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Whitehead Street 907
In the year 1927 Ernest Hemingway married Pauline Pfeiffer, who was four years older. She came from a very wealthy family. She had learned journalism in school and was reporting about fashion for the newspaper "Vogue", when his first books were printed and he started gaining some reputation as a poet. She completely changed his way of living: They didn't ski in cheap Schruns but in fashionable Gstaad, they hunted lions in Africa. They didn't spend time watching bike-competitions any longer, but waiting for fish in Key West, where they had moved in 1928. Ernest Hemingway wanted to rediscover the United States. Key West is the island that is situated in the very South of the peninsula of Florida. To get there in those days they had to get on a ferry boat. The island was inhabited by a couple of poor Spanish inhabitants and some rich, who had their own ships. It was a perfect place to go fishing, swimming or diving and Hemingway got very passionate for these new hobbies.
Their first child Patrick was born on the 27th of June 1928 and their second one Gregory on the 12th of November 1931.
They lived in Key West for twelve years and he wrote most of his successful pieces there: "Death in the afternoon", "To have and have not", "The green hills of Africa", "The fifth column", "For whom the bell tolls" and the two short stories "The snows of Kilimanjaro" and "The short happy life of Francis Macomber".
The family bought an old house and renovated it very expensively. They created a wonderful place, Hemingway called it "the most beautiful piece of land where I have ever been!". They invited all their friends and many came. One of them was Max Perkins, the lector of Hemingway's books. He proved a very good friend, even when all the newspapers criticised his work.
The Hemingways also got to know some neighbours, the captain Bra Saunders, who taught him professional fishing, the docker Jim Sullivan, who became godfather of Hemingway's third child, or the alcohol smuggler Joe Russell. They gave him the insight for the book "The old man and the sea", which was published far later in 1956:
The old man and the sea
The old man Santiago has been fishing for weeks without success. He has been sailing out into the sea every day without catching a single fish. After eighty-four unlucky days he drives far out again. A huge swordfish, longer than his boat, swallows the bait and struggles on the line. The combat lasts two days and two nights. The fisher man speaks to himself and uses all his energy and experience to beat the fish which nevertheless pulls the boat further and further out into the ocean. Finally the fish gives up and dies. Santiago fastens the fish on one side of the boat and starts his return. But sharks discover the fresh meat and attack. The old man tries to defend his booty, but arriving in the harbour, there is nothing left but fishbone.
In his true life Hemingway had gone through one very similar situation. He had caught two tuna, one with 140 kilogram, the other with even more, but they were attacked by sharks. He used a machine gun to drive them away and so won the fight against nature other than the old man.
In the holidays
In summer they used to travel to Wyoming to a small ranch to escape from the heat and danger of thunderstorms in Florida. There they lived in the L-Bar-T-Ranch close to the Yellowstone National Park. There he wrote "Death in the afternoon", which I already mentioned before.
In 1933 Ernest and Pauline Hemingway and Charles Thompson, a friend from Key West, took a ship to Mombasa in Kenia. In Kenia they hired Philip Percival as a guide. He taught them how to hunt. Ernest was infected with dysentery. A small aeroplane picked him up to bring him to Nairobi, where he was soon cured. In his short novel "Snows under Kilimanjaro" one passage surely refers to this flight: The boys picked up the cot and carried it around the green tents and down along the rock and out onto the plain and along past the smudges that were burning brightly now, the grass all consumed, and the wind fanning the fire, to the little plane. It was difficult getting him in, but once in he lay back the leather seat, and the leg was stuck straight out to one side of the seat where Compton sat. Compton started the motor and got in. He waved to Helen and to the boys and, as the clatter moved into the old familiar roar, they swung around with Compie watching for wart-hog holes and roared, bumping, along the stretch between the fires and with the last bump rose and he saw them all standing below, waving, and the camp beside the hill, flattening now, and the plain spreading, clumps of trees, and the bush flattening, while the game trails ran now smoothly to the dry waterholes, and there was a new water that he had never known of.
Hemingway returned soon and went on hunting. We find his feelings and impressions about this Africa trip in his book "The green hills of Africa".
The green hills of Africa
He published the book in 1935 and it gives us a report of his African hunt in 1933. In thirteen chapters members of the tour and some local hunters discuss about family, life and literature, but most of the time they stand up early and hunt. It is an autobiography and mentions many themes which touch Hemingway's life, for instance violence, envy, courage and the will to survive.
The snows of Kilimanjaro
This book was printed in 1936, one year after "The green hills of Africa". Poet Harry gets ill because of an injured leg. He didn't notice before, and so the gangrene was able to spread out. Waiting for the rescue aeroplane, he keeps talking with his wife. She is sure that the plane will arrive in time, but he already believes in his death. Close to death he remembers many topics he had wanted to write about during his life. In the end he mixes up reality and dreams, one of them describing very realisticly how the plane arrives to take him away. Next morning his wife will find him dead.
The short and happy life of Francis Macomber
Francis Macomber, a good-natured man, and his wife Margaret make a safari through Africa seeking adventure. Although their relationship is not all that happy any more, they are still together. Partly she is too old to find another rich man, and she is too pretty to be left by her husband. They hire the English guide Wilson and hunt animals. One day they are attacked by a hurt lion. Francis runs away, but Wilson keeps cool and shoots the animal. Francis\' wife is disappointed by her nervous husband, criticises him and even spends the night with Wilson. Reacting, the next day Francis suddenly abandons all his fears. When a buffalo runs right his way, he doesn't escape, but stands still and aims on the animal with his rifle. Realising that with his new courage he would leave her soon, Margaret shoots him.
Ships
Hemingway crossed the Atlantic more than thirty times. He enjoyed those big ocean liners. His first transports over the Atlantic were with the "Chicago" into the First World War and then back to the United States. This was an army transporter and not very comfortable. Later he took the "Normandie" and the "Ile-de-France", and these were big and beautiful ships. In 1934 he got to know Marlene Dietrich on such a trip. Their friendship should last for 27 years.
Coming back from Africa, he bought a boat in Brooklyn docks. He wanted to discover the world of ocean fishing with his own boat. It was 12 metres long, and had a range of 750 kilometres. He called it "Pilar" after a nickname of Pauline. This boat and the experiences he made with it led him to the ideas for his books "To have and have not" and "The old man and the sea", which I have already mentioned above. Living in Key West he spent some hours every day on the boat working or fishing. He and his sons sometimes drove out for several days and he taught them how to handle big fish and how to survive in nature, as he had learned from his father years before. Later he used the boat as a hideout for love affairs. One of them was with Jane Mason. She was a very rich and feministic woman and lived in Havanna. Maybe he had bought the boat in order to be able to visit her more often. They were in love for about five years, but Pauline didn't object and Jane's husband didn't even notice.
In 1940 Hemingway armed the boat, so he could search for German submarines.
To have and have not
In 1937 he wrote a story about Harry Morgan. Harry Morgan lives in Key West and earns his money renting a motor yacht to rich fishermen. He is physically handicapped because a customs investigator once shot his arm. One customer destroys his fishing equipment. Then he transports illegal immigrants from Cuba to Florida and murders someone. When the customs office investigates on him smuggling alcoholics, they confiscated his boat. Finally four Cubans who want to support the revolution in Cuba highjack his boat and shoot his shipmate. Then they force him to drive his yacht to Cuba. He tries to kill his customers, but he is hurt deadly in his stomach, too.
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