Six-Toed Cats, A Studio and a $20,000 Swimming Pool by Nancy Eady

This summer, my family and I got a chance to revisit Key West, where one of our favorite places is the Hemingway house. Ernest Hemingway lived there with his wife Pauline for about 9 years in the 1930’s. (All of the facts listed in here came from the tour guide. I hope I am remembering them correctly.)  This is the approach to the house from the side.

Side Wall of the Hemingway House Grounds

The first time Mark and I saw the Hemingway House, we parked about four blocks away and walked, but this time, with Kayla, we took the Key West Trolley which stops only a block away. 

Cat in the Ticket Booth

This friendly feline was helping to greet visitors in the ticket booth. Ernest Hemingway liked cats and was particularly fond of those cats with a mutation that gives them six toes. The more scientific name is a “polydactyl” cat. He had somewhere between 40 and 60 living on the grounds of the house while he was there, and the people who take care of the house now keep the population also around 40 to 50 cats. Interestingly, each cat’s birth is recorded, so each of the cats currently residing at the house has its own genealogical record. The cats are everywhere on the grounds and the house and the staff works hard to keep them happy so the cats will stay there. (This was the one spot in Key West where we didn’t see any roosters; the roosters in Key West are ubiquitous, but not stupid!)

The European Chandelier

This chandelier came from Europe and includes Venetian glass. Pauline shipped it from Europe to use as a centerpiece of the house, and apparently it was the talk of the town once it was installed. The house was originally built by a doctor, who paid to have the limestone coral base rock excavated to provide the only full basement in the city of Key West. It sits on a full acre of land, which also makes it one of, if not the, largest homesteads in Key West.

A Cat Asleep in the Master Bedroom

In the master bedroom, it is not unusual to find a cat comfortably curled up on the pillows at the top of the bed.

Second Floor Bookshelves

The upstairs hallway, although a little narrow, is lined with bookshelves on one side. These books are not necessarily the ones that were in the house when Ernest Hemingway lived there, but they are books he owned and used or had given to him as gifts. He had an estate in Cuba after he left Key West around 1939, and he kept most of his books there. Unfortunately, the estate was confiscated by Castro after the Bay of Pigs invasion. 

View from the Upper Veranda

There is a huge veranda that wraps around the outside of the house on the second floor. Mark took this picture for me. On the front side of the veranda, you get a wonderful view of the Key West lighthouse through the branches of the African Tulip Tree on the house grounds. The African Tulip Tree, as you might tell from the name, is not native to the Keys, and in the city of Key West they are rare. The flowers on it are striking.

The Writing Studio

Behind the house is what used to be a coach house and barn. When the Hemingways moved into the house, they converted the top floor into a writer’s studio, the first one Ernest Hemingway had. He was a very disciplined writer and would go out there every morning to write.

One of Hemingway's Typewriters

I just had to take a close-up picture of the typewriter in the studio that he used to write on. From a writing standpoint, I felt that I was standing on hallowed ground and I admit I was hoping that somehow wafts of inspiration and writing talent would descend upon me while I was standing there.  The most important thing I learned from the tour was to write every day. Period. Of course, it helps to have something to say, too!

Cat in the Writing Studio

 One of the cats had found its way into the writer’s studio (human visitors can only view the studio through a piece of clear plastic, but the estate owners left an opening large enough in the bottom of the barrier for the cats to get in.)  He or she looked quite comfortable.

Cat Feeding Area

The estate has several areas where food is put out for the cats, and this was one of them. It is between the house, and the writer’s studio and pool. None of the cats were around it at the time we were there, but I am sure it is a frequent haunt of theirs!

Since I was there as a tourist, and not as a blogger, I forgot to take a picture of the pool, but it is a beautiful salt water pool put on the grounds by Pauline. It cost $20,000 to build in the 1930’s. The dollar equivalent today I cannot even begin to calculate. The reason it was so expensive is the hard coral bedrock of the island. It took an extraordinary amount of manpower to excavate the bedrock out in order to put the pool in. According to the tour guide, Pauline put the pool in while Ernest Hemingway was off on a trip somewhere. When he came back, he tossed a penny in the pool, telling her that she might as well have his last cent, too. The same penny now is covered by plexiglass on the pool deck.

The Hemingway House is not the only famous residence in Key West, but it is a unique memorial to a giant of American literature.  If you get the chance, be sure to stop by!

Pondering Persistence

This message is a long journey down a winding path seeking discovery.

To be a writer, one must be persistent. What exactly is "being persistent"?

Is Writing Persistence a symbol like Legal Justice? A blindfolded woman with a pointed pen instead of a sword and a scale tilted toward publication?

Is it a quality or a habit? How does it manifest itself? 

As defined, persist means "to continue, to carry on, to endure."

Perseverance, a synonym,  is "a steady, dogged, unyielding continuation toward a goal, despite hardships or opposition."

But, what do persistence and perseverance require you to do?

There is a FIS school. In my government job, FIS stands for "fiscal impact statement." From a writing persistence perspective, FIS has been interpreted as "fanny in seat."

Okay. To be persistent as a writer, one must place oneself in the position to write on a consistent basis.

But, one doesn't really write with one's fanny, does one? How does being hunched over a desk or keyboard compare with that heroic symbolic figure in the blindfold wielding a pen?

Is "fanny in seat" showing or telling?

And, what about the fact that "fanny in seat" does not always improve one's personal "fiscal impact statement"?

I tried to find online articles about the ways writers persist. I located plenty about staying focused, healthy, inspired, and organized as you write. But, I didn’t find any article telling me how to "persist" in writing.

My mind wandered. I began to think about the bowl of chocolate candies on my desk at work. My goal is to have candies for others’ benefit. To achieve that goal, I need to keep from eating the chocolates myself. How may I persist in providing for others while refraining from consumption?

Several ideas came to mind.

One, I could move the bowl as far from my reach as possible. Maybe even put it in a different location that I don’t usually pass. Out of sight. Out of mind.

Two, I could email other people in my office and tell them to come help themselves to my chocolates. That way, I could share and converse and feel happy others were enjoying the candy. By granting permission, I could allow others and empower myself.

Three, I could limit myself to only eating the chocolate as a reward when I accomplished the things I needed to do. My personal evaluation would determine when I consumed.

Four, I could forbid myself to eat any chocolates at all. I would make the decision to exercise control over myself.

Are those four methods of persisting toward a goal or are they avoidance tactics? Is persisting just the flip side of avoiding?

Does persistence require that you first determine your goal, then map out a path for achieving it?

How do you map your way across a blank page?

When Ernest Hemingway received the Nobel Prize, his short acceptance speech was read for him by John C. Cabot, the United States Ambassador to Sweden. Following is a passage from the speech:

Things may not be immediately discernible in what a man writes, and in this sometimes he is fortunate; but eventually they are quite clear and by these and the degree of alchemy that he possesses he will endure or be forgotten.

When Hemingway says “endure” does he mean persist or is he talking about a legacy?

Here’s another portion of Hemingway’s speech:

Writing, at its best, is a lonely life. Organizations for writers palliate the writer's loneliness but I doubt if they improve his writing. He grows in public stature as he sheds his loneliness and often his work deteriorates. For he does his work alone and if he is a good enough writer he must face eternity, or the lack of it, each day.

Loneliness and no clear rewards to anticipate are reasons why writing may seem such a questionable pursuit. What is the purpose when the result is not dependent upon what you do, but how others perceive it?

But then again, are the rewards of writing measured externally or internally?

I have never seen a production of the musical Anyone Can Whistle. Few have, even though its music is often heard in tributes to its composer Stephen Sondheim.

It's a story about how a corrupt mayor and her henchmen try to save their town from bankruptcy by perpetrating a public fraud and taking advantage of the tourists that fraud generates. The heroic couple battling the bad guys are a man posing as a doctor and a nurse at the local insane asylum, known as The Cookie Jar.

This couple have a seduction song called "Come Play Wiz Me." The nurse sings to the doctor:

"I like your-How you say?-
Imperturbable perspicacity.
It isn't how you say, it's what you see!"

Lee Remick and Harry Guardino

I love that phrase, "imperturbable perspicacity." Imperturbable means steadfast and difficult to upset. Perspicacity is a clear understanding or discernment.

Isn't that what Hemingway was talking about as "grace under pressure"? "Imperturbable perspicacity."

Have I rambled too far and just over-thought this matter?

What conclusions have I reached?

Are there four elements to consider when trying to persist in writing?

(1) Mindset--you must decide to focus on your goal of writing and never let it out of your sight or mind.

(2) Permission--by allowing yourself the time for writing, without doubt or guilt over not doing something else, you can empower yourself to become a writer.

(3) Legacy--accepting yourself as a writer is crucial, regardless of acclaim. Remember Emily Dickinson with her drawers of unpublished, unshared poetry that brought her fame after her death.

(4) Control--"imperturbable perspicacity"--exhibit calm, unwavering keenness about your writing. It's not what you say, but what you project. Be that blindfolded symbol with the sharp object.

So what do you think? Do the photos of Hemingway, the characters from Anyone Can Whistle, and Dickinson show the faces of persistence? How do writers persist?