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Ernest Hemingway's Cuban Documents Available Electronically

by Karenke4 | January 6, 2009 at 12:35 pm

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The sun is now rising on over 3,000 documents from Ernest Hemingway's home Finca Vigia, in Cuba. The 3,197 documents have been made available as part of an agreement between the Social Science Research Council and Cuban national heritage authorities. The documents have been scanned and organized and are available by request, though not to the general public.

Sarah Doty, Cuba program coordinator for the Social Science Research Council, said authorities gave CDs and microfilm images of the Finca Vigia documents to the John F. Kennedy library in Boston, which will announce their arrival later this month. She said the council is "still working with Cuba as to who will be able to access the information."

The documents included

an unpublished epilogue of "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and coded messages the author sent when using his yacht to hunt for German submarines during World War II.

Unedited manuscripts, a screenplay for the "The Old Man and the Sea," letters to the Nobel Laureate and insurance policies

These works may provide missing links into the fascinating life of one of America's most well known ex-patriots. Hemingway owned his home in Cuba for over 20 years and was known to be a friend of Fidel Castro. He left Finca Vigia in 1960 after being investigated by the FBI for Cuban and marxist war veteran ties there.

Future visitors to Cuba's Hemingway museum will have access to the documents in a planned computer access room.

They are also working on restoring Hemingway's fishing boat, El Pilar, to its original splendor. Hemingway used his boat to patrol the waters north of Cuba in search of German u boats. His documentation of these patrols are among the electronic files, though researchers are still working on their translation.

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Uwe Paschen

at 20:12 on January 6th, 2009

I will look this up since I used to enjoy reading his books and accounts. He was a master of the written word. One that will still be read in a century from now.