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Ernest Hemingway

The Classicist: Gypsy + Jet Set = Gypset

Filed under: Apparel, Decor, Art, Books, The Classicist, Wealth


Julia Chaplin, a chic, talented New York–based writer and editor who covers contemporary art, fashion, design, lifestyle, and travel, has identified a new substrata of international society: the Gypset. In her new book Gypset Style, due out soon from Assouline and available for pre-order on Amazon, she presents a super-stylish Baedeker to those who "fuse the wild and unconventional ethos of a gypsy with the sophistication and speed of the jet set."

Most of them are exceptionally good-looking and have money, of course, but even those with obscene amounts of the stuff are anything but ostentatious. Most are also relatively unknown, but numbered among their ranks are the likes of designer and "daughter of Mick" Jade Jagger, British fashion designer Alice Temperley, and even bad boy Brit artist Damien Hirst and his partner, Californian surfer / designer Maia Norman, who make it by virtue of their houseboat moored on the Thames in London.

Chaplin coined the term "Gypset" to refer to "an international community of artists, designers, surfers, and bon vivants who live and work around the globe." The 21st century's Bright Young Things, if you will. Gypset Style explores the "unconventional lives of these high-low cultural nomads and the bohemian enclaves they inhabit, as well as their counterculture forebears, including the Victorian explorers, the Lost Generation, beatniks, and hippies."

Gallery: Gypset Style

Back coverModel in Gypsy-inspired garb from French Elle, 1970.The Mignot Sisters, Sayulita, Mexico.Mignot Sisters rooftop, MexicoTreehouse in Kenya (back cover detail)

When Havana Was the "Paris of the Caribbean"

Filed under: Books


It's now somewhat synonymous with decay of both a socioeconomic and physical nature, but there was a time before the Socialist revolution when Havana was known as the "Paris of the Caribbean," a place where Americans came to hang out in nightclubs, gamble, smoke cigars, hit on showgirls and drink copious quantities of rum. This prelapsarian paradise is celebrated in Peter Moruzzi's brilliant new book, Havana Before Castro: When Cuba Was a Tropical Playground (Gibbs Smith, $30), filled with hundreds of photos, brochures, postcards, artifacts and other ephemera.

From Hemingway hangout La Floridita, where the daiquiris flowed like water, especially during Prohibition, to the Tropicana and other casinos that were cutting edge in the 1950s thanks to the interest of American mobsters, Moruzzi provides a gorgeous and engaging glimpse of an all but forgotten era. See the gallery for a preview.

[via Men.Style]

A Great Day in Cocktail History

Filed under: Spirits

Looking for an excuse to celebrate? July 19 is National Daiquiri Day. The drink many people associate with author Ernest Hemingway was in fact invented in 1898 in the small iron mining town of Daiquiri near Santiago, Cuba by an engineer named Jennings Stockton Cox.

He came up with the drink, a simple blend of lime juice, sugar and local Bacardi rum (est. 1862) over cracked ice as a way to boost the morale of mine workers during the sizzling summer months. It was such a success Cox not only received a generous stipend from the mining company but also a monthly gallon of Bacardi.

Hemingway (above, hoisting a daiquiri) later helped to popularize the drink. Of course in Cox's day there was no question of freezing or blending. See the gallery for a traditional hand-shaken daiquiri recipe and some historical images pertaining to this classic cocktail's origins.

Rare Hemingway Proof Up For Auction

Filed under: Auctions


The book shown here may not look like much bit it is a rare treasure, the only known inscribed and signed advance of Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. ever to surface will be offered at Swann Galleries' auction of 19th & 20th Century Literature on Thursday, November 29.The proof contains Hemingway's handwritten corrections including a dedication to Martha Gellhorn, and is signed and inscribed to Hemingway's longtime friend and employee Toby Otto Bruce. The inscription reads, "To Otto, with much affection and deep appreciation for all he did to make this book." The proof comes with a handmade suede cover that Hemingway used to protect the book while copyreading and it is also signed. The book comes from Bruce's family and has a pre-auction estimate of $75,000 to $125,000.


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