 Hemingway lived in the house from mid-1939 to 1960, first renting it, and then buying it in December 1940 after he married Martha Gellhorn, his third wife.Gellhorn, who had come to Cuba to be with Hemingway, decided that she did not want to live in the small room he rented at the Hotel Ambos Mundos.She found the property for which Hemingway paid $12,500.