Today marks the 110th birthday of legendary writer Ernest Hemingway, who tragically took his own life on July 2, 1961 at age 61.
From "The Old Man and the Sea," "A Farewell to Arms" and "The Sun Also Rises" to "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and "The Garden of Eden" and so many other works, Hemingway's life and memories continue to live on through his writing.
Born and raised in Oak Park, Ill., The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park is hosting a "Hemingway Birthday Lecture" at 7 p.m. tonight at The Hemingway Museum, 200 N. Oak Park Ave. in Oak Park. His beautiful birthplace home, at 339 N. Oak Park Ave., will also be open to the public for tours. FYI: EHFOP.org or (708) 524-5383.
I attended an earlier "pre-party" commemorating the birthday at an event sponsored by The Ernest Hemingway Foundation, The Chicago Reader and Le Tourment Vert Absinthe at Bottom Lounge in Chicago on Sunday.
For anyone wondering what Hemingway's connection is to the very potent exotic European spirit absinthe (aka The Green Fairy, because of the drink's tendency to encourage hallucination), remember, it's said one of his favorite cocktails was "Death in the Afternoon," a concoction of ice cold champagne and a few drops of absinthe. The cocktail takes its name from "Death in the Afternoon," his classic work of the same name about the art of bullfighting.
He even contributed the cocktail recipe to the 1935 collection of celebrity recipes compiled by author Sterling North called "So Red the Nose, Breath in the Afternoon."
The Sunday party I attended included a series of readings in honor of the author, in addition to a skit by Ryan Walters, Steve Mosqueda and Sean Benjamin called "Hemingway vs Fitzgerald," an imagined "fight of words" between Hemingway and his friend/rival F. Scott Fitzgerald, both avid drinkers.
I had forgotten the back-and-forth friendship the two men shared, and how Fitzgerald's wife Zelda, who was later institutionalized, despised Hemingway.
The other "home" Hemingway is so famed for is his stone mansion on Whitehead Street in Key West, Fla., where he lived with his wife Pauline for a decade during the 1930s and which is also a popular museum open to the public.
Just as noted as this landscape landmark is Hemingway's feline claim-to-fame, Snowball, a six-toed cat that was left behind following Ernest and Pauline's divorce in 1939.
During the past 70 years, more than 60 six-toed cats (officially termed polydactyls), all descendents of Snowball, continue to roam the grounds. In recent years, they've been a frustration to everyone from officials at the United States Department of Agriculture to locals and court officials who have threatened to remove all of the cats, deeming them a nuisance to the area.
A few years ago, law officials said the cats violated a 1966 federal animal welfare law, claiming "the museum must be licensed as an exhibitor of animals, and that the cats, which sometimes climb over the wall surrounding the grounds, must be confined to the property."
Fortunately, after a very public tug-of-war and even some "tail-pulling," the nice people at Purr...fect Fencing stepped in and provided the needed boundaries to keep the cats corralled.
A message on the museum Web site from the Hemingway cats reads: "Thank you Purr...fect Fencing for our freedom to roam!)
All of the cats also each have their own names, many graced with the monikers of some of Hemingway's most famed friends, including Charlie Chaplin, Spencer Tracy, Pablo Picasso, Joan Crawford, Gertrude Stein and Audrey Hepburn.
For additional information about Hemingway's Key West home, including photos of the Hemingway cats, visit hemingwayhome.com.
The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer. He can be reached at philip.potempa@nwi.com or 219.852.4327.
Today's Celebrity Birthdays
Hearst Society columnist Aileen Mehle aka Suzy Knickerbocker and jazz pianist-"Sunday Morning" correspondent Billy Taylor are 88. Singer Kay Starr is 87. Actor Paul Burke ("Dynasty," "Naked City") and movie director Norman Jewison are 83. Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno is 71. Actress Patricia Elliott ("One Life To Live") is 67. Actor Edward Herrmann ("Gilmore Girls") and Chicago First Lady Maggie Daley are 66. Actor Leigh Lawson ("Tess") is 64. Singer Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) and cartoonist Garry Trudeau ("Doonesbury") are 61. Comedian-actor Robin Williams is 58. Singer-guitarist Eric Bazilian of The Hooters is 56. Comedian Jon Lovitz is 52. Actor Lance Guest ("Lou Grant") and Matt Mulhern ("Major Dad") are 49. Singer Emerson Hart of Tonic is 40. Country singer Paul Brandt is 37. Actor Josh Hartnett and reggae singer Damian Marley are 31. "American Idol" runner-up Blake Lewis is 28. Keyboardist Johan Carlsson of Carolina Liar is 25. Actress Vanessa Lengies ("Stick It," "American Dreams") is 24. Actor Rory Culkin ("Richie Rich") and actress Hatty Jones ("Madeline") are 20.
