Ernest Hemingway’s apartment in Toronto while at The Toronto Star

On a sweltering July day in Toronto, I stumbled upon a quiet piece of literary history tucked away on Bathurst Street just north of St. Clair—a modest low-rise apartment building that was once home to Ernest Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley Richardson.

It was in this very building that the young couple brought their newborn son, John Hadley Nicanor Hemingway, home after his birth at Wellesley Hospital. In 1923, Hemingway signed a one-year lease for the 1,100-square-foot apartment at a rate of $85 a month—a humble sum for a writer just beginning to make his mark.

John Hadley Nicanor Hemingway 

Though his time in Toronto was brief, Hemingway’s connections here ran deep. As noted on the plaque at the entrance of the building, he maintained close friendships with Morley Callaghan and Gordon Sinclair, two Canadian icons in literature and broadcasting, respectively.

Ernest Miller Hemingway, born in 1899, died by suicide in Ketchum, Idaho on July 2, 1961, at the age of 61. He is buried in Ketchum Cemetery, a quiet resting place in the American West far from the bustling streets of Toronto where he once lived and wrote.

Ernest and his son, John are buried at Ketchum Cemetery, Idaho. 

To explore more about the final resting places of Hemingway’s Toronto contemporaries, visit famousgravetours.com, where you’ll find in-depth tours of both Callaghan and Sinclair.

See my related site to Hemingway’s boxing opponent, Morley Callaghan. 

Morley Callaghan Great writer that knocked out Ernest Hemingway