Hemingway's Cuba - 2000
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Hemingway's Living Room
Images c. 2000 Hilary K. Justice
Text c. 2002 Hilary K. Justice
For permissions or larger image files, email
me.
According
to the Finca staff, everything in the house is where Hemingway left it
when he left Cuba for the last time in 1960. The liquor is
still in the bottles, the books on the footstool are the ones that were
on the footstool, and the magazines on the bed were the magazines on the
bed.
For
the items in this room, anyway, that seems to be more or less the case.
Mary Hemingway went back to Cuba but was limited in what she could
take back to the U.S.
Some
of the other rooms look too posed - why, for example, they would leave
the table set for dinner is a mystery.
Looking
left, after coming in through the front door. The phonograph is
at the far end of the room, on the front wall of the house. The
audio collection is against the far wall; the door next to it leads to Hemingway's
bedroom. The archway next to the animal head goes into the
library. And there are bookcases everywhere.
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According
to the Finca staff, this chair was Hemingway's favorite seat in
the living room, and Mary took the matching chair next to him.
I think they actually figured this out by checking
out damage to the springs - Hemingway weighed a lot more than
Mary.
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Click here for detailed
photos of the books and periodicals
Items
on the table include Schweppes tonic water, Campari, multiple bottles of
something that ends
"-acopey,"
and something that might be Captain Morgan's or Pimm's.
This table was hard to get close to.
(The barware looks like it's from the Tiki Lounge on Chicago's
South Side.)
This
bullfighting poster, advertising the mano a mano between Chico and
Ortega, is on the wall between the dining room, straight ahead of the
front door, and the library. The text reads (line by line):
a las 4'30 de la tarde si el tiempo no lo impede y con superior permiso FORMIDABLE CORRIDA DE TOROS
en la que seran picados, banderilleados y muertos a estoque
6 HERMOSOS Y ESCOGIDOS TOROS con divisa azul y amarilla, de la acredidata ganaderia del CONDE DE CASAL vesino (?) de MADRID
por les fenomenes del toreo contemporaneo, indiscutibles y siempre aclamados idolos de todos los publicos
FERMIN ESPINOSA ARMILLITA CHICO -- DOMINGO ORTEGA
MANO A MANO CUMBRE, repeticion del exito apoteosico de la corrida de la
Prensa de este ano en la Catedral Madrilena del Toreo
_____
______ de toreros y toros - La combinacion del escandalo y emocion a precios
populares
_____ _____ _____ _____ (despertado?) _ela corrida, se (establocera?) un servicio especial de trenes y automoviles con los pueblos limitroles
This
painting, by Roberto Domingo, is on the right hand wall when you
come in the front door. It's the view from Hemingway's favorite
chair.
Miriam, this page is for you.