Ernest Hemingway and Enrique Serpa: A Propitious Friendship

Abstract

New evidence from Cuba suggests that Ernest Hemingway enjoyed a lasting friendship with Enrique Serpa, the Cuban author of the novel Contrabando [ Contraband ], as well as the short stories “ La Aguja ” [“The Marlin”] and “ Aletas de Tiburon ” [“Shark Fins”]. Hemingway admired Serpa’s conspicuous talent, and both To Have and Have Not and The Old Man and the Sea show signs of the Cuban writer’s influence. Includes an appendix describing signed books by Serpa in the Finca Vigía library and the text of a letter to Maxwell Perkins from Martha Gellhorn, seeking to advance Serpa’s career

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