Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, IL in 1899. During World War I, Hemingway served as a volunteer in the Red Cross Ambulance Corps, at which time he was severely wounded. After the war, he settled in Paris where he was a reporter for the Toronto Star. In 1926, Hemingway published his first novel, The Sun Also Rises, which won international acclaim. Returning from Europe in April, 1928 via Havana, he arrived in Key West on the Peninsular and Occidental Steamship Company. He had planned to leave town in a new Ford but it was not ready, forcing him to spend some time in the city. Finding the atmosphere to his liking and the fishing excellent, he decided to visit again and soon took up permanent residency. In Key West, Hemingway finished writing A Farewell to Arms, based on his wartime experiences in Italy and his love of nurse Agnes von Kurowsky. He then wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Green Hills of Africa, Death in the Afternoon and To Have and Have Not, his autobiographic novel about Key West. In 1931, he bought the house at 507 Whitehead Street that had been built in 1831, by Asa Tift. He owned the house until his death but left Key West for Cuba in 1939. The house was sold by the family in 1963 and opened in 1964 as a museum. Today it is the most popular tourist attraction on the island. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1952 and Nobel Prize for literature in 1954. Hemingway's presence on the island and the literary and famous friends he attracted to Key West while here helped Key West become known and visited by countless others. , Donated by , The Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum .