To Have and Have Not

One man against the system. One writer testing his limits.

Ernest Hemingway's third novel is a raw, fragmented portrait of desperation and defiance set against the backdrop of the Great Depression. Written in a hurry and published in pieces, it tells the story of Harry Morgan, a tough, disillusioned boat captain who runs contraband between Cuba and Key West, Florida, during the 1930s.

Harry starts as a legitimate charter fisherman, but when the rich tourists fail to show up and his family faces starvation, he turns to smuggling rum, then Chinese immigrants, then revolutionaries. He is beaten, robbed, and left without an arm. His wife tries to hold things together. Harry becomes harder, meaner, more willing to kill. The novel shifts perspectives, introducing a cast of characters—wealthy tourists, leftist intellectuals, corrupt officials—who float through Harry's world, taking what they want and leaving wreckage behind. Harry's final words, delivered as he lies dying on his boat, are among Hemingway's most famous: "A man alone ain't got no bloody fucking chance."

This is Hemingway at his most political and uneven: a novel about the gap between those who have and those who have not, about the desperation that turns honest men into criminals, and about the loneliness of the individual who refuses to join any side. To Have and Have Not is the book that led directly to For Whom the Bell Tolls—and it shows Hemingway learning to write about class, politics, and the collective struggle for survival.

• Published in 1937, Hemingway's third novel, written during the depths of the Great Depression

• A fragmented, experimental work that shifts between first-person, third-person, and omniscient narration

• The first of Hemingway's novels to engage directly with economic inequality and political violence

Available in multiple formats:

• Paperback & Hardcover: Beautifully designed print editions presenting the complete, unabridged text made to last.

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A beautifully crafted edition for your shelf, your device, or your ear, or the perfect gift for anyone who knows that having and having not is never just about money.

About the Author

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) was an American novelist, short story writer, and journalist, widely regarded as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. Born in Oak Park, Illinois, he served as an ambulance driver on the Italian front in World War I. To Have and Have Not was written during a turbulent period in Hemingway's life, as he was covering the Spanish Civil War and moving toward the political engagement that would define For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940). The novel was pieced together from two previously published short stories and additional material written quickly to meet a publisher's deadline. Critics have often dismissed it as Hemingway's weakest novel, but it remains a fascinating document of its time—raw, uneven, and fierce. Hemingway won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. He died by suicide in 1961 and is buried in Ketchum, Idaho.