The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston houses the Ernest Hemingway Collection, one of the most comprehensive collections of Hemingway’s personal papers and materials.

 

Ernest Hemingway left many of his papers in Cuba because he lived there for over two decades, from 1939 to 1960. During his time in Cuba, he wrote several of his most famous works and accumulated significant personal and literary material at his home, Finca Vigía, near Havana.

 

When he left Cuba in 1960, it was due to the political changes following the Cuban Revolution and the rise of Fidel Castro. Hemingway was uncertain about his safety and freedom to come and go, so he decided to leave the island. However, a substantial portion of his personal effects, including manuscripts, letters, and other documents, remained at his Cuba home,

 

Hemingway never returned to Cuba after he left in 1960. He spent the last years of his life in the United States, primarily in Idaho, where he eventually passed away on July 2, 1961.

After Hemingway died in 1961, his widow, Mary Hemingway asked First Lady, Jackie Kennedy if she would ask President Kennedy to help arrange so she could retrieve his belongings from Cuba. Despite the tense political climate and travel restrictions due to the Bay of Pigs Invasion, U.S. citizens were prohibited from traveling to Cuba at the time.

 

Kennedy made a special arrangement for Mary to travel to Cuba.

 

Mary met with Fidel Castro and managed to arrange the retrieval of crates of Hemingway’s papers, paintings, and other personal items. These items were then shipped back to the United States on a shrimp boat. As part of the arrangement, Mary donated Hemingway’s Cuban home, Finca Vigía, which means “Lookout Farm” in Spanish to the Cuban people, which is now a museum dedicated to the author.