Why A Bar Urinal Ended Up In Ernest Hemingway's Key West House

The name "Ernest Hemingway" evokes many images: that of the romanticized writer in isolation, wrestling with the great ideas of his age; that of an outdoorsman and hunter, who put his physical attributes to use in two World Wars; and, finally, that of an exceptionally capable drinker of alcohol, whose love of booze was woven

The name "Ernest Hemingway" evokes many images: that of the romanticized writer in isolation, wrestling with the great ideas of his age; that of an outdoorsman and hunter, who put his physical attributes to use in two World Wars; and, finally, that of an exceptionally capable drinker of alcohol, whose love of booze was woven into his writing habits. Indeed, he was as competitive with his drinking as he was with his writing and outdoor pursuits.

The tip for aspiring authors that you should "write drunk, edit sober" is commonly attributed to Hemingway. But "A Moveable Feast," Hemingway's memoir of his Paris years, seems to give a more likely summation of his attitude towards drinking and writing: "My training was never to drink after dinner nor before I wrote nor while I was writing."

Nevertheless, Hemingway's love of alcohol was in full swing when he arrived in Key West to take over a dilapidated house gifted to him by his uncle, Gus, as a wedding present, per Culture Trip. The Hemingways would eventually make the house to their taste, with one distinct feature being an outdoor fountain made from the urinal of Hemingway's favorite Key West drinking hole, Sloppy Joe's. According to Mental Floss, Hemingway took the urinal as a memento in anticipation of the bar being renovated. According to the Florida Historical Society, the urinal was carried back to Hemingway's home one night by the writer and "Sloppy Joe" himself, where it remained as a water bowl for the family's many cats.

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