Talk:To Have and Have Not

This legendary novel
We read, Legend has it that Hemingway wrote the book as part of a contractual obligation and hated it.

Surely this legend has been investigated by now. Couldn't somebody with a copy of an authoritative Hemingway biography on his or her shelf look it up and rewrite more straightforwardly? -- Hoary 04:04, 2005 Jun 4 (UTC)


 * "Citation needed" tag added, a year later. Tempshill 05:22, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

Bogey, Bacall, etc etc
A large percentage of earlier forms of the article was not about the novel but was instead about the Furthman/Faulkner/Hawks film, which pays little more than lip-service to the novel. (Despite Warner Brothers' rather desperate attempt to cash in on Hemingway's fame -- see the unintentionally ludicrous trailer, provided on the DVD.) I copied and pasted this material to To Have and Have Not (film). I hope nobody objects. -- Hoary 04:04, 2005 Jun 4 (UTC)

No guns.
"To Have and Have Not is a 1937 novel by Ernest Hemingway about Harry Morgan, a fishing boat captain who runs contraband and guns between Cuba and Florida." Harry Morgan does not run guns. He owns a gun, but there is never anything mentioned in the novel about him running them.


 * Removed. Tempshill 05:22, 9 December 2006 (UTC)


 * "Except there's my gun on the boat. Not nobody knows it's mine except the old woman. I got in in Cuba on a trip the time when I peddled those others." Chapter 17, middle of the first paragraph. --einexile (talk) 19:10, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

He owns not just "a gun", but has an automatic rifle aboard, which he uses to kill the Cuban bank robbers. --Zeamays (talk) 12:55, 3 July 2019 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Tohave and havenot.jpg
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BetacommandBot 04:49, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Racial epithets
I don't think we need the line about racial epithets in here. If so, you would need to add that line to every novel that features the "n" word. There is nothing unusual about To Have and Have Not's use of that word. This article is extremely short and has very little information about the novel. Surely, we don't need to denigrate it by stating that it is "difficult" for the modern reader. I have no difficulty with it and consider it a masterpiece.


 * I'm sorry, but I must disagree. The Harry Morgan character is a racist through and through, not just using rough language. He murders a Chinese man for financial gain.  Hemingway used racial stereotypes and racist words throughout. --Zeamays (talk) 12:58, 3 July 2019 (UTC)

Bunch of Junk?
In this article, it states that Hemingway told Howard Hawks that the novel was a "bunch of junk." But in the article for the movie it's the other way around; it's Hawks who tells Hemingway that the novel is junk. Both articles cite the same source, the Joseph McBride interview with Hawks. Can someone who has access to the source take a look and fix whichever article has it wrong? Mad Thinker (talk) 14:00, 11 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Nobody’s done anything about this in 4 years, so maybe it would be simpler to just delete the anecdote altogether. ☸ Moilleadóir ☎ 03:05, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

Only novel to take place in America?
There's also The Torrents of Spring which takes place in Michigan. Torrents of Spring is widely recognized as a novella, just as To Have and Have Not is a synthesis of two novellas and other work. Any thoughts on revising that statement? 68.174.75.41 (talk) 03:42, 26 January 2011 (UTC)


 * Yes, it's a good point. Will have a look at what the secondary sources have to say. Truthkeeper88 (talk) 20:08, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

AI ???
I give up. Who or what is the AI referred to in the third paragraph of the lead? --173.73.108.2 (talk) 17:26, 20 March 2013 (UTC)

The parenthetical should be "Albert's viewpoint"; currently, it's "Al" rather than "AI." To revise it properly, however, there should be some mention of this character in an earlier paragraph, perhaps the first. I'm insufficiently familiar with the book to perform such revision. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.54.54.143 (talk) 22:45, 29 July 2013 (UTC)

Novel vs novella
I'm confused why the lead says that this is Hemingway's second novel. The Torrents of Spring is a novella. Are they to be conflated as the same thing? I didn't want to revise without getting more opinion. Shankyouverymuch08 (talk) 13:24, 30 May 2023 (UTC)