Books

New York: P.F. Collier & Son Corporation, 1937. Hardcover. Very Good. Reprint. Octavo. Figured blue cloth gilt. Owners signature of the poet X.J. Kennedy ("Joe Kennedy") with his penciled marginalia sporadically throughout the text. Tape into the rear of the book is Kennedy's four page typed and hand-corrected critique of the novel. Kennedy's opinion is scathing, employing both casual racism and misogyny, as well as a healthy (or unhealthy?) and presumably youthful dose of contempt for the older author. We'll spare you the quotes, which are presumably covered by copyright.

To Have and Have Not is the dramatic story of Harry Morgan, an honest man who is forced into running contraband between Cuba and Key West as a means of keeping his crumbling family financially afloat. His adventures lead him into the world of the wealthy and dissipated yachtsmen who throng the region, and involve him in a strange and unlikely love affair. Hemingway's most intriguing and tantalizing themes make their appearance: man's battle against the cruelty of nature, the pressures of society on the individual, and the existential qualities of life in the modern world.