Everything Hemingway Loved -- and Lost

By 1934, when Ernest Hemingway turned 35 years old, he had become perhaps the most celebrated living writer in the English language â?? and perhaps in any language. That year, Hemingway purchased a fishing boat that he would dock in Key West, Florida, or in Cuba or less permanent places where he might be able to reel in the big ones. He named the boat Pilar. Hemingway treasured that boat until the day he shot himself at his Idaho home during 1961. A lot of his outer life and inner life occurred on or near Pilar, which served as a place to write, read, sleep, copulate, and entertain friends as well as a fishing vessel.