Unlike William Faulkner, who wrote screenplays for extra cash, most of Ernest Hemingway’s additional income came from performing as a sad-clown version of Woodrow Wilson at kids’ birthday parties. Revel in all sides of the multi-dimensional writer with today’s Groupon: for $30, you get a one-year family membership to the Ernest Hemingway Museum, through the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park (a $60 value). The family membership is good for two adult and two children admissions to the museum and the Hemingway Birthplace Home.

The Ernest Hemingway Museum offers authorial enthusiasts and museum-hopping foreign tourists a thrilling, historic look into the life of one of America’s most cherished and accomplished writers. The museum hosts permanent and temporary exhibits that focus on various aspects of the Nobel Laureate’s life, such as detailed explorations of his love of nature, safariing, and bears trained to test masculinity. Themed exhibits contain rare photos and artifacts such as the author's childhood diary, personal senior yearbook, and an invitation to his 1921 wedding, as well as the famous letter from Agnes von Kurowsky —later dramatized in A Farewell to Arms —that terminated their engagement with a heartbreakingly terse “g2g my bad.” Visitors can continue their enlightening voyage in the Hemingway Birthplace Home, which has been recently restored to the Victorian splendor of Hemingway's youth and is where Hemingway spent his first formative years before leaving the cozy confines of suburban Chicago.

The Hemingway Museum is great for family outings or romantically wordy dates, and a family membership provides a year’s worth of exciting, worldly knowledge from one of America’s most impressively bearded grade-A wordsmiths. Members are also privy to a subscription to the Hemingway Despatch newsletter, 10% off on gifts and books from the Museum Store, and discounts on selected events.

Reviews

Frommer’s recommends the Hemingway Museum and three Yelpers give it an average of four stars.

• It's an old classy building, with a beautiful auditorium hall in the upstairs section. From the Hemingway savvy to the newbs, everyone will admire the detailed timeline given of the Nobel laureate. – Nik B., Yelp
• There are some really cool family photos on display and there's a lot of Hemingway family tree stuff to learn about and reflect upon. I loved seeing his uncles Civil War discharge papers and certificates… – Christina M., Yelp