Book Description: Ernest Hemingway first came to Key West in 1928. He liked what he saw, returned--and for the next 12 years called the island his home. During this period, he wrote Death in the Afternoon (1932), Green Hills of Africa (1935), To Have and Have Not (1937), and began For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940).

Key West was more than just a place to Ernest Hemingway--it became a life style, which filled his needs for privacy and companionship, adventure and the outdoors. In Key West, he could live as he wished.

James McLendon vividly recreates the slow-paced, subtropical setting of the island before it became a popular resort. He describes the people and places Hemingway came to know and love, and gives a penetrating look at the significance of the Key West era in Hemingway's writings and the myth called "Papa."

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)

I've always wanted to read more about Ernest Hemingway so I bought this book at a local thrift store.

My Review: This was an interesting book, I didn't know much about Hemingway, this one only covered his years in Key West. I have always been fascinated with Key West, I've always wanted to go there. The time he was in Key West was interesting. At the time the only way to get there was by a ferry. The highway hadn't been built yet.

Saving this book for a bookbox.

Putting into my bookbox: Virtual Biography/Auto-Biography/Humor Bookbox, for Round #3.

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Sending this to Firegirl from my Virtual Biography/Auto-Biography/Humor Bookbox. Enjoy!

I very much enjoyed my visit to Key West years ago and am looking forward to reading about how it was, before it became what it is now. Thanks!

I *finally* got around to this book. I didn't know much about Hemingway before reading this, nor have I read much of his work, but I have been to Key West. Though it was some years ago now, and it is surely mostly corporate shops and restaurants instead of the privately own places I remember, it was still clearly nothing like what it used to be. It's interesting to picture the 9 mile island as it is described in these pages - small, rural, with minimal access to the other keys, let alone the mainland.

That is what I enjoyed about this book - the slow, island life described here. I found the history of Hemingway less interesting.

Counts for the 2018 "Reduce TBR" challenge.

Left in the Little Free Library. Happy travels, little book!