Happy Birthday to Ernest Hemingway

Ernest and Pauline at Home in Key West

     Happy Birthday to Ernest Hemingway, the man that Papa's Pilar Rum's back story is based upon.
 The man, his fishing yacht, and his persona have added so much to our world.  Whether you like his writings or not, this larger than life man has had some effect on you somewhere in your mind.


       I had very little knowledge of his life before moving to Key West.  I knew who he was, but very
little about him.  I hate to admit it, but I have never read any of his writings, but the man and his way of life have really drawn me in.   His life here in Key West and all of the legends of him here on the island only made me more interested in the man and the locals and places that he  hung out with and at are legendary.  People like Josie Russel owner of Sloppy Joe's in  Key West, Boxing at the Old Coca Cola Bottling Plant, To his house and wife.  You can hardly move anywhere in this town without some reference to Ernest Hemingway.

     My first visit to Havana, Cuba is where his life was brought to the forefront for me.  Hemingway's life in Cuba is felt is so many places as you travel around there.  Starting with the Ambros Mundos Hotel that he lived and completed For Whom the Bells Toll when he first moved to Havana in 1939 to the El Floridita where he spent a lot of time drinking.  His famed home Finca la Vigia in San Francisco de Paula outside of Havana and the village of Cojimar to the east of Havana where he kept his beloved fishing yacht, Pilar and spent so much time at the La Terraza where Hemingway and Gregorio Fuente, the captain of Pilar would dine and drink after a day of fishing on Pilar.


     Today as a distiller at the Hemingway Rum Company his presence has become a daily part of my life.  Happy Birthday to this amazing man.