed west. As he and Pauline sailed west.
Speaker 1:Roosters, sun and frozen cocktails that's Key West. At least, this is the perception a lot of people have about the island. We've been here for two days and, yeah, that's a fair enough generalization. But the more you walk around, explore the history, meet the people here, take in the heat of the sun, look at the calm water, the more you begin to realize why this place resonated with Hemingway. Walking around, I've been thinking a lot about Key West and Paris, two dramatically different atmospheres, cultures. What have you? But both places called to Hemingway in some way and I started to ask myself what that was. Why did both places call to Hemingway? And an answer came to me Both Paris and Key West, for all their differences, were both places where Hemingway could meet and connect with interesting people.
Speaker 1:Paris, with the lost generation, you know, james Joyce, gertrude and Key West, particularly back then, had a gathering of interesting people living eventful if unconventional lives at the edge of America. And it also was easy to get liquor in both places. It was prohibition back then. So I'm sure Hemingway, who famously liked such activities, became reason enough to stay. Hemingway says, quote if you're lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you, for Paris is a movable feast, end quote. So just like his writing captures people and captures moments, hemingway pays particular attention in his own life to people and experiences that he admires. The war informed his decisions in Paris and Paris, funnily enough, would influence where he would go to next. It was his Paris friend, john Dos Passos, that first suggested Key West to Hemingway. And it's moments like this where we see the sensitive, adhering side of Hemingway's character kind of peek through the rough, macho exterior. He values John's advice, his friend's advice, and he and Pauline arrive in Key West in the spring of 1928.
Speaker 1:Key West is known for its nightlife. I'm walking down Duval Street Currently, by all intents and purposes is kind of the main street. Music's playing, people are drinking, it's crowded. Definitely lives up to its reputation. But what was it like when Ernest and Pauline first set foot on the island in 1928? Excuse me, not like this.
Speaker 1:Key West in 1928 is a blend of poverty, commercial fishing and trickles of tourism that at this point are still relatively untouched by the larger Florida tourism boom. Many in the area supplement their income with rum running and well running illegal bars. Fine, with Hemingway, I'm sure so. Suffice to say the perfect cocktail of interesting personalities with stories to tell lie waiting for Hemingway's perceptive pen, for Hemingway's perceptive pen. Charles Thompson, the owner of a local shop, introduces Hemingway to big game fishing, a hobby he would be wildly passionate about for the remainder of his life. Joe Russell, later known as Sloppy Joe, would go on to start his first legal bar of the same name. Notice, I said legal, first legal bar of the same name after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. This would serve as Hemingway's favorite late night spot for a stiff drink and some conversation, and it's Sloppy Joe's that would provide a future fountain outside the Hemingway house that's still there today. A urinal from the sloppy Joe's bathroom, taken from the bar by Hemingway himself, captain Eddie Braugh Saunders, would cultivate Hemingway's interest in boating and trophy fishing even further. So in time this eclectic group, along with some Paris friends, would be known by locals as the Mob. Everyone in the Mob had a nickname Hemingway's was Papa, a moniker that would stick with him throughout his later time in Cuba and beyond.
Speaker 1:Hemingway quickly learns to appreciate the eccentricities of Key West in a way that might be considered less formal than his Paris years. Three days into our time in Key West Today, we walked virtually the entire southern flank of the island. We're back in the van now. It was a little too hot, but here's a thought I had in the hours we'd been walking this is a small island it really is, especially back then, without the influx of tourists and day drinkers. Back then you're going to run into people and day drinkers Back then you're going to run into people. And so for Hemingway, particularly if you're going to stay in Key West for the long term, he had to have felt some kind of connection with the people that were here, with the culture of Key West. Why else would he have stayed Between nights of debauchery with Hemingway's new friends and Pauline accepting the bulk of the work as a parent?
Speaker 1:The couple buys a house in Key West on Whitehead Street. More accurately put, actually, pauline's wealthy uncle, gus, buys the couple a home in 1931. Regardless of who bought the house, the two-story Spanish colonial house is built in 1851, and when they buy it, when they arrive, it needs work, but it's a task that's readily taken on by Pauline and by Hemingway. European antiques from their time in Paris are brought into the house. The unique basement is repaired. Trophy skins and mounts from earnest. Various African safaris and hunting expeditions are placed all around the walls of the house, much to the displeasure of Pauline, I'd imagine. Finally, and importantly, a writing studio is set up in the back. In time, and with effort, the house is restored and Key West becomes the official home of the Hemingways.
Speaker 1:I just toured the Hemingway House, nestled between Duval Street and the Lighthouse. I have some thoughts and stories, but let's start with the best and most relevant piece of information that I can share with you. The Hemingway House is home to nearly 60 polydactyl cats, that's 60 six-toed cats or cats with the gene to produce other six-toed cats. It's an understatement to say there's just a lot of cats, because there is a plethora of cats here. They're resting on beds, chairs, benches, walking through the yard. It's awesome. But the story for these six-toed Hemingway cats is even better. Get this Every cat you see in and around the house is descended from one six-toed cat given to Hemingway by a boat captain whose name was Snow White. So when Hemingway was here around the house, he would name and take care of all of these different cats that showed up. He'd give each one of them names, including I've got it right here including Uncle Wolfer, princess Six Toes. Clark Gable Just keeps going. He loved cats and here's why I bring up this story, here's why I'm telling you this, because I think it's important.
Speaker 1:Over and over again, we see this contradiction in Hemingway A macho man but a cat lover, a heavy drinker but an early riser, a passionate lover, a serial womanizer. In so many ways this place reflects this contradiction too His house, with trophies of dead animals on the walls and well-taken-care-of named cats running around the Key West area itself, with its binge drinking and calm waters, its mellow sunsets. Maybe it's these similarities, this kinship with Key West, that distract from his often-overlooked writing Well on the island, from his often overlooked writing Well on the island. Three weeks after arriving, hemingway finishes his semi-autobiographical novel, a Farewell to Arms, and he quickly settles into a routine on the island. First he would rise around sunrise, remarkable, after what I'm sure was a late night of heavy drinking. His afternoons are spent fishing around the quays, the dry tortugas around the area, on his boat Pilar, bought once again by Pauline's wealthy uncle Gus Must be nice. And evenings, of course, were for drinking and talking with friends, usually at his favorite bar, sloppy Joe's. Finally, occasionally or often, boxing matches would be set up and bets would be placed. That's the Key West routine.
Speaker 1:But Key West is more often than not associated with Hemingway's drinking, fighting and fishing. With Hemingway's drinking, fighting and fishing, not his writing, despite the fact that he writes and or finishes A Farewell to Arms For Whom the Bell Tolls Death in the Afternoon, the Snows of Kilimanjaro, to have and To have Not, and more short stories on the island. But it's this fighting, macho, drinking reputation, this singular reputation that endures in the bars and tipsy night culture of modern day Key West. I just left Sloppy Joe's. It's the moved location of the original Sloppy Joe's, which is across the street, but it was packed. I wanted to record inside, but there was just no way. So here we are, across the street, but it was packed. I wanted to record inside, but there was just no way. So here we are across the street. I don't know what else to say other than I can't imagine this is the same atmosphere that Hemingway used to spend his nights at the crowds, the merchandise, the expensive drinks. To me, sloppy Joe's, this bar, a lot of Duval Street, is a tribute to Hemingway the fighter, hemingway the drinker, not Hemingway the writer. It doesn't represent the softer side of him that we know was there in some ways at some times, hidden, deeply hidden.
Speaker 1:But there Hemingway meets fellow author Martha Gellhorn inside Sloppy Joe's One Night in 1936. One year later they agree to travel together and cover the Spanish Civil War. The predictable affair that follows chips away at Hemingway's marriage with Pauline and signals the beginning of the end of his time in Key West. Additionally, hemingway's reputation in that close-knit, tight community would never completely recover after the affair. Pauline was rightfully so. Equally important in the community and revered around the island In 1940, they divorce, pauline gets the house it was hers to begin with and Hemingway would go on to marry not one but two more times. He would live primarily in Havana, cuba, create intelligence-gathering groups of informants for the Allies during World War II. He would eventually travel less due to accidents, numerous accidents and declining physical and mental health and he would go on to write what many considered to be his best work the Old man and the Sea. Hemingway. Throughout the years would visit Key West infrequently, but the island and his old house reportedly made him feel a bit of melancholy For the remainder of his life. Neither Key West nor Hemingway claimed a particularly strong connection to each other. It wasn't until after his death in 1962 when Key West with its bars and drinking culture would become forever memorialized with the drinking, the fighting and the fishing author who once called the island home.
Speaker 1:I'm at the shore in Key West waiting for the sun to set. I have some thoughts. Hemingway's time in Key West is a strange time. It's a time sandwiched between the zealous, movable feast Hemingway of Paris and the well-established, conflicted writer of the Old man in the Sea. Well, in Cuba, hemingway the writer, almost takes a back seat, especially in modern Key West. Sloppy Joes, hemingway merchandise specialty cocktails, hemingway merchandise specialty cocktails All of this celebrates part of what a person was. But all's fair because you know, that's how Key West is often perceived too, and it is there as part of what makes Key West Key West. But the island like Hemingway is much more than a tipsy night out. You know. There's moments of calm in the sunsets that you see beauty underneath the calm, turquoise blue water. It's more than the bars of Duval. I'll leave you with this. When I was walking the other day I wrote this. So, like the man, hemingway's Key West is more than the cover of its book. Till next time. Silver moonlight illuminates the gentle movement of the Atlantic. Roosting roosters quiet their calls to go to bed. It's a Tuesday and it's just another night in Key West. It's Noah here. Hope you enjoyed your travels to Hemingway's Key West.
Speaker 1:I've got a story, some recommendations and a final thought. So after Hemingway met Martha Gellhorn that fateful night at Sloppy Joe's, they later decided to go on and cover the Spanish Civil War together. Predictably, they had an affair and when Pauline, back in Key West, found out about this affair, she decided to replace the boxing rink in their backyard, which was Hemingway's, and replace it with a pool. And Hemingway returned and famously said something along the lines of Pauline, you're going to spend my last penny, threw the penny on the ground. Now that penny is still there, right next to the pool. It's encased in cement and some other substance, where you can see it. And what I found funny about this is Pauline used her own money right, she used her own money to build the pool. It was a substantial amount of money $20,000, but she was well off. The house itself was hers. So it's interesting that Hemingway was that upset about it.
Speaker 1:I don't know, just something to look out for. If you do go on the tour, which I do think that you should do you should go on the tour, but after you're done, make sure that for 15 minutes, 20 minutes, you just walk around, don't say anything, don't listen to anything, just walk around, look around, imagine what it would be like to have lived there as Hemingway, as Pauline, and that, in my view, is so much more valuable than tours that are given every day, because you can experience it with your own eyes. And for recommendations, I'll have a full list in the show notes, but right now, off the top of my head there's the Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory. Really really surprising, really really fun. Watch a sunset at some point and make sure you just walk around, don't just drink the whole time. Duval Street's great. All the bars are really fun, but make sure that you take in everything that Key West has to offer. Just like Hemingway had other things to offer, so does Key West. And a final note, speaking of Hemingway In researching this I kept finding that whenever Hemingway got comfortable, I think he got a little restless, he got a little scared.
Speaker 1:You see this in Paris, you see this in Key West, definitely, and later in Cuba. And this kind of Rolling Stone mentality followed him throughout his life and the brief moments that he didn't have. This, in my view, after researching him for a bit, happened a lot in Key West, with these cats that he named, with these fishing trips to the dry Tortugas and beyond, finding hobbies, having friends. And as soon as he got comfortable with these things, this restlessness kind of crept back up. And in my view, key West, hemingway's Key West when he was there, key West, hemingway's Key West when he was there.
Speaker 1:It seems like it's by and large a happy time in his life and something that maybe he went on to regret later on in life. I don't know. So then I thought to myself obviously I'm driving around in a van with my dog. I want to make sure that if I do have those moments, I'm not running away from them, and I don't think you should either, and I don't think Hemingway should have, with that said thank you for listening, genuinely appreciate every minute you spend with us. One thing you can do to tangibly help the show, tangibly help me and Noodles, is to rate and review and subscribe wherever you're listening now. It really, really, really helps us continue to put the work we'd like to in to making the show better, to keeping the show going, to bringing you stories that we think you'd enjoy. Thank you for that. Be good to each other. Where to next? Backroad Odyssey.
