Ernest Hemingway: Encyclopedia II - Ernest Hemingway - Key West

Ernest Hemingway - Key West

Following the advice of John Dos Passos, Hemingway moved to Key West, Florida where he established his first American home. From his old stone house—a wedding present from Pauline's uncle—Hemingway fished in the Dry Tortugas waters, went to the famous bar Sloppy Joe's, and traveled occasionally to Spain, gathering material for Death in the Afternoon and Winner Take Nothing.

Death in the Afternoon a book about bullfighting, was published in 1932. Hemingway had become a bullfighting aficionado after seeing the Pamplona fiesta of 1925, fictionalized in The Sun Also Rises. In Death in the Afternoon, Hemingway extensively discussed the metaphysics of bullfighting: the ritualized, almost religious practice. In his writings on Spain he was influenced by the Spanish master Pío Baroja (when Hemingway won the Nobel Prize, he traveled to see Baroja, then on his death bed, specifically to tell him that he thought Baroja deserved the prize more than him).

A safari in the fall of 1932 led him to Mombasa, Nairobi, and Machakos in the Mua Hills. In Spain reporting on the Spanish Civil War, Hemingway broke friendship with John Dos Passos because Dos Passos kept reporting despite warning on the atrocities, not only of the Fascists who Hemingway disliked, but also of the Republicans who Hemingway favored ("The Breaking Point: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and the Murder of Jose Robles" by Stephen Koch, published 2005 ISBN 1582432805) and The Spanish Civil War (1961) by Hugh Thomas). In this circumstance Hemingway has been linked to reporter Herbert Matthews. Hemingway also began to question his Catholicism at this time, eventually leaving the church (though friends indicate that he had "funny ties" to Catholicism for the rest of his life). The story "The Denunciation" [10] seems autobiographical, thus suggesting that the author might have been an informant for the Republic as well as weapons instructor (The Spanish Civil War (1961) by Hugh Thomas). 1935 saw the publication of Green Hills of Africa, an account of his African safari. The Snows of Kilimanjaro and The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber were the fictionalized results of his African experiences.

Some health problems characterized this period of Hemingway's life: an anthrax infection, a cut eyeball, a gash in his forehead, grippe, toothache, hemorrhoids; kidney trouble from fishing in Spain, torn groin muscle, finger gashed to the bone in an accident with a punching ball, lacerations (to arms, legs, and face) from a ride on a runaway horse through a deep Wyoming forest, and a broken arm from a car accident.

Ernest Hemingway - For Whom the Bell Tolls

Francisco Franco won the Spanish Civil War in the spring of 1939. Hemingway had lost an adopted homeland to Franco's fascist nationalists, and would later lose his beloved Key West, Florida home due to his 1940 divorce. A few weeks after the divorce Hemingway married his third wife, Martha Gellhorn. His novel For Whom The Bell Tolls was published in 1940; the long work, which takes place during the Spanish Civil War, based on real events (The Spanish Civil War Hugh Thomas) tells of an American man named "Robert Jordan" fighting with Spanish guerrillas on the side of the Republicans. It is one of Hemingway's most notable literary accomplishments. The title is taken from the penultimate paragraph of John Donne's Meditation 17.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Key West", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki