Inside the Library: Secrets, Pens, Inks, Books, Treasures Revealed! 

This by far is my favorite video Hemingway! You have a beautiful library full of beautiful things. I did notice that you have a furbaby! What a lovely little one. There is nothing like curling up to a good book and a kitten snuggling next to you. I wish that you filmed a little more of your wife's tarot collection -- I enjoy Tarot as well. I love first editions, but never could afford the one that I want. I love Jane Austin and wish that I could get the first edition of Pride and Prejudice. Amazing..... :)

Thanks, Hemingway! Gives me ideas for tuning up my setups at home and office.

That ravaged, ink-stained desk is fallow earth for the seeds of creativity. Can't imagine a happier place for Osiris, Ra and Seth to hang out, and ink spills are the Nile's annual, life-renewing inundation. :)

I am finding tremendous inspiration in this Library tour. I look forward to the day that the study in my own Home is as replete with books 📚 and personal mementos as yours. Your artwork is quite lovely! I envy those with artistic ability. The sight of the Notre Dame de Paris votive rendered me a bit emotional. I have one too...acquired the last time I had been in Paris and I gifted it to my Mother, who sadly passed away last year. I reclaimed the candle after her Death and ponder upon the vicissitudes of Life whenever my gaze lands upon it. Thank you for providing us with this tour! Your Library reveals the level of taste, culture, intelligence, and uniqueness that you so endearingly possess.

I think this video is in my top 3 favorite videos you have ever made. Very enjoyable and very inspirational.

Thank you for opening your home to the community! You are a charming host and I enjoyed seeing the library. I especially loved the art that you and your family do together! How sublime!

HJ, this video is glorious! The sound is impeccable. English major excitement made me added several books to my TBR. I loved taking a peek at the treasures on your shelves and it was lovely to see the cameo by the cat. I’ll be watching again when I’m looking for inspiration.

Wonderful to see your library, I feel that each item as a story to tell. Brilliant!

Enjoyed this tour of your charming library. So fun to see all the treasures and how much they mean to you. Your library is truly your castle. Beautiful inspiration.

Ahhhh! Many enviable first editions, just amazing. Even still, the collection of filled journals is really the highlight of the library if you ask me, it’s just so originally yours.

This video! Just perfection… from pacing to soundrack to B role. The desk is a wonderful example of wabi-sabi, a concept that I hold dearly from the Japanese… the beloved patina of life in an object that is well used. And a glimpse inside your literary favorites... I’m now inspired to create a library of my own. ❤️

Not to go to the dark side of your beloved Venice, recall Mann's Death ... and the film Comfort of Strangers. Beware the Ides when there again. No Umberto Eco? I have always wondered what those shelves of your contained. Thanks for showing us.

Thanks for the tour! You’ve made a lovely space for your books, pens, typewriters, inks, instruments, and cat! My daughter (the Donna Tartt fan) works at a rare and vintage book shop and has also collected quite a few first edition treasures. She keeps those in a locked ikea glass cabinet for a special display, and protection, each wrapped in a Mylar book cover. A very interesting peek inside! The carts are fabulous storage areas for inks, I use one myself. Safe, tidy, visible, and accessible.

Hemingway. I love your Merlot shoes. Are you kidding me. They’re beautiful

Thank you so much Hemingway for such a lovely video, for revealing such a personal side. Exudes culture and civilisation.

I feel really inspired by your library collection. I really love For Whom The Bell Tolls!!. You have such a beautiful collection and I love the music with this video. Keep up the amazing work you do.

Hello HJ. I enjoyed your video. You can tell a lot about a person by the books that they read. I'm a devoted Stephen King fan and have most of his books. What does that say about me, I wonder? Doing videos about your personal life brings you and your followers closer together. Good job, great subject.

I am adding a lot to my own reading list as a result of this video. Very well done!

Another beautiful video, that room has always been a dream, since I live in a senior apartment building I don’t have the room, but I have an advantage so to speak. I use a Kindle and have countless books on it, the advantage is my library is always with me,

Thanks for the library tour. I turned one bedroom into my library. It's my favorite room to be in. I have a set of bookcases (each bookcase is 5 foot high & 4 feet long for a total of 8 bookshelves) on 3 out of 4 walls of the room. About 5 years ago, I went through and grouped them by topic. That took about 2 weeks to do. It's easy to add new books. I can see what books I have and hopefully not buy and duplicates. :) I also have my late husband's drafting table in front of the bookshelves that have books I don't need to reference much. I love the drafting table for writing letters and drawing because it's at an angle, which the cats do not like. :)

Very cool nook to work out of! Enjoyed the tour!

Great video! I could watch this all day long. Hopefully there will be a second part where you can show even more books and personal items!

Fantastic tour! If you enjoy The Alienist, you might also enjoy The Devil in the White City, which traces another serial killer at the 1876 Chicago World’s Fair juxtaposed with that fascinating American Renaissance (beaux arts) in painting, sculpture, and architecture.

I was so happy to find this video. I don't know why I haven't seen it before. A Moveable Feast is my favorite Hemingway novel. That inkwell is a treasure.

Thank you for opening up your home and sharing your personal space. Beautiful and inspiring!

Personal Studio/Library tours are my favorite. I saw a couple of David McCollough books on your shelves, I have read most of his books, love his writing style. I’ve been to Hemingway’s homes in Key West & Arkansas. I love seeing where great writers work. Thank you.

The library tour was fun. What a great idea for a video. The Alienist is a great book...and I loved the watercolors.

Amazing, thanks so much for the tour! I don’t know how I missed this gem. So many books 😊 Your antique ink well is a treasure. Now you need a nice big fancy executive blotter mat!

Great video, probably one of your best yet. Thank you for opening your home to us. You obviously had to pick and choose what to elaborate on, maybe a tarot video in the future? Also, I'm wondering if you use the inkwell with dip pens / glass pens? I recently got a glass dip pen and thinking about finding a fun inkwell to use with it. Thanks!

Fantastic video! The library looks lovely and cozy, I want one in my house. I bought the books you touched on, thanks for that. I really like this type of content as well, fountain pens and books go together like PB & J.

Another great video. The Alienist by Carr is one of my favorite books also. I saw some books on your shelves in my collection of books. I guess we have more in common than just the love of fountain pens.

This is your absolute best video!! All the feels! LOL! Seriously, I love all your videos, but this one hits the top of the list, my friend!

What a wonderful tour, Hemingway! Your interests are so varied and ... interesting. Thank you for another smile creating video.

Thanks, HJ!!! A wonderful video as always. I do like the desk of yours, I too also work on an old desk, and I see no need for a new one. I have a Klimt print, which is about 22"x16" in size, I have it laminated and it sits on my desk, and it functions the way the tarot card cloth does on your desk. Thanks again, from the "foppish" one!!!! :):):)

Cat cameo! Definitely going to chel out the ancient rome book! Sounds very interesting.

I'm loving the recent spate of videos from people I follow who are sharing their libraries. My fantasy house will have a library with a variety of comfortable seating and inspirations both for reading and creating. My current house is too small, so my library is scattered between rooms. I still love the books. Luckily there aren't many earthquakes in North Dakota, or my books might kill me in my sleep! Fun to see that younger picture of you using a mechanical typewriter! And, on a random note, I recognized the Gnomes book from my parents' own bookshelf.

Fantastic tour !! A library to be proud of !!

Thank you very much for opening and showing us your library

Absolutely loved the tour! I'm a big fan of Peter Mayle and his "French Lessons" is my favorite. My shelfs are full of small items picked up from our travels tucked in between the books.

Wonderful video! Thank you for a look at your books and library. Your cat is a sweetie.

Lovely home and library. I admit that I had paused some of your videos to appreciate the books on display. I was in college and working in a bookstore when "A Year in Provence" came out. I'm also a Francophile, so that made me smile. Cute cat too ^^.../

I really enjoyed seeing your gorgeous library space and favorite books and things!!! The spacious room and the abundant natural light make it extra inviting!!! I was so eager for this video ... yesterday (Thursday) I was mixed up on days ... I thought it was Friday and I kept checking for your video 😅. I almost emailed to see if you were okay. 😂 The video was worth waiting for!!! I'm going to be working on my small library room this summer it needs floor refurbishing ... seeing your hard wood gloves makes me want to sand and refinish vs putting down vinyl flooring!!!

What a wonderful tour of your library. Thank you for sharing!

That was so interesting and fun! Felt homey and insightful. I wanted to curl up in the chair and read a good book, journal some notes. Thanks.

Thanks for showing us around your filming room! I know many of us have been curious about what's on all of those shelves. A Moveable Feast is my favourite of Hemingway's work as well. I own a first edition of it in my collection too and read it at least once a year. I especially enjoyed reading it alongside the restored edition a few years back.

Great video Hemingway! That's quite an impressive library. As a published author, it is refreshing to know that there are still people who enjoy the simple pleasure of reading. On a side note, don't ever trade in that desk for a new one. A well-worn desk, is a comfortable desk. 👍

Thanks for the tour, I'm always inspecting background bookcases. And, what should be obvious from my avatar, I always appreciate the, (I've forgotten their name), cat's guest appearances.

Thoroughly enjoyed the tour sir. It seems like you have a blessed life 🙏

I love your library very much! Thank you for sharing.

Cat wants out! Thank you for the tour. I loved Circe, Jonathan Strange, and The Alienist (and the tv series) as well.

Ooh! I have heard so many references to the library tour! Have you ever met anybody who absolutely cannot stand dust jackets on books? They drive me crazy… I just dislike the idea that I have to hold the book together as I hold it up to read it. I sort of invented a hack of cutting myself a bookmark from the jacket art, but more often than not the jacket goes in the trash. Am I a book sinner? (Not valuable books of course). My book covers often get warped as I use them for coasters at the bedside, or take them to the beach or pool on vacation. They are loved. But not babied.

What a great space to do all the things you love!

That was great HJ. 👌 Now, first things first: Fender Blues Junior Marshall SV20C (?) I grew up with my dads giant library... The classics my dad had, your political books eg Churchill /Truman etc that I spotted my dad has in his library & his fav author was Hemingway. If having to choose The old man and the sea (I may have mentioned that in some other video of yours), is his selection. So, naturally, I grew up with a love of books and was reading Hemingway from a very young age. In my adult life, my dad mainly added non fiction hard backs. Going to book stores (lucky many included music sections), would keep us both busy on the weekend. However, whilst I was younger the music sections were my thing, it nevertheless instilled a life long love of books. I still love his ceiling to floor built in bookshelves study/library. Whilst there's arguably little point to books such as the full Oxford dictionary (multiple large hard back volumes), there is something about it that still fascinates me! Alas, my books are mostly in storage, they just had to make way for my music collection. However, I still have with me a few bookcases full of mostly horticulture texts, native flora & fauna etc. There will be a time (hopefully), when they all leave storage and there's room to house and display my books properly. In the meantime I've just ordered a new 'studio' desk, that will hopefully help sort out the mess that's my guitar room. I noted your favourite chair... Great to kick back with a book and coffee. However, you can't play guitar sitting in that, so where do you play or perhaps you get out your guitar and play standing like a true rock God. 😂 Cheers. 📚📚📚

Love the video! You should add book reviews into your content! :)

Love the study! I too am a big Ernest Hemingway fan.

Beautiful House and Library Greetings from Mexico

Wow. You guys are just like me and my wife. Bookshelves all over the place. Books on all subjects. I think I need a card catalog and use the Dewey Decimal System for the house. I see the benefits of Kindle but there is just something about physical books.

Whaddya know, a fellow English major. I read quite a bit, almost exclusively contemporary fiction. Right now I am particularly enamored of Lionel Shriver. But if I allow myself to recommend ONE contemporary novel to you, it would be Ducks, Newburyport, by Lucy Ellmann. I do so because a description of it might sound offputting, while it is a very involving, special book. Thanks for the tour.

HJ - Awesome video. I love the soundtrack. The first selections led me to want to be sitting in a hotel lounge in Brussels with a jazz trio playing, enjoying a good cocktail and the latter selections led me to sitting on our porch on a sunny afternoon. Well produced, thank you!

Always most interesting to see another's library. I moved not long ago, allowing me the opportunity to become a minimalist again, sort of. My book, DVD and CD collection is violently reduced now. Amazing how many people did not have any room to take even fine quality art books, which I was giving away. You reach a critical mass at a certain age when you know you must focus because time is short. As the nowhere man, Jeremy Hillary Boob PhD, said in the Beatles Yellow Submarine cartoon: "So much to know, so little time." No time for Egyptian hieroglyphics, but I had that book you have, and another besides, both suitable as textbooks. I was going to say that there is only one thing worth reading in hieroglyphics, except for museum inscriptions, and that is the Egyptian Book of the Dead in the facsimile British Museum edition, but I see later in the video that you do have that edition too. I did count three versions of the Twelve Caesars. I only had two, now reduced to one. Is that an obsession? In time all is dispersed to the winds. Some thoughts: You like the Alienist. Did you know that Caleb Carr’s father Lucien was one of the most significant and influential yet unknown men in American literature with a very ambiguous biography, and a killer? The Alister Crowley candle, though, is way too dark for me.

Thankyou for this video, it was a nice experience. Greetings from Spain :)

I just found your channel and I think this is my favorite video. Thanks for sharing!

What a beautiful library. And very well organized. I tried to organize my books many times, but it didn't last for long. So now most of them are just piled up to dangerous heights (not very convenient if you want to read one at the bottom of an almost 2-meter-high pile). At least my (300+) cook books are quite well organized by age (from ancient Mesopotamia to 21st century) , region and theme. There is nothing better than sitting in a comfy chair with a book and a cup of tea (or a glass of port). A cat purring at my feet would be nice, but currently it is too dangerous - the furry one would most probably make a big mess of my piles of books and everything else. 😁

So special. I loved it.

Your house could some day be placed in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History ( alongside Julia Child’s chef museum ) RS. Canada

Love the tour.😊

What a warm and inviting space. Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful library and your art! Both pieces were lovely!

Some of my favorite authors: Haruki Muramaki, Thomas Pynchon, David Foster Wallace, John Barth, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Cervantes, all three Bronte sisters, Laurence Sterne, Tobias Smollett. Modern Mystery writers: Rex Stout, Raymond Chandler, James Cain, Ross MacDonald, Louise Penny, Elizabeth George, many others. Modern SF: Philip K. Dick, China Melville, others. I'm also a big reader of history. Some of my favorite modern historians are Christopher Wickham, Peter Brown, Peter Heather, Eamon Duffy, John Hope Franklin (he spoke at my graduation from CMU), Eric Foner, C. Vann Woodward, Mary Beard, Timothy Snyder and many others. I'm sure I'lm leaving some authors out, like William James and Stephen Crane, and poets like Wallace Stevens and Alan Ginsberg, and semi-obscure writers like Charles Williams, but this is a somewhat long short list.

how fun.. thanks for sharing

Very enjoyable! I must’ve missed this year ago somehow. I still have to say that I am envious of your Vogue type faced typewriter, but I’ve abandoned the search for a grail machine, and am just enjoying the ones I have. I’m not much for pursuing failing quests. I don’t have a room big enough to be a library, so I have bookshelves in all my rooms except the bathrooms. Organization? Well, isn’t organization really in one’s mind?

Fun!

I really enjoy watching your videos here in England and as a result not only have I started appreciating my small fountain collection more but I have also started reading Hemingway. I have now decided to find out more about the man but as there are so many biographies of him available I was wondering if there is one in particular that you would recommend? Keep up the excellent work 👍

What’s your favorite Hemingway fictional book?

Ditch the music, intrusive