Hemingway's Key West

By Stuart B. McIver

Book Overview

The only place in the United States that Hemingway could really call home after he started writing was the tropical island of Key West. During his decade here in the 1930s, he acquired his famed macho persona as Papa, the biggest Big Daddy of them all. This vivid portrait of Ernest Hemingway's Key West reveals both Hemingway, the writer, and Hemingway, the macho, hard-drinking sportsman. His Key West years turned out to be his most productive: he finished A Farewell to Arms, started For Whom the Bell Tolls, and wrote several other books, including Green Hills of Africa, Death in the Afternoon, and To Have and Have Not. He also turned out some of his best short stories. There was plenty of time left over for eating, drinking, fighting, fishing, chasing women, and hanging out with his circle of friends (known as "the Mob"). Hemingway spent the last years of his life in Cuba, and it was here he overcame several demons--accidents, failing health, depression--to write The Old Man and the Sea, for which he won both a Pulitzer and a Nobel Prize in Literature.

Filled with photos (some of which were not available in the first edition), this book also includes a two-hour walking tour of Key West and a tour of Hemingway's favorite Cuban haunts. This edition also includes a record of the author's exploits in Bimini and Cuba. Accompany Hemingway on fishing expeditions in the Gulf Stream and to Cuba and Bimini aboard his custom-built boat, Pilar. A treat for Hemingway fans

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 156164241X
• ISBN13: 9781561642410
• Release Date: April 2002
• Publisher: Pineapple Press
• Length: 174 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Read It Before You Go

Hemingway's Key West provide a quick, interesting read for those traveling to Key West. The island's atmosphere and history twinkles like a Hemingway smile. And the reader gets quick but enlightening peeks at Hemingway's temper, his wives, his buddies (The Mob) and his fishing techniques. Not for the library-bound scholar, this book treats the reader to the highlights of Key West and Hemingway. You'll get in-depth descriptions of his haunts. You'll find out tidbits about his life (a converted Catholic, a sometimes vindictive right-wing Republican, and a man willing to begin various love affairs instantly). Overall, a fine read. by Larry Rochelle, author of the hurricane thriller, GULF GHOST

History & literature neatly combined

Stuart McIver's HEMINGWAY'S KEY WEST is a classic example of history and literature neatly combined. McIver intends to just describe Hemingway's life in Key West, however, he also tells a lot about Hemingway as a family man (a role which Hemingway did not play well) and as a writer. His description of Hemingway's life and actions in Key West is done so well that it helps the reader picture himself in Key West at the time Hemingway lived there himself. McIver also does a splendid job in describing how Hemingway influenced Key West beyond the time he lived there. I have been to Key West twice, and on both occasions, I visited Sloppy Joe's Bar which is full of "Hemingway paraphernalia" - when you are at Sloppy Joe's, it is as if Hemingway were right there with you.