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Along with visiting the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum and sampling the Hemingway-inspired Papa Dobles cocktail at Sloppy Joe’s while we were in Key West, my husband and I explored a connection to another literary legend.
Poet Robert Frost was a frequent visitor to the island in the 1930s and 1940s, often staying in a garden cottage (left) at the home of fifth-generation Key Wester, avid preservationist, and legendary hostess Jessie Porter. Porter’s Caribbean Colonial house — where playwrights Thornton Wilder and Tennessee Williams also visited — was built in the 1830s and is now the Key West Heritage House Museum and Robert Frost Cottage. The beautiful tropical garden has more than 200 varieties of orchids.
This past April I had the chance to tour the Robert Frost Farm in Derry, New Hampshire, which is where he lived as a struggling writer before moving to England and launching his career as a poet. It was interesting to learn more about Frost during my Key West visit, this time focusing on his later years. During one stay on the isle, Frost wrote the poem “The Gift Outright,” which he recited at John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961.
Like Hemingway and Frost, I found Key West alluring. It’s hard to resist a place that has a nightly sunset celebration at Mallory Square (said to have been inspired by island regular Tennessee Williams) and such a laid-back, quirky vibe. Three days in Key West was not nearly enough, and someday I’ll be back to visit the cats at the Hemingway House and indulge in another Papa Dobles at Sloppy Joe’s. –Shannon McKenna Schmidt
Recently, I had the opportunity to write a “Behind the Book” story for BookPage about some of the adventures Shannon and I had while on the road researching Novel Destinations. Our very first literary trip together was undertaken nearly three years ago, shortly after I arrived here in England from New York City. Both of us had been itching to get to Brontë Country in the Yorkshire Moors, which is one of the most atmospheric places in England and of course, the brooding locale that inspired one of our favorite books, Wuthering Heights. We were not disappointed!
The tiny, picturesque village of Haworth where the three talented Brontë sisters lived much of their short lives is full of literary treasures, from the Brontë Parsonage Museum, to the church where many of the Brontës were laid to rest, to the moors themselves, where the sisters found much inspiration. We spent lots of time at the Black Bull pub (pictured), where the sisters’ wayward brother, Branwell, whiled away many hours before his untimely death. — Joni Rendon
Novel Destinations features a chapter about Ernest Hemingway’s days in Key West in the 1930s, which Joni researched and wrote. After reading her descriptions of Hemingway’s haunts on the island, I was inspired to visit and recently had the chance to do so. On the plane ride there from New York I read Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not, which uses Key West and Cuba as its backdrops, and is his only novel set in the U.S.
The highlight in Key West was the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum, a two-story Spanish colonial-style house at 907 Whitehead Street. The rough-and-tumble charm of the U.S.’s southernmost city appealed to the writer, and it became his first home on U.S. soil after spending most of his adult life abroad. Located behind the house is Hemingway’s writing studio, where he worked on his semi-autobiographical novel A Farewell to Arms and other works.
The literary connection was enough to lure me to the Hemingway Home, but there was also another draw: the 50 or so cats that live on the property. Legend has it that a ship’s captain gave Hemingway a six-toed cat and the ones that live there today are its descendants. The cats have the run of the gorgeous grounds and the house, and the orange-colored Archibald even sleeps in Hemingway’s bed. That’s Archibald in the photo on the right at the cats’ drinking fountain; the bottom portion of the fountain is a urinal from a bar Hemingway frequented, Sloppy Joe’s.
Speaking of Sloppy Joe’s, my husband and I paid two visits to the raucous bar that has Hemingway’s photo and other memorabilia scattered throughout the place. I sampled the Papa Dobles, a cocktail invented for Hemingway and named for him. (If you’re flying in at night, the red neon “Sloppy Joe’s” sign is visible from the air.)
On the dining front, there was Blue Heaven (right), which serves up Caribbean-inspired food and has live music. Before the space was a restaurant, the courtyard that now serves as the dining area was the site of boxing matches occasionally refereed by Hemingway. Another restaurant recommendation is Santiago’s Bodega. Sadly there is no literary connection, but the tapas are excellent.
Look for Part 2 on my Key West adventures — and information about another famous literary figure who spent time on the island — next week…
–Shannon McKenna Schmidt
Now that summer is finally here (at least for those of you not living in England, where it’s still cool and rainy), a neat way to experience a piece of literary history while soaking up the great outdoors is by taking to the nature trails where famed scribes once found inspiration.
Recently, I walked the Coffin Path in Grasmere, England. Medieval pallbearers once carried caskets along this trail between craggy mountains and glittering lakes (pausing, like I did, to rest their load on an ancient stone slab), but today it’s more happily associated with the uplifting verse of Wordsworth. Two of his former homes bookend the trail, and the Romantic poet—who is said to have walked over 175,000 miles in his lifetime—composed much of his poetry on foot in the area. Depending on the season, the woods may be awash in bluebells, buttercups or Wordsworth’s beloved daffodils.
For 10 more great literary hikes, check out our suggestions which recently appeared in USA Today.
– Joni Rendon
The Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford, Connecticut (at left), is the second major literary landmark in recent months to face serious financial troubles, which the New York Times reported on earlier this week. The Mount, Edith Wharton’s estate in the Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts, is also in a precarious situation, although enough funds have been raised to allow it to open for the 2008 season (which runs through October 31st).
“We could not enter it unmoved,” Mark Twain said of the 19-room Victorian mansion in Hartford where he put down roots for 17 years. He commissioned its construction, in part from proceeds earned from his first full-length book, the travel narrative The Innocents Abroad. The house is an architectural marvel — a combination of whimsical and gothic.
What I enjoyed most about my visit to the house (pre-Novel Destinations and just for fun) was seeing the grandiose souvenirs Twain brought back from his travels, like the mantelpiece above the library fireplace from Ayton Castle in Scotland and an elaborately carved wooden bed bought in Venice. Twain and his wife, Olivia, slept at the foot of the bed so they could admire the angels that decorate the headboard.
Consider making a literary trip or two this summer — perhaps even to The Mount or the Mark Twain House — and help keep our literary landmarks surviving and thriving. –Shannon McKenna Schmidt
Picture courtesy of the Mark Twain House.
