One Island One Book

Jefferson B. Browne: The work is done! Let it speak for itself, now and forever!

2012-01-28T12:07:00.004-05:00

When we read or talk about the Over-Sea Railroad we are naturally interested in Henry Flagler -- a remarkable figure in the history of the country and especially of Florida.
But from a Key West perspective, another important figure keeps popping up: Jefferson Browne.
Browne was born in Key West in 1857, the son of a prosperous businessman and politician. After attending law school in Iowa, he returned home and quickly held a succession of public offices, including city and county attorney, postmaster, and collector of customs. He was elected to the state Senate in 1890 -- and became president of the Senate at its first session in April, 1891. He he was elected chairman of the Florida Railroad Commission in 1904 (a key year in Keys railroad history). In 1916, he was elected to the Florida Supreme Court -- and immediately chosen as Chief Justice. In 1925, at the age of 68, he returned home to Key West but he did not retire. He worked as a Circuit Judge until his death in 1937.
Despite all these titles and achievements, we know Browne best today for his writing -- he is the author of "Key West: The Old and the New," a book published in 1912 as Flagler's railroad was expected to launch the island into a new era of prominence and prosperity.
Browne had long been one of Key West's boosters who believed a railroad was necessary and inevitable -- and he did his part to promote it. As early as 1891, before Flagler had even reached Palm Beach in his march down the Atlantic coast, he and Browne were discussing the need to connect a Florida railroad to a deepwater port that could handle shipping from the Caribbean.
In 1896, when Browne was collector of customs, he wrote a piece for The National Geographic Magazine called "Across the Gulf by Rail to Key West." He unashamedly trumpets his hometown: "It is not too much to say that upon the completion of the Nicaragua canal, Key West will become the most important city in the South," Browne wrote.
And he makes the actual construction sound ... a little easier than it turned out to be. ""When cleared of a few inches of vegetable mold and loose stones, the surface of the islands is as level and smooth as a ballroom floor," Browne wrote. He also discounted the possibility of damage from hurricanes, pointing out that the lighthouses on the reefs had withstood decades of storms and said the reef itself formed "a continuous breakwater from Fowey Rocks to Key West, protecting the road from high seas even in the severest hurricane."
Key West, Browne proclaimed, "is destined to become the Newport of the South." And Henry Flagler, he said, was just the man to build the railroad that would allow Key West to fulfill her destiny.

In "Key West: The Old and the New," Browne incorporated Walter Maloney's Sketch of the History of Key West, from 1876, and updated it with all the events and facts in the island's history since. The penultimate chapter is called "Florida East Coast Railway." Browne refers to himself in the third person, as "Senator Browne, of Monroe county," who introduced a bill in 1893 granting the Jacksonville, St. Augustine & Indian River Railway Company (ie, Flagler) a charter to build a railroad down the Keys. He then refers to and quotes from the National Geographic article -- without mentioning that he wrote it -- and calls it "a fairly accurate forecast of this great work."
Then he really lets himself go in praise of Flagler: "The writer of that article in hazarding the opinion that the intervening channels would be crossed by bridges constructed of steel piling such as are used in the light-houses on the Florida Reef, underestimated the magnificent genius and Roman courage of Henry M. Flagler, who in building this road has made use of a construction rivalling that of the aqueducts of ancient Rome, which will last long after the accretions of centuries shall have filled the space between the islands, and in the aeons to come, the archeologist will marvel as he uncovers these remains of a vanished and forgotten civilization."
Browne seems to be obsessed with comparisons to Rome. "Where the Romans built one arch, he constructed a score; where they crossed streams, he bridged arms of the ocean; where they went over valleys, he covered surging waters; where they encountered hills, he found channels; where they met with barreirs, he came to quicksands; where the precipice halted them, the quagmire threatened him; they cut through rocks, he filled chasms; the obstacles that barred their way they gribbed with iron claws, and made them do the work of the master; his obstacles -- the bog, the quagmire, the quicksands -- evaded, eluded, shifted, swallowed up tons of concrete with their capacious maws and ravenous stomachs." ...
"Why attempt to give in detail the history of the building of this road?" Browne writes. "Only in an epic poem may it be adequately described. The Greeks before Troy suffered no greater hardships, exhibited no greater heroism, practiced no greater self-denial, endured no more discomforts, met no greater terrors, experienced no more annoyances, bore no greater burdens, showed no greater courage, than the men who build this road."
And while he praises those men, and notes that a good number were drowned or blown up during construction, he leaves no doubt about who is the real hero:
"Every pile that was driven, every foot of water covered, every concrete column that reared its head from its coral foundation forty feet below the sea, obeyed the will of one man, who was thinking only of how mankind was to be benefited, and his country saved in some great foreign war, through his achievement.
"He was humanity crystallized, patriotism embodied! As Henry M. Flagler was the brain, Joseph R. Parrott was the arm, Meredith the hand, and Krome, Wilson, Coe, Cotten, Smiley and Cook the fingers, that did the work the brain conceived.
"The work is done! Let it speak for itself, now and forever!"

Last Train to Paradise Readalong: Week 1

2012-01-22T10:01:00.000-05:00

And we're off -- welcome to the first week of our first ever One Island One Book readalong!

This week, we're reading Chapters 1-4 of Last Train to Paradise, Les Standiford's account of the building and destruction of the Oversea Railroad. The railroad, you may have heard, was officially opened 100 years ago TODAY.

Re-reading the first four chapters of Last Train to Paradise, especially in light of the Centennial of the opening of the Over-Sea Railroad, I was struck by three things:

Beginning at the end

Author Les Standiford starts the book in 1935, with the approach of the Labor Day Hurricane that would kill more than 400 people and destroy the Over-Sea Railroad, washing out enough of the tracks that it wasn’t worth rebuilding for the bankrupt Florida East Coast Railroad.

It made sense to me, because you can’t really consider that railroad without thinking about its tragically brief history and catastrophic end. In Chapter 2, Standiford calls the story of the railroad’s building and its destruction “tragedy incarnate.” He also calls its construction “an undertaking that marked the closing of the American frontier” (an idea most of us associate more with building railroads to the West and the homesteading that accompanied the lines).

Do you think of the story of the Over-Sea Railroad as a tragedy or a triumph – or both? Do you find yourself thinking about the Labor Day Hurricane even as we celebrate the Centennial of the completion of the line?

Our lifeline -- and the bane of our existence

In Chapter 2, The Road to Paradise, Standiford takes the readers on a drive down the Overseas Highway in the present day (the book was first published 10 years ago). I tried, but it’s impossible for me at this point to imagine reading this as someone who has never driven U.S. 1 to Key West. It did, however, make me think about how being so accustomed to that road – and viewing it as a necessary and inescapable endurance event anytime you want to leave or return to the Keys by car – inures you to its splendors. It is a remarkable thing, a highway that crosses tiny islands and long stretches of water. Even more remarkable are the original Over-Sea Railroad Bridges, still standing alongside their 1980s-era replacements. Looking at the old Seven Mile Bridge or the old Bahia Honda bridge is like walking over the Brooklyn Bridge or another major monument to American ambition.

If you live in the Keys, do you find yourself thinking about the railroad when you drive the Overseas Highway – or do you just count down the mile markers till you get home? If you don’t live here, did this chapter make you imagine driving down an island chain, alongside the remains of the railroad?

Why on earth would Henry Flagler (or anyone) do this?

Key West was one of Florida’s wealthiest and most populous cities in the 19th century, with a natural deepwater harbor and a location strategic to the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean and the Straits of Florida. People had been talking about running a rail line there as early as the 1830s and a route was first surveyed in 1866. But it took the building of the Panama Canal – completed in 1914, two years after the railroad – and the money and determination of Henry Flagler, who made his fortune as one of the founding partners of Standard Oil, to make the project a reality. Flagler began building hotels in Florida in 1883, with the Ponce de Leon in St. Augustine, and entered the railroad business as a way to move people, and freight, south to warmer settlements where he built more hotels – Daytona Beach, Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Miami. When Flagler built the Ponce de Leon, Standiford writes, “In a small way, he had become a creator instead of an accumulator, and had found a more substantive sort of satisfaction in such accomplishments.”

Still, I always find myself wondering why anyone would take on such a project – especially someone who was 74 years old in 1904, when he decided to build the Key West Extension. “Flagler’s railroad across the ocean never earned a dime of profit and it is difficult to imagine how a businessman as bright as he was ever thought it would,” Standiford writes. Perhaps he saw it as his ultimate legacy. “Certainly the drive to make money had little to do with his decisions in those days, even if money, or the lack of it, had been the central force in the first part of his life,” Standiford writes.

Why do you think Flagler took on this project? Was it totally crazy of him to do so or did it make sense in that time and place, both in the nation’s history and his life?

These questions are meant simply as starting points – if you had other thoughts, questions or comments about the first four chapters of Last Train to Paradise, please feel free to share them – and don’t forget to tell your friends!

What the heck is an online readalong anyway?

2012-01-11T18:43:00.003-05:00

We hope by now you've heard that this year will feature One Island One Book's first online readalong.
Perhaps you are wondering what, exactly, that means.
It does NOT mean you must read the book online, although you are welcome to do so -- we even have a copy in our digital collection, accessible via Overdrive.
But what it means is that we have created a schedule for reading the book, at about 50 pages a week, and that we hope to host an online conversation. That means you can chime in from wherever you are, whenever you like.
If you want to see a couple examples of how this works, check out the online readalong for Their Eyes Were Watching God, hosted by The Heroine's Bookshelf website, or the online readalong for Gone With the Wind, hosted by the same website.
No promises that we'll reach the same level of technical and web design expertise as Erin has -- this is our first try at this! -- but we'll do our best and hope that you, the readers, will take part and let us know what you'd like to see in future years.
Remember, the readalong schedule is posted at the upper righthand corner of this blog. We start the week of the Centennial itself and finish right before Les Standiford joins us for book signings and a discussion. Thanks for checking it out and hope to see you back here for the readalong!

Interview with the Author

2012-01-04T16:27:00.005-05:00

As we get closer to One Island One Book, we had some questions for the author of Last Train to Paradise, this year's selection. And Les Standiford graciously agreed to answer them. We hope this interview whets your appetite for this year's One Island One Book. Remember, the Readalong begins the week of Jan. 22 -- we'll be posting about Chapters 1-4 here at the blog, and hope you'll chime in with comments and questions -- and Les will be in Key West Feb. 26 and 27.

Why and how did you choose to write this book?

Actually, I wrote the book after a talk with my agent from New York who drove the Overseas Highway at my suggestion and found the story of the railroad and the hurricane that destroyed it fascinating. I had written 9 novels by then, but LTTP was my first stab at book length non-fiction. I was stymied for a while after doing all the research, wondering what I was going to do with all those factoids. Finally, I decided to do what I had been trained to do: tell a story. The only difference was that this one is true.

How did writing a work of nonfiction differ from your earlier writing experience?

When you get to a point in your novel where you need a fact, as I am fond of telling my students, you can just make it up. However, if you get to a point where you don't have a fact to support the non-fiction story narrative you are trying to construct, you have to go back to your sources and find it, or you have to change your story to fit the facts you have. Of course, if one were just listing facts about a subject instead of trying to tell a story about a subject, it would be a lot easier, but that is encyclopedia writing, not narrative non-fiction.

What kind of research did you undertake for the book? How long did it take you?

I read the few pamphlet-styled books about the building of the railroad and the three biographies of any consequence about Flagler. The rest came from contemporary newspaper and journal accounts of the building and destruction of the Oversea Railroad as well as interviews with local historians and a very few people who had endured the hurricane. And of course I drove the highway many times and simply poked around. This all went on for about a year before I began the writing itself, which took about another year.

Why would Henry Flagler, who must have realized he was an old man, take on this project?

His purported justification was the approval of the Panama Canal by Congress. The Oversea RR was to connect with a deep water port in Key West also proposed by Flagler which would be by far the closest to the eastern terminus of the Canal. However, I think that was just an excuse for his deciding to do something that everyone else thought was impossible. He'd been in railroading in Florida for almost 25 years when he announced he was extending his line to Key West, and he well knew how difficult it was to make any money at the endeavor. But he was forging the trail through the last American frontier, and I believe he simply found such a project interesting. The port was never built, incidentally, due to the US Navy's objection.

Is this a story of triumph (finishing this project against the odds) or of tragedy (because of the destruction by the hurricane – or because it took away the Keys’ identity as true islands)?

I think that someone would have built a road--if not a railroad--down the Keys to "The Rock" sooner or later. Key West was after all the largest and most important city in Florida at the time Flagler began his project. So I don't see this undertaking as any more tragic than the building of the Interstate Highway system, which essentially erased the character of small town America, for instance. Whatever one thinks about change, it seems to be inevitable. Given the geography, the limitations of existing infrastructure and the lack of any previous model for such an undertaking, however, Flagler's accomplishment in building the railroad at the time that he did is truly remarkable.

Where do you think the railroad is most visible in the Keys today?

In the vestiges of the original broad channel bridges: Long Key, Seven Mile (never referred to as such by the railroad builders), and especially at Bahia Honda. They appear to me like bits of some modern day Stonehenge jutting up out of the sea.

How did the Over-Sea Railroad change the Florida Keys and South Florida in general?

Well, the railway that was touted as a boon to Key West--supposed to bring even more development to an already burgeoning economy--turned out in the end to provide an escape route for thousands eager to leave the island and travel to a part of the state where lands were available for expansion of business, for homesteading, etc. By the time the hurricane blew the railroad away in 1935, the population of Key West was about half what it was when the project was announced. A number of factors had to do with Key West's economic decline, of course, but the Oversea RR never turned a dime's profit. Passenger traffic (never profitable outside the urban corridors) was brisk and helped popularize Key West as a tourist destination, however.

Do you have any other recommended reading for people who are interested in Henry Flagler, South Florida or Keys history or the Over-Sea Railroad?

I'd recommend Seth Bramson's Speedway to Sunshine as a compendium for those interested in the development of the entire Florida East Coast rail system and Michael Grunwald's The Swamp for an excellent and exhaustive treatment of the Everglades and their historical and ecological importance to this region. There are many wonderful books about the Keys, far more than I can name, including Willie Drye's Storm of the Century, Joy William's lovely guidebook, and all the delightful mysteries that so adroitly mine Keys geography and culture, including those by James W. Hall, Lawrence Shames, John Leslie, and Tom Corcoran.

The journey begins

2011-10-04T11:25:00.004-04:00

It's official: Our selection for One Island One Book 2012 was chosen to commemorate the Centennial of the Overseas Railway. We'll be reading "Last Train to Paradise" by Les Standiford.

The book tells the tale of the epic effort to extend Flagler's East Coast Railway to Key West, which was then a prosperous shipping and cigar manufacturing center. The construction was comparable with the enormous engineering feats of the time, like the Panama Canal.

And the book continues to the railroad's tragic end -- the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 which swept across Islamorada as a Category 5 and destroyed the tracks.

Standiford will be in Key West in late February to discuss the book but there's plenty to do ahead of time to prepare. You can read the book, which is in the Library collection in print and audio -- and as an ebook through our new digital collection.

You can also learn more about the railroad by visiting "Flagler's Speedway to Sunshine," the current exhibit at the Custom House Museum of the Key West Art & Historical Society. Other Centennial events are listed on the Centennial Committee's website. And don't forget to check out the Library's own astounding collection of images from the construction and operation of the railroad, available on our Flickr page.

Counting down

2011-03-05T11:40:00.000-05:00

It's almost here -- next week One Island One Book, featuring The Last Resort by Alison Lurie, begins with a talk by Cynthia Crossen, a Key West resident who writes the "Dear Book Lover" column for the Wall Street Journal -- and is vice president of the Friends of the Key West Library. Cynthia's talk will be at 6 p.m. in the Library Auditorium -- should be very interesting.

The Book Bites reading group will meet twice next week to discuss the book. All are welcome to attend; you do not need to be a Monroe County Library cardholder or to have attended a Book Bites session before. Those meetings are at 4:30 on Thursday, March 10, and 2 p.m. Saturday, March 12. Both of those meetings will take place in the Conference Room, off the Reference Department (where it is usually very chilly so bring a sweater no matter the temperature outside).
If you haven't yet read the book it may be too late to get a library copy before next week -- but they have them for sale at Key West Island Books, 513 Fleming St., for $5.98.

Front page, baby!

2011-02-23T19:24:00.000-05:00

Alison Lurie in her Key West backyard. Photo by Rob O'Neal.

We were delighted to open the Key West Citizen Tuesday and see a front page story about this year's One Island One Book -- thanks, Mandy! -- with a delightful photo of the author -- thanks, Rob!

We were especially delighted to see Lurie's kind references to the Library. And we're even more excited now to hear Cynthia Crossen's discussion, a bunch of Book Bites meetings and finally the Cafe con Libros where we get to hear from Lurie herself.

We have 18 copies of The Last Resort in our collection but they are all, as of this writing, checked out. And there's a waiting list. Do not despair, though! They are being returned -- it's a pretty quick read -- and if you don't want to wait or you don't have a Monroe County Library card (everyone is welcome to attend the programs), they have a good supply of books at Key West Island Books -- for the excellent price of $5.98. They're at 513 Fleming Street -- just up the street from the library.

Volume Two

2011-02-05T07:49:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year again -- after all the fun we had last year with our first One Island One Book program, we're going to do it all over again.

With a different book, naturally. This year, our selection is once again a novel and once again one set in Key West -- but it's more contemporary and, to our delight, the author has agreed to take part in our program.

Alison Lurie's The Last Resort tells the story of Jenny Walker, the much-younger wife of a famous writer and naturalist who has, for years, devoted her life to serving his. When he becomes depressed and withdrawn one winter, she suggests they repair to Key West -- where all kinds of unexpected things happen. Like they tend to do around here.

The events for this year's One Island One Book will kick off with a talk by Wall Street Journal "Dear Book Lover" columnist Cynthia Crossen -- also a Key West resident and vice president of the Friends of the Key West Library. There will be several different meeting times for the Book Bites Reading Group, so you can attend whichever suits your schedule. And the finale will be when we hear from Lurie herself, a Pulitzer Prize winner and longtime Key Wester.

The Library has lots of copies of the book available for check-out so tell your friends, alert your book club and get ready to enjoy a great read from a great writer. For more information about Lurie, check out her website. Stay tuned here or on Facebook for updates.

It's official!

2010-03-14T20:03:00.000-04:00

The Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum is now a Literary Landmark -- the dedication ceremony today was a great success. Thanks to all who attended this and other One Island One Book events -- see you next year! Above, writer Les Standiford speaks at the dedication. Middle, Mike Morawski and Circulation Librarian Kris Neihouse hold the plaque while it's installed. Bottom, the plaque in its place of honor, right next to the front door.

The big finale

2010-03-11T16:28:00.000-05:00

We're on the homestretch of One Island One Book and it's been a great ride -- book groups, documentaries, and just this morning a great talk from Key West Library's own historian Tom Hambright about Key West in the 1930s, when Ernest Hemingway lived here and the Works Progress Administration changed the face of the island (they had this wacky idea that tourism was the future for Key West). We'll finish it all off on Sunday with the dedication of the Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum, 907 Whitehead Street, as a National Literary Landmark. This designation, which comes from the Association of Library Trustees, Advocates, Friends and Foundations (ALTAFF) with our own Friends of the Library as co-sponsors, is long overdue -- it will be the eighth literary landmark on our little island alone, and the second honoring Hemingway (the first is his birthplace in Oak Park, Illinois). Anyone with a local photo I.D. gets free admission to the Hemingway Home; writer Les Standiford will speak and we'll be serving refreshments. Hope you can join us!

Week Two Begins

2010-03-07T18:02:00.000-05:00

The first week of One Island One Book was a smashing success -- big crowds for the movies and a good turnout for the special Saturday morning book discussion -- but if you missed it, don't worry -- there's more to come this week.
On Monday, we make it Two Islands One Book when the Book Bites book group holds a special meeting at 3 p.m. Monday at the Florida Keys Community College Library on Stock Island. All are welcome; if you've never been to the library it's worth the trip just to check out the place -- great collection, fabulous views and smart and wonderful staff. The Library is upstairs at Building A -- the blue building. On Wednesday, Book Bites meets again at its usual time, 5:30 p.m., at the Key West Library, 700 Fleming St. Once again, all are welcome -- you don't have to be a "member" of the group or even hold a Monroe County library card. On Thursday at 10 a.m. historian Tom Hambright will talk about the WPA (Works Progress Administration) in Key West -- that's the New Deal program that Hemingway described unflatteringly in several places, including "To Have and Have Not." (The head of the arts program, Al Dornbush, painted the map above left, one of the images in this year's Friends of the Library calendar.) On Friday at 5 p.m., we go back to the college for a talk by FKCC professors Sharon Farrell and Pat Silcox, followed by a viewing of "Soul of a People," the documentary about the Federal Writers Project. And it all wraps up on Sunday at 2 p.m. with the dedication of the Hemingway House as a Literary Landmark. If you have questions, call us at 305-292-3595.

Next up ...

2010-03-04T08:05:00.000-05:00

The first event of One Island One Book was a huge success -- standing room only for the screening of "To Have and Have Not," the film "based" on Hemingway's book. Learn more about the writer today at 2:30 p.m. at the Library with a free showing of "Wrestling With Life," the biography of the writer produced by the Arts & Entertainment cable network. Afterwards, a discussion will feature guest speaker Brewster Chamberlin, Hemingway aficionado and member of the Friends of the Library board. See you here! Any questions? Give us a call at 292-3595.

One Island One Book starts tomorrow!

2010-03-02T11:32:00.000-05:00

One Island One Book officially starts tomorrow -- Wednesday, March 3 -- with a free screening of the film version of "To Have and Have Not" at 5 p.m. in the Library Auditorium, 700 Fleming St.

The movie version has a great pedigree -- it stars Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall and William Faulkner wrote the script -- but it does differ significantly from the novel on which it's based. For one thing Martinique is substituted for Cuba. For another, all the stuff about the social structure of Key West is gone. But it's still a great movie -- and the only movie that includes two Nobel Prize winners (Faulkner and our man Ernest Hemingway). The movie is free and you do not have to have a library card to attend.

Read all about us!

2010-02-18T15:20:00.000-05:00

One Island One Book made it to the front page of The Key West Citizen on Tuesday -- sparking a run on copies of "To Have and Have Not" at the library. Such a run, in fact, that we're currently out of the book. But that doesn't mean you're out of luck. You can get on the waiting list (there are lots of copies so you could get one before the program starts in March). Or you could hit one of the local bookstores, Voltaire or Key West Island Books, to get a copy. The program begins in less than two weeks -- fortunately, it's not a very long book!

Les Standiford to speak at Hemingway House dedication

2010-02-06T10:42:00.000-05:00

We are delighted to announce that writer Les Standiford, director of the Creative Writing Program at Florida International University and author of numerous books, both nonfiction and fiction, will be the speaker on Sunday, March 14, when the Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum is dedicated as a national Literary Landmark.

Standiford is the author of the John Deal novels and in recent years has written highly regarded works of historical nonfiction, starting with "Last Train to Paradise," which chronicles the building and destruction of Henry Flagler's Overseas Railway, connecting the Florida Keys to the mainland for the first time.
The railroad was destroyed when a Category 5 hurricane crossed the Upper Keys on Labor Day 1935. Hemingway was in the Keys at the time and went to Islamorada immediately afterwards to help in rescue and clean-up efforts. He was outraged at the deaths of hundreds of World War I veterans who were working on a New Deal highway program in Islamorada -- a rescue train was sent too late -- and wrote about the event in a piece for The New Masses.

More details!

2010-02-04T14:53:00.000-05:00

Copies of "To Have and Have Not" -- in regular and large print -- are now available at the Key West Library if you want to start reading. And we have a brochure with a handy calendar of events -- all taking place in the first two weeks of March -- including a showing of the movie version (yes we know it barely resembles the book but it's got Bogart and Bacall and a script by William Faulkner). We'll also be showing the documentary Soul of a People about the Works Progress Administration, which was very active in Key West in the 1930s. The Book Bites Reading Group will hold a special session at the Florida Keys Community College Library. Historian Tom Hambright will talk about the WPA in Key West. And it will all wrap up with a long-overdue honor: the Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum will become a Literary Landmark on Sunday, March 14. Stay tuned here for more details or stop by the library. You can also call us at 305-292-3595.

It's on!

2010-01-15T18:48:00.000-05:00

It's official! Key West's first community read -- called One Island One Book -- will take place during the first two weeks of March and the book we'll be reading is "To Have and Have Not" by Ernest Hemingway. Why? Because this is Hemingway's only novel set in Key West -- and because the Depression setting has strong resonance as we go through our own economic hard times. So get a copy of the book -- the Key West Library has a bunch, the Florida Keys Community College Library is getting a bunch and local bookstores have been advised to buy plenty. Start reading and watch here for future updates.

Welcome to One Island One Book

2009-12-28T12:05:00.000-05:00

In March, the Monroe County Public Library's Key West branch is holding its first One Island One Book event -- and we'll be reading "To Have and Have Not" by Ernest Hemingway. This novel, by Key West's most famous writer, is set in Key West during the Depression and provides a vivid portrait of the island during one of the most harrowing time in the island's history. (A movie based on the novel -- sort of -- stars Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall -- but bears almost no resemblance to the book's plot.)