The Blank Page (1944-1961)

In 1944, Ernest Hemingway met Time and Life correspondent Mary Welsh while in London to cover the Allied invasion of France for Collier's. Mary would eventually move to Cuba to be with him, living in the Finca, which he had once shared with previous wife Martha Gellhorn prior to their separation during the war. The pair wed in 1946, but their marriage would be turbulent in the years following.

In the summer of 1953, Ernest and Mary were involved in two plane crashes in two days while in Africa. Following the first accident, word had spread that the writer died, many publications prematurely publishing his obituary before the couple finally arrived at their destination of Entebbe. Though both were injured, Hemingway suffered yet another traumatic brain injury with a fractured skull.