N&C - Nature & Cultures - issue No. 9 of the geographic magazine for global explorers
of The American University of Paris
Sanda Worsham (born Walsh) lives in Brandon, a suburb of Tampa, Florida. Her father was a career officer in the US Navy, married to the daughter of John Lowe of Key West, who was one of Ernest Hemingway's favorite fishing companion and model for caracters in several of his works of fiction –– as it is clearly evidenced in her article, one of her first incursions into free-lance writing, a profesion she studied in college after years of raising two children, then several grand-children and great-grandchildren while working for on her farm in central Florida, then in offices in the Tampa Bay area.
Aboard the "Anita", Joe Lowe's boat, Ernest Hemingway (far left), Carlos Gutierrez, Joe Russell, and Joe Lowe (far right), one of Hemingway's favorite fishing boat captains, friend and model for important caracters in his fiction. Photograph taken in Key West ca. 1933 now in the Ernest Hemingway, Photograph Collection, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston. (Cropped for this article).
"Hemingway's novel To Have and Have Not" I recently came into possession of information that confirmed a rumor that had circulated throughout my family for years. The rumor being that my grandfather, Joseph "Joe" Lowe was the basis for a character in one of Hemingway's stories.
Proof of this rumor actually being fact was found in a letter that Hemingway had written in 1935. At this point with proof in hand I began a research project to discover which story was he in, why was the story written, what type of character did he depict, what was Hemingway trying to say, and how was the story received and why. This was an exciting trip through many writings, not only by Hemingway, but also of others, written about him and the various stories he wrote. A door had opened to me and as my research project began it was as if each door led to another door, which led to another door, and so on and so on.
To begin with, I wanted to know the title of the story and the name of my grandfather's character in that story. My cousin, JoAnn Lowe Nolte told me, that my grandfather's character's name was Eddy and the story was titled "One Trip Across". This information was substantiated in a letter Hemingway wrote to Maxwell Perkins from Key West, 7 September 1935, in which he states, "Joe Lowe the original of the Rummy in that story of mine "One Trip Across" was drowned at the Ferry Slip"*. The character Eddy in "One Trip Across" was a rummy. My mother had told me that my grandfather died at the Ferry Slip during the hurricane of 1935, waiting for the train to come from Miami.
This is confirmed by a newspaper article in a paper called Florida Keys Key West Sun", Thursday, September 5, 1935, “Known and Reported Dead....Joe Lowe."
Now that I knew which story my grandfather was linked to, I wanted to know more about how he fit into the story line. For example, I wanted to know what type of character he depicted.
To begin with, I wanted to know the title of the story and the name of my grandfather's character in that story. My cousin, JoAnn Lowe Nolte told me, that my grandfather's character's name was Eddy and the story was titled "One Trip Across". This information was substantiated in a letter Hemingway wrote to Maxwell Perkins from Key West, 7 September 1935, in which he states, "Joe Lowe the original of the Rummy in that story of mine "One Trip Across" was drowned at the Ferry Slip"*. The character Eddy in "One Trip Across" was a rummy. My mother had told me that my grandfather died at the Ferry Slip during the hurricane of 1935, waiting for the train to come from Miami.
This is confirmed by a newspaper article in a paper called Florida Keys Key West Sun", Thursday, September 5, 1935, “Known and Reported Dead....Joe Lowe."
Now that I knew which story my grandfather was linked to, I wanted to know more about how he fit into the story line. For example, I wanted to know what type of character he depicted.
In reviewing the information that I had obtained so far, I had Hemingway's description, in a letter to Maxwell Perkins, indicating that he was the Rummy. With further investigation, I found in the Encyclopedia of Literary Characters Eddy listed with a brief description, which includes " a 'rummy', who sometimes works for Morgan. He has lost the courage to act decisively except when fortified by alcohol"(.
It was at this point that I decided to interview two of Joe Lowe's daughters, Thelma Lowe Walsh and Dora Lowe Daniel. After the interview I came away with the possibility that my grandfather could not only have been the inspiration for the character of Eddy, but he also had attributes of the main character Harry Morgan. The Encyclopedia of Literary Characters describes Harry Morgan in the following way: When times are hard , he runs liquor on the Caribbean, Although he is scrupulously honest in his dealings with people, he is worried about his responsibilities to his wife and children. Under the pressures of corrupt and immoral local officials, he moves beyond the law into a series of dangerous and illegal voyages....".
The reason for my belief that both characters have portions of my grandfather lies in information gathered from the interview with two of his daughters. They provided me with the following insight into the real Joe Lowe. They told me that Joe Lowe had worked for the railroad until its completion in 1912. While working for the railroad he had married and was supporting a family. The completion of the railroad left him without a job. At this time he took a job in the Navy Yard until he could buy his own boat and pursue the trade he knew best. Joe Lowe tried to support his family by fishing. When it became evident that fishing was not profitable, he began to use the boat for other activities. He spent some of his time fishing and some rum running or any other operation that would bring in money to feed and clothe his family, legal or illegal. He had the protection afforded by political connections to prevent any interference in his activities.
It was at this point that I decided to interview two of Joe Lowe's daughters, Thelma Lowe Walsh and Dora Lowe Daniel. After the interview I came away with the possibility that my grandfather could not only have been the inspiration for the character of Eddy, but he also had attributes of the main character Harry Morgan. The Encyclopedia of Literary Characters describes Harry Morgan in the following way: When times are hard , he runs liquor on the Caribbean, Although he is scrupulously honest in his dealings with people, he is worried about his responsibilities to his wife and children. Under the pressures of corrupt and immoral local officials, he moves beyond the law into a series of dangerous and illegal voyages....".
The reason for my belief that both characters have portions of my grandfather lies in information gathered from the interview with two of his daughters. They provided me with the following insight into the real Joe Lowe. They told me that Joe Lowe had worked for the railroad until its completion in 1912. While working for the railroad he had married and was supporting a family. The completion of the railroad left him without a job. At this time he took a job in the Navy Yard until he could buy his own boat and pursue the trade he knew best. Joe Lowe tried to support his family by fishing. When it became evident that fishing was not profitable, he began to use the boat for other activities. He spent some of his time fishing and some rum running or any other operation that would bring in money to feed and clothe his family, legal or illegal. He had the protection afforded by political connections to prevent any interference in his activities.
The 1941 adaptation of "To Have and Have Not" (above) is probably more familiar to the general public than Hemingway's novel. Other than the characters of Harry Morgan (played by Humphrey Bogart, center) and of his side-kick Eddy (Walter Brennan, background, left) -- both inspired by Joe Lowe the real man behind the fiction -- and apart from this first scene (a rich tourist breaks the captain's fishing gear and disappears from Key West without paying him either for his services or for the gear causing Morgan's ruin and his turning to human trafficking) there is almost nothing in common between this film and the book.
He would have been a rich man were it not for his weakness for alcohol and the effect it had on him. This was his financial downfall, for his political connections were aware of his weakness and used it to their advantage.
After reviewing all of the above information there is reason to believe that a portion of each of the characters, Harry Morgan and Eddy were derived from the real Joe Lowe.
After reviewing all of the above information there is reason to believe that a portion of each of the characters, Harry Morgan and Eddy were derived from the real Joe Lowe.
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In the 1944 screen version of "To Have and Have Not", Harry Morgan ends up in the French islands of the Caribbean, becomes involved with the French resistance and becomes a champion of the good cause. Obviously banking on Humphrey Bogart's success two years earlier in the film "Casablanca", the the producers and the screenwriters (Jules Furthman and no less than America's other Nobel laureate novelist William Faulkner) threw in a romantic story which launched the career of Lauren Bacall in her first appearance in a motion picture as well as setting in motion her famous romance followed by marriage with partner Humphrey Bogart. This romantic dimension of the story is even further removed from Hemingway's portrayal of Harry Morgan and the real-life Joe Lowe whose turning to trafficking was out of desperation in trying to feed his wife and children, including the grandmother of Sanda Worsham, author of this article.
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Once having obtained this information I thought I was at the end of my research. Nevertheless, I continued to review various articles, papers and books about Hemingway and his writings for any additional information I might uncover. As a major part in any writing there will be an idea or a reason that exists with the purpose of swaying the reason to the author's point of view and Hemmingway always appeared to have a reason for all of his stories.
My curiosity was aroused and I wondered why he wrote this particular short story. I had learned that the short story "One Trip Across' first appeared in print in Hearst's International - Cosmopolitan on April 19, 1934. In researching the Hemingway letters I discovered that this story was written just after Hemingway had finished editing a book for another author and as he stated in his letter to Mrs. Paul Pfeiffer, from Madrid, 16 October 1933, "The day I finished that, I was so sick of trash that I decided to write a story to rinse my mouth out and started one that ran 100 pages of manuscript.... It is almost entirely action and takes place in Cuba and on the sea"(397). He also wrote to Ivan Kashkin, from Key West, 19 Aug. 1935, "I got to Cuba and there is a little trouble, I go to Spain and write a damned good story about necessity (…) called 'One Trip Across’". It was at this point that the trail leads from the original story "'One Trip Across" through a series of twists and turns to become part of a novel. In Hemingway's own words we have the reason for the change by degrees of the short story into the novel when he wrote to Maxwell Perkins, from Cat Cay, Bahamas, 11 July 1936.
My curiosity was aroused and I wondered why he wrote this particular short story. I had learned that the short story "One Trip Across' first appeared in print in Hearst's International - Cosmopolitan on April 19, 1934. In researching the Hemingway letters I discovered that this story was written just after Hemingway had finished editing a book for another author and as he stated in his letter to Mrs. Paul Pfeiffer, from Madrid, 16 October 1933, "The day I finished that, I was so sick of trash that I decided to write a story to rinse my mouth out and started one that ran 100 pages of manuscript.... It is almost entirely action and takes place in Cuba and on the sea"(397). He also wrote to Ivan Kashkin, from Key West, 19 Aug. 1935, "I got to Cuba and there is a little trouble, I go to Spain and write a damned good story about necessity (…) called 'One Trip Across’". It was at this point that the trail leads from the original story "'One Trip Across" through a series of twists and turns to become part of a novel. In Hemingway's own words we have the reason for the change by degrees of the short story into the novel when he wrote to Maxwell Perkins, from Cat Cay, Bahamas, 11 July 1936.
I showed him the30,000 words I had done on the Key West - Havana novel of which 'One Trip Across' and The ‘Tradesman's Return’ were a part. I've decided to go on and finish that now when we go out west. The book contrasts the two places - and shows their inter-relation also containing what I know about the mechanics of revolution and what it does to the people engaged in it. There are two themes in it - the decline of the individual –– the man Harry –– who shows up first in One Trip Across - and then his reemergence as Key West goes down around him"
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Additional material was added and then edited into what came to be published in 1937 as To Have and Have Not. During this transition my grandfather's character was not edited out of the story.
In further research I was able to find more information about the primary short stories that grew into To Have and Have Not. It started when Hemingway wrote the first of the short stories, "'One Trip Across", with Harry Morgan as the main character while he was in Madrid, Spain in 1934.
He wrote the second Harry Morgan story, “The Tradesman's Returns" and it was published in Esquire magazine in February 1935. Eventually he wrote another Harry Morgan story to combine them all into a novel, writing and rewriting while he was out West at Nordquist Ranch. The rewriting continued in Key West where the manuscript was completed and then published in 1937.
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Hemingway posing for a dust jacket photo by Lloyd Arnold for the first edition of "For Whom the Bell Tolls", at the Sun Valley Lodge, Idaho, late 1939.
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The cover of the 1st edition of the novel, decried at the time but now a classic.
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Of all the Hemingway novels this one seems to have received the most unfavorable criticism. One reason was a change over his previous style. The critics did not appreciate the reason for the change in his writing. In his criticism of Hemingway's novel Alvah Bessie states
...he wrote a novel that represented what should have been and what many thought was a transition book: To Have and Have Not... was not greeted with unanimous enthusiasm by the critical fraternity of the bourgeois press, for in its pages a new note had been sounded. The old Hemingway of the postwar what-the-hell-boys and the old let's-have-another- drink was gone. A new Hemingway made his appearance.... The maturing artist found another subject –– the problem of making a living, the necessity for human solidarity. 'One Man alone ain't got,' whispered the dying Harry Morgan, an honest man who had found that he could not feed his wife and children by honest labor. The critics deplored this new and serious note in their pet disillusioned author, (...) he had discovered (…) class struggle. But many who had thought Hemingway was dead (…) took new hope with this deeper understanding of his struggle".
The other reason this story was not acceptable to a lot of critics was his heavy criticism of our Government attitude to the WW I veterans living on the Keys at that time. In Ernest Hemingway, A Life Story, Carlos Baker writes,
Ernest was torn between fascination and anger. When Joe North wired to ask him for an article for the New Masses, he responded with 2,800 words in which he sought to fix the blame for the drowning of the veterans on the bureaucrats in Washington."
These former servicemen consisted of several hundred unemployed war veterans who were stationed in work camps on Upper and Lower Matecumbe Keys. They were part of a depression-inspired FERA (Federal Emergency Relief Administration) project, building roads and bridges between Miami and Key West. Over 200 of these veterans were drowned at the Ferry Slip during the Hurricane of 1935 In a letter to Maxwell Perkins from Key West, 7 September, 1935 Hemingway wrote,
The veterans in those camps were practically murdered. The Florida East Coast had a train ready for nearly 24 hours to take them off the Keys. The people in charge are said to have wired Washington for orders Washington wired the Miami Weather Bureau, which is said to have replied there was no danger and it would be a useless expense. The train did not start until the storm started. It never got within thirty miles of the two lower camps. The people in charge of the veterans and the Weather Bureau can split the responsibility between them."
In the novel To Have and Have Not, Hemingway describes the veterans and the shabby treatment they receive from the government. In my research, as mentioned earlier, I found the beginning of a short story "One Trip Across" in which my grandfather was an original for the character of the Eddy, the rummy. Eventually, with quite a bit of writing and re-writing it eventually blossomed into one of the greatest novels of this century. All of the writing and rewriting took place between the years of 1933 and 1937 in various parts of the world. It was begun as a short story about the necessity to earn a living in a world in turmoil and was rewritten to show more of the desperate measures involved in the life to death struggle. The short story began with one main character, Harry Morgan, and although others were added and removed to give more dimension to the story, he remained the one who in the end stated the theme, "'One man alone ain't got, .ain't got no bloody ***ing chance".
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The second film adaptation of Hemingway's "To Have and Have Not " was released in 1950 as “The Breaking Point”, directed by Michael Curtiz (the director of “Casablanca”). Although set in California to appear as a completely different story than Howard Hawks' 1944 film with Bogart and Bacall, this second film version (with John Garfield as Harry Morgan), harsh in tone and far more realistic, although also taking many liberties with the novel is by far more faithful to it and to the dramatic circumstances of Joe Lowe's life.
Sources
Daniel, Dora Lowe and Thelma Lowe Walsh . Personal interview. 9 March 1999. Baker, Carlos, Ed. Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1981. Bessie, Alvah . 'Hemingway, Ernest". Contemporary Literary Criticism, Vol. 80. Carolyn Riley, (Ed.), Gale Research Co., Detroit: 1975. |
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Encyclopedia of Literary Characters. Revised Edition 4 Ed. A. J. Sobczak, Salem Press: Pasadena, 1960.
Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters, 1917-1961. Edited by Carlos Baker. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 1981.
Florida Keys Key West Sun, Vol. VI - No 40 Sept. 5, 1935: 1.
"One Trip Across. A Complete Short Novel by Emest Hemingway”. Hearst International - Cosmopolitan April 19, 1934.
Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters, 1917-1961. Edited by Carlos Baker. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 1981.
Florida Keys Key West Sun, Vol. VI - No 40 Sept. 5, 1935: 1.
"One Trip Across. A Complete Short Novel by Emest Hemingway”. Hearst International - Cosmopolitan April 19, 1934.