Hemingway's Cats: An Illustrated Biography

Ernest Hemingway always had cats as companions from the ones he adored as a child in Illinois and Michigan to the more than 30 he had as an adult in Paris Key West Cuba and Idaho. All are chronicled and most are pictured here along with revelations of how they fit into the many twists and turns of his life and loves. In 1943 Ernest Hemingway living in the Finca in Cuba with his third wife and eleven cats wrote to his first wife: "One cat just leads to another... The place is so damned big it doesnt really seem as though there were many cats until you see them all moving like a mass migration at feeding time." He called the cats purr factories" and love sponges" who soaked up love in return for comfort and companionship. He gave each a name that suited its character including F. Puss Fatso Friendless Feather Kitty Princessa Furhouse Uncle Woofer and his last cat in Idaho Big Boy Peterson. Youll also meet his nine dogs a cow and a young great horned owl that he rescued not long before his death. Hemingways Cats reveals a softer side to the writers character than is usually portrayed by the macho image of the hunter and fisherman. He sought the cats comfort in times of loneliness and stress and he featured some of them in his writings particularly in A Moveable Feast Islands in the Stream The Garden of Eden and True at First Lightall written late in his life and as close to autobiography as he came.