In the spring of 1934, an aspiring writer by the name of Arnold Samuelson snuck atop a coal truck destined for Key West.

Having read just about every one of Ernest Hemingway’s books cover to cover, he wanted to meet the writer in the flesh and blood.

After a long journey south, Samuelson finally found himself standing in front of the door of Hemingway’s Florida estate. Somehow, he had the courage to knock…

“

He came out and stood squarely in front of me, squinting with annoyance, waiting for me to speak. I had nothing to say. I couldn’t recall a word of my prepared speech. He was a big man, tall, narrow-hipped, wide-shouldered, and he stood with his feet spread apart, his arms hanging at his sides. He was crouched forward slightly with his weight on his toes, in the instinctive poise of a fighter ready to hit. He had a heavy jaw and a full black mustache, and his dark eyes, which were almost closed, looked me over the way a boxer measures his opponent for the knockout punch. It was obvious he needed no bouncer to keep tramps off his property. He could handle the job himself. ‘What do you want?’ he asked.

”

To Samuelson’s surprise, Hemingway saw something in the twenty-two-year-old Midwesterner who had ambitions of making it as a writer.

For the next year, Hemingway took Samuelson under his wing. He read his work. He mentored him. He paid him to guard his prized fishing boat, Pilar. He allowed him to tag along on fishing trips to Cuba.

While Samuelson would never make it as a writer, he wrote down his year with Hemingway in an unfinished book that his daughter later published after his death titled With Hemingway: A year in Key West and Cuba.

One of the most valuable resources in the text––which I have yet to find anywhere else––is a reading list he put together for Samuelson that he describes as, “…a list of books any writer should have read as a part of his education”.

When Hemingway handed over the list to Samuelson, he said to him…

“

If you haven’t read these, you just aren’t educated. They represent types pf writing. Some may bore you, others might inspire you and others are so beautifully written they’ll make you feel it’s hopeless for you to try to write.

”

And if that doesn’t define what a good reading list should be, I don’t know what does.

By Cole Schafer.

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