My Virtual Reading Room

...is located in Key West, Florida. This is their website: http://www.hemingwayhome.com/; there's even a kitty cam, check it out :)

The photos below are from our visit there in 2006, kavery had a post about Hemingway Home (http://kavery.livejournal.com/2344447.html) and she suggested I post the photos, as others might like to see them. So here you are:



The overall view of the house and garden. Hemingway lived there with his third wife, who was the editor of Vogue.



The garden, close up



Hemingway's study



Another room in the house; the wall sconces, similar to the overly-ornate chandeliers, of which I don't have a photo, were obviously the wife's idea. The hunting trophies are Hemingway's own, of course.



"The last penny."

Hemingway was away in Spain while the house and grounds were being finished up. Upon his return, he found that his wife had a swimming pool put in (it's still there in the garden, nice mid-size pool) and he inquired how much it had cost. His wife informed him it had cost $20,000, which was a huge sum of money in those days; the entire house had cost less than that. Hemingway exclaimed that "you've taken all my money, you might as well take my last penny, too!", pulled a penny out of his pocket and handed it to her. She pressed it into the still-damp cement beside the pool, where it remains to this day. As you see, a thick layer of acrylic had been poured over the penny to protect it.



A drinking-trough for cats.

It has an interesting history...the trough is actually the urinal from a bar Hemingway liked to frequent. When the bar closed, --he took the urinal home and told his wife he wanted to put it in the garden. The wife (who, remember, was the editor of Vogue) was, naturally, aghast at such vulgarity. But he was quite insistent, so she sought to disguise it by putting ornamental tiles along the front side and putting a large jar Hemingway had brought home from Spain above it. I'd say the disguise was rather successful, one cannot tell what the trough had been at first glance, unless one knows...




"One of our cathouses"

...as the guide joked; it literally is one of the houses for cats to shelter from the heat or rain; several are scattered throughout the garden, and cats wander freely throughout the house and garden. Several were sprawled in the house. Several staff members take care of the cats, of which there are 20+, and they are all named after famous authors, actors, etc.



Here's one of the famous 6-toed cats.



You can really see that this cat is six-toed.



Another one of the cats relaxing on the garden bench.