Hemingway, who lived in the Spanish-colonial home with his second wife, Pauline, and their two sons, owned the property until his death in 1961. It became a museum honoring the Pulitzer and Nobel prize-winning author in 1964.
He worked on many of his best-known manuscripts in the Key West property’s second-story writing studio.
“Hemingway was probably our first and most popular writer to take residence in Key West,” said Dave Gonzales of the Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum. “He lived here only nine years, but wrote 70 percent of his lifetime works in that nine-year period – the most prolific period of his life.”
Among them were For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Snows of Kilimanjaro and the Key West-based To Have and Have Not, Hemingway’s only novel set in the United States.
“This is a recognition long overdue,” said author Les Standiford, who presented the designation. “There are a number of other literary landmarks in Key West, but none dedicated to Hemingway.”
Literary landmark designation is conferred by a division of the American Library Association. The Hemingway home is Key West’s eighth literary landmark. Others include the former homes of playwright Tennessee Williams and poet Elizabeth Bishop.
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On the Net:
Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum: http://www.hemingwayhome.com/
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AP-ES-03-15-10 1229EDT