Hemingway Created a Reading List to a Young Writer

After reading a story by Ernest Hemingway in Cosmopolitan called ‘One Trip Across’ (a short story that became part ofTo Have and Have Not), Arnold Samuelson, an adventurous 22-year-old, decided to travel 2,000 miles to meet Hemingway and ask him for advice.He hitched his way to Florida and then hopped a freight train from the mainland to Key West.

When I knocked on the front door of Ernest Hemingway’s house in Key West, he came out and stood squarely in front of me, squinty with annoyance, wai...