A Blank Page, Writers and Writing Desks

In the old days, rewriting a freelance article or short story meant scribbles in the margin, dele marks and circled portions of sentences with arrows directing them to their new home in another place on the page. If I had to leave the manuscript in mid-edit, it sometimes became a puzzle as to what I meant by my notes and where I wanted things to go. But now, I use a computer for writing and I have to admit that I like the fact that a word processing program allows me to split sentences in two and shift them around. And paragraphs, too: with a click of the mouse, I can rearrange the order. But whenever I browse Writing Desk Select, I become nostalgic for the old days, when a fresh blank piece of paper was a written invitation to grab a pen.

The great American writer, Ernest Hemingway, used a Royal typewriter, perched on some kind of flat surface. A Google image search reveals several pictures of Hemingway, at various times in his life, sitting in front of a writing desk that resembles a table that might be found in a kitchen more than any kind of desk, computer, writing or otherwise.

When he lived in Key West, Florida, he wrote in the carriage house, which became his writing studio. It is said that it is here Ernest Hemingway wrote some of his best stories and novels, including A Farewell to Arms and The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber. Unlike his house in Cuba, the one at 907 Whitehead St., Key West doesn’t contain any of the author’s original furnishings. But one thing is clear from the pictures taken of Hemingway while writing, he seemed to prefer a writing desk that allowed him the choice to sit at the typewriter or work on a manuscript longhand.

His desk in the study of Finca Vigia, which means Lookout Farm, Hemingway's house near Havana, Cuba has a glass top and is deliciously roomy. In one of the pictures I discovered on the internet, he is pictured sitting at the desk, holding one of his many cats, looking down at a page in the typewriter, while the entire desktop is covered with papers, books and rolled newspapers. I am envious; this is what a writer’s desk should be and look like, organized chaos with cat included. Just looking at this picture of Hemingway seated here, I’m convinced it was no fluke that this is where he wrote The Old Man and the Sea and For Whom the Bells Toll. The desk inspired him!