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With Hemingway: A Year in Key West and Cuba
This recently discovered narrative recounts the author's year, 1934-1935, with Ernest Hemingway in Key West and of the life he, the Hemingways, and their visitors led during that year
183 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1984
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
March 31, 2018
Subtitle: A Year in Key West and Cuba
In early 1934, Arnold Samuelson hopped a freight car and managed to get all the way to Key West, FL. He was inspired by an article or short story he’d read by Ernest Hemingway. Wanting to become a writer himself, Samuelson hoped to meet Hemingway for a few minutes and get some pointers. But Hemingway surprised the young man by welcoming him onto his staff, giving him a job aboard his new boat Pilar which included room and board. Samuelson spent a year with the Hemingways, traveling to Cuba for the marlin fishing season and absorbing all he could about writing and living.
What a wonderful memoir of one young man’s extraordinary year. I can definitely see the influence of Hemingway’s style, and yet Samuelson’s writing is all his own. My experience reading this really transports me to Key West and Havana in the mid-1930s. The way in which they spoke (including some disturbing racial slurs), their cocktails, the cringe-worthy way they treated women … all point to a testosterone-fuel uber-masculine life style. Not my usual reading at all.
There are complaints in reviews about the amount of typeface given to fishing. And I agree that it was somewhat excessive. But … Samuelson writes in a way that almost made me want to take up marlin fishing! I felt the excitement of a strike, and also the sheer boredom of hours spent watching your line do nothing.
Much as was the case with Stephen King’s memoir, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Samuelson’s work will likely help make me a better reader. When he recounts the words of wisdom Hemingway imparted … well, it made me look at the books I’m reading differently. Drew my attention to way a sentence might be crafted, a description fleshed out (or pared down), and action conveyed.
In early 1934, Arnold Samuelson hopped a freight car and managed to get all the way to Key West, FL. He was inspired by an article or short story he’d read by Ernest Hemingway. Wanting to become a writer himself, Samuelson hoped to meet Hemingway for a few minutes and get some pointers. But Hemingway surprised the young man by welcoming him onto his staff, giving him a job aboard his new boat Pilar which included room and board. Samuelson spent a year with the Hemingways, traveling to Cuba for the marlin fishing season and absorbing all he could about writing and living.
What a wonderful memoir of one young man’s extraordinary year. I can definitely see the influence of Hemingway’s style, and yet Samuelson’s writing is all his own. My experience reading this really transports me to Key West and Havana in the mid-1930s. The way in which they spoke (including some disturbing racial slurs), their cocktails, the cringe-worthy way they treated women … all point to a testosterone-fuel uber-masculine life style. Not my usual reading at all.
There are complaints in reviews about the amount of typeface given to fishing. And I agree that it was somewhat excessive. But … Samuelson writes in a way that almost made me want to take up marlin fishing! I felt the excitement of a strike, and also the sheer boredom of hours spent watching your line do nothing.
Much as was the case with Stephen King’s memoir, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Samuelson’s work will likely help make me a better reader. When he recounts the words of wisdom Hemingway imparted … well, it made me look at the books I’m reading differently. Drew my attention to way a sentence might be crafted, a description fleshed out (or pared down), and action conveyed.
August 17, 2017
Pretty friggin' great,... the author, at 22, jumps trains cross country, knocks on Papa's front door, and gets to spend the entire summer of '35 fishing, drinking, and crashing on Hemingway's famous boat, The Pilar. How the hell do you not like this?
Oh, I guess if you're one of these super geniuses who gave this book one star because they 'hate Hemingway'. What was the tell that this book wasn't for you, Sherlock? "This book sucks! I hate fishing, Key West, Cuba, writing, Hemingway, adventure, sunshine, and books! ONE STAR!" Christ, I hate people!
Oh, I guess if you're one of these super geniuses who gave this book one star because they 'hate Hemingway'. What was the tell that this book wasn't for you, Sherlock? "This book sucks! I hate fishing, Key West, Cuba, writing, Hemingway, adventure, sunshine, and books! ONE STAR!" Christ, I hate people!
March 24, 2013
Your enjoyment of this book will hinge on two things: how well you can stomach Hemingway, as well as your knowledge of Key West and/or bumming. I am firmly in the second camp, as I can't stand Hemingway's literary output (I gagged every time he referred to his "Farewell to Arms" as a great novel), nor his tough-guy act.
But reading about Key West before it became a tourist destination was incredibly fun. Also, the idea of Hemingway just taking in a wandering kid and trying to teach him the art of writing fiction is one of those bizarre tales that seems too good to be true, so it's really cool that it was true in this case. It's one of those once in a lifetime stories that would've earned Samuelson a movie deal had it happened 30-40 years later.
But reading about Key West before it became a tourist destination was incredibly fun. Also, the idea of Hemingway just taking in a wandering kid and trying to teach him the art of writing fiction is one of those bizarre tales that seems too good to be true, so it's really cool that it was true in this case. It's one of those once in a lifetime stories that would've earned Samuelson a movie deal had it happened 30-40 years later.
September 15, 2013
Arnold Samuelson was an adventurous 22-year-old during the depression that wanted to be a writer. In the spring of 1934,he hitchhiked to Key West to meet his idol, Ernest Hemingway. At the time Hemmingway was writing "The Green Hills of Africa". He ended up spending a year with E.H. including the Marlin fishing season in Cuba on Hemingway's new fishing yacht the "Pilar".
Samuelson died in 1981 and this memoir was found in his belongings by his children. I really enjoyed this book because the time period was during Hemingway's prime and you get some insight on his thought process about writing as he mentors Samuelson.
Samuelson died in 1981 and this memoir was found in his belongings by his children. I really enjoyed this book because the time period was during Hemingway's prime and you get some insight on his thought process about writing as he mentors Samuelson.
August 10, 2016
This book was a wonderful read from beginning to end. It was an insightful tome by a young writer who spent a year with Hemingway in Key West and Cuba. Aside from the excellent descriptions of their fishing adventures there were detailed observations of Hemingway's work habits and daily life while he was writing Green Hills of Africa. Hemingway also imparts his writing philosophy on Mr Samuelson, which is sprinkled through the book. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will re-read it many more times in the coming years, it was the good.
January 19, 2021
A mixed bag -- but so was the flawed genius EH himself.
December 23, 2021
I love this book. What a pleasant surprise. I feel like I want to be this guy sitting there getting writing advice from Hemingway like he is.
His advice to the writer who admires him:
Don't copy someone else. He only likes one out of ten stories he writes. Don't finish and save some for the next day. Don't plan the story, write as you go along.
No one cares about you, just your mother. If you have need to get away from the human race, you're more sensitive. It's not who you are but what you do. Once you are up they will knock you down if you don't stay there.
It's a man with his protégé with the reader being to be there too. This is a passage from the book: on page 36
It's none of the business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.
Did you save any of it?
[ ] Only three stories that were in the mail "My Old Man,' The Undefeated' and 'Fifty Grand' Every damned one came back. They didn't want them. Afterward I sold 'Fifty Grand' to the Atlantic Monthly and the editors who had sent my stuff back began to write letters asking me to send them something. If they were magazines that couldn't pay I never answered, and I held up the others for a dollar a word and sent them the same sketches they had sent back when they could have had them for nothing. If they send you stuff back that doesn't mean a thing it's to be expected if you don't write like everybody else does the readers in the magazine office don't know you are good until somebody else makes the discovery and then they all see it at once. If you write poor stuff you can still you can keep on sending it off and it'll always come back, but if you write good stuff and keep it in the mails, someday somebody will buy it they will buy it. The first crap you write doesn't mean a thing. Everybody has to learn.
His advice to the writer who admires him:
Don't copy someone else. He only likes one out of ten stories he writes. Don't finish and save some for the next day. Don't plan the story, write as you go along.
No one cares about you, just your mother. If you have need to get away from the human race, you're more sensitive. It's not who you are but what you do. Once you are up they will knock you down if you don't stay there.
It's a man with his protégé with the reader being to be there too. This is a passage from the book: on page 36
It's none of the business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.
Did you save any of it?
[ ] Only three stories that were in the mail "My Old Man,' The Undefeated' and 'Fifty Grand' Every damned one came back. They didn't want them. Afterward I sold 'Fifty Grand' to the Atlantic Monthly and the editors who had sent my stuff back began to write letters asking me to send them something. If they were magazines that couldn't pay I never answered, and I held up the others for a dollar a word and sent them the same sketches they had sent back when they could have had them for nothing. If they send you stuff back that doesn't mean a thing it's to be expected if you don't write like everybody else does the readers in the magazine office don't know you are good until somebody else makes the discovery and then they all see it at once. If you write poor stuff you can still you can keep on sending it off and it'll always come back, but if you write good stuff and keep it in the mails, someday somebody will buy it they will buy it. The first crap you write doesn't mean a thing. Everybody has to learn.
July 4, 2020
"With Hemingway" is a memoir of Arnold Samuelson's year as boat hand and student of the author Ernest Hemingway. The book was difficult to come by and published posthumously after Mr. Samuelson's death in 1981. I sought out a copy (they are difficult to find) because of my love of the great writer and Key West. I wanted to read more about EH's life in America's southernmost city.
Instead, most of Samuelson's prose is devoted to the summer Hemingway and he spent fishing off the coast of Cuba. Understandably, unlike A.E. Hotchner's "Papa Hemingway" there is little insight into EH's character or inner life. Samuelson was twenty-two at the time of his experience with Papa and was not an active friend in the way of Mr. Hotchner.
Most jarring is the presence of racist language and attitudes. It's disgusting. For that, I would not recommend the book as one worth reading.
Instead, most of Samuelson's prose is devoted to the summer Hemingway and he spent fishing off the coast of Cuba. Understandably, unlike A.E. Hotchner's "Papa Hemingway" there is little insight into EH's character or inner life. Samuelson was twenty-two at the time of his experience with Papa and was not an active friend in the way of Mr. Hotchner.
Most jarring is the presence of racist language and attitudes. It's disgusting. For that, I would not recommend the book as one worth reading.
December 12, 2022
It's 1934. Young Samuelson (22 years old) has been hoboing across the country, riding the freight trains when he reads a short story by Hemingway. He's in California but figures he'd really like to meet the author so he hops a train and heads to Key West. Hemingway takes a liking to him, takes him under his wing and coaches him on his writing skills. Also gives him a place to live, and eventually a job on his boat.
Samuelson ends up staying with Hemingway for a year. At one point they go off to Cuba for months and fish for marlin absolutely everyday. Perhaps more fishing than many of us would care to read about. But this actually is pretty well written, excellent descriptions.
It was published posthumously in 1984 when Samuelson's daughter found the manuscript among her father's possessions.
Samuelson ends up staying with Hemingway for a year. At one point they go off to Cuba for months and fish for marlin absolutely everyday. Perhaps more fishing than many of us would care to read about. But this actually is pretty well written, excellent descriptions.
It was published posthumously in 1984 when Samuelson's daughter found the manuscript among her father's possessions.
March 10, 2017
Takes you back in time.
August 1, 2017
Sometimes entertaining. Sometimes desperate. Occasionally insightful.
December 27, 2024
This is such a cool book. Any Hemingway fan will enjoy the peek into his life during the Key West and Cuba years. The book offers a glimpse into the experiences that emerged in Hemingway's writing. I wanted to give this 5 stars but for the dated and cringe worthy racist language as well as lots of description about fishing (indeed the author of this book spent the year largely aboard Hemingway's boat, Pilar) which isn't my jam.
December 29, 2011
This book was referenced in "Hemingway's Boat." It's well written and gives a glimpse of a younger Hemingway, still a bit of a blowhard. Pauline, who has always been a shadowy figure, also appears. Through his use of dialogue, Samuelson shows the uneasiness in Hemingway and Pauline's relationship. At one point they are on the Pilar and Hemingway keeps asking Pauline if she's having fun -- I'm paraphrasing. It's a melancholy story because we know how it turns out. There seems to be no happy endings in fiction or in life.
January 5, 2010
This rare gem of a book was an invaluable source of material as I researched my book on Antonio Gattorno. Arnold Samuelson was a star struck young writer who thumbed from Michigan to Key West so he could talk to Hemingway about writing. Young Arnold made such an impression on EH that he became the only writer whom Hemingway personally mentored. This book is basically the log of Hemingway's yacht, The Pilar, for the year 1935.
July 14, 2017
I enjoyed the first half of the book and the ending. The rest I could take or leave. Not so great, but interesting enough. I read it because of Hendrickson's Hemingway's Boat: Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost, 1934-1961.
August 14, 2012
I think that part of the reason I loved this book so much was that my ancestor wrote it, but the biggest part was how simply blunt EH is about writing. I've been curious about writing myself lately and this book was a good push to help me start. Very good, sporadic read for anyone interested in writing, Hemingway, or nature.
March 14, 2016
A handful of pages in this book contain really excellent advice to people wanting to become writers. The rest was about fishing in Key West. Not going to lie - I skipped those parts. I suppose I read it with a skewed perspective because all I cared about was the writing advice from the get-go. Maybe the rest of it was fine.
March 11, 2016
Sandwiched in between great advice on writing from one of the masters are a bunch of stories about fishing in Key West and Cuba. Arnold Samuelson is no Hemmingway, but he was privileged enough to take it in from EH, and thoughtful enough to capture it. Still worth reading.
October 16, 2022
I learned of this book from Paul Hendrickson’s Hemingway’s Boat after devoting many pages to Arnold Samuelson and his book With Hemingway he writes “In truth, the one slim book Arnold Samuelson accomplished in his youth, the bulk of it done under Hemingway’s eye, wasn’t just good; it was fine.”
January 25, 2015
pretty cool, would have liked more insight into the relationship they shared.
August 17, 2016
Not enough Hemingway yet the author obviously took his advice about writing.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews