Key West Annotation Additions, for To Have and Have Not, 2021
Mangroves
Pages 73, 75, 76, 77, 85, 120
In Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not, Harry hid the alcohol in the mangroves during prohibition. During the alcohol smuggling scene, “He was steering to the westward now to go in to lay up for the day in the mangroves by Woman Key where he would not see anybody and where the boat was to come out to meet them” (73). During the second Key West trip, The University of Tampa students toured the mangroves by kayak to more accurately understand how he accomplished this task. We could understand how Harry “could hear the wind above the mangroves and look out at the high, cold sky, and see the thin-blown clouds of the north.” (77). The picture on the right showcases a boat that we saw that replicates how Harry would have needed to hide deep in the thick of the trees.
Above: A skiff in the mangroves, Key West, photo by Chandler Culotta, 2021.
Left: UT students Nina Darcy and Lily Connolly kayak in the mangroves, 2021. Photo by Chandler Culotta.
The Lighthouse
Pages 38, 152, 154
The second University of Tampa group to Key West ventured through the lighthouse museum and climbed to the top of the lighthouse to more accurately understand the context behind the figure that Hemingway looked at during his stay in the town.
Photo of Key West Lighthouse, view from the Hemingway House, photo by Chandler Culotta, 2021.
Panoramic view from the top of the Key West Lighthouse, photo by Chandler Culotta, 2021.
Labor Day Hurricane of 1935
Images from the lighthouse grounds and museum, 2021.
Page 55
Drawing upon his skills obtained in World War I, Hemingway volunteered to pick up the bodies after the Labor Day hurricane, and this distressing work was an inspiration for the storm mentioned in To Have and Have Not. His experience influenced fictional scenes such as, “They used to go in with schooners and load guavas from the river and there used to be a town. But the hurricane took it and it is all gone now except one house that some gallegos built out of the shacks the hurricane blew down and that they use for a clubhouse on Sundays when they come out to swim and picnic from xiavana. There is one other house where the delegate lives but it is back from the beach.” (54). In Ken Burns's PBS documentary, he discusses this novel and Hemingway's inspiration for it, despite the fact that it is not one of his most well-regarded books.
Historical image display at the Customs House Museum, Key West, about the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935. Photos by UT students, 2021.
To Have and Have Not: Yachts and Docks
Yachts on pages 102 223 225, 234, 235, 236, 241, 248, 257 and docks on pages 32, 45, 113
In Ken Burns's documentary on Ernest Hemingway, he specifically addresses the leftist pressure that was mounting during the 1930s and would eventually lead to Hemingway's most socially conscious novel, To Have and Have Not, a bifurcated narrative about a poor bootlegger, and the wealthy snowbirds who park their yachts in the Key West harbor.
The end of the book, To Have and Have Not, centers around the rich people living in Key West. Specifically, one of the last scenes zooms into the individual lives of rich individuals asleep on their boats: “While on the next yacht beyond, a pleasant, dull and upright family are asleep. The father’s conscience is good and he sleeps soundly on his side, a clipper ship running before a blow framed above his head, the reading light on, a book dropped beside the bed.” (234).
The second Key West group from the University of Tampa ventured through Hemingway’s footsteps on Key West and found yachts similar to the ones Hemingway would have seen. In the image below, expensive yachts are parked on the North side of the island.
Photo by Chandler Culotta, 2021.
Photo by Chandler Culotta, 2021.
A school of fish play by the Key West docks. Video by UT students, 2021.
The poor inhabitants of Key West would be more likely to fish off docks, or piers, like those seen in the pictures here. The bottom photo shows a decrepit pier not fit to be walked upon. Both photos credited to Chandler Culotta, 2021.