It’s December 1923. One hundred years ago. The convicts are still on the loose. Hemingway has resigned from the local staff of The Toronto Daily Star effective January 1, 1924. If you were walking by 1599 Bathurst Street in Toronto, you might notice people sneaking things out of the Hemingway apartment, They were breaking their one year lease signed in September.

What happened between September and December 1923?

It’s all in - We Were the Bullfighters…

It’s September 1923. Hadley and Ernest have settled into their temporary home, the Selby Hotel on Sherbourne Street just south of Bloor. September 10th, Ernest starts work at the Toronto Daily Star. At the end of that first day, he is sent to cover a prison break from Kingston Penitentiary. The bank robber, Norman “Red” Ryan, and four other convicts went over the wall that morning. One convict is captured but four remain at large.

It’s August 1923. Hemingway’s book Three Stories and Ten Poems was published in Paris by Contact Press on August 13th. The three stories are My Old Man, Out of Season and Up in Michigan. Things are happening for him. But Hadley is 8 months pregnant and they want the baby to have a stable first year. August 26th, Ernest and Hadley will board the Andania and sail to Canada from France. Currently working as a free-lancer and sometimes foreign correspondent, Ernest has taken a job as a staff reporter at The Toronto Daily Star.

Once Upon a Time in Toronto - The Hemingway Centennial Begins

A little over 100 years ago, Ernest Hemingway wrote his sister Ursula that he was moving to Toronto. He was writing from Petoskey, Michigan where he had been living and writing and being rejected for about 6 months.

He was offered a job as a paid companion to the son of Harriet and Ralph Connable, a wealthy executive. Harriet saw Hemingway give a talk at the Petoskey library when she was home visiting her mother. She, Ralph and their daughter Dorothy were taking a trip to Palm Beach, Florida. Ernest could live in their beautiful mansion at 153 Lyndhurst Ave. Still there but now broken up into townhouses. He would have a cook, a library, $50.00 a month plus expenses. Mr. Connable promised he would have plenty of time for his literary pursuits. Connable was the head of Woolworth’s in Canada and as a major advertiser had some connections at The Toronto Daily Star. Hemingway left for Toronto on January 8, 1920.

He told his sister that he hated to leave Petoskey because he’d had a good time and written some good stories.  

“Everything good takes time,” he tells her in his letter “and it takes time to be a writer but by Gad I’m going to be one some day.”

He was 20 years old. He didn’t stay long but he would come back in the fall of 1923, as a fledgling writer who had just spent two years in Paris. Stay tuned.