Thursday, February 18, 2010

Read all about us!

One Island One Book made it to the front page of The Key West Citizen on Tuesday -- sparking a run on copies of "To Have and Have Not" at the library. Such a run, in fact, that we're currently out of the book. But that doesn't mean you're out of luck. You can get on the waiting list (there are lots of copies so you could get one before the program starts in March). Or you could hit one of the local bookstores, Voltaire or Key West Island Books, to get a copy. The program begins in less than two weeks -- fortunately, it's not a very long book!

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Les Standiford to speak at Hemingway House dedication

We are delighted to announce that writer Les Standiford, director of the Creative Writing Program at Florida International University and author of numerous books, both nonfiction and fiction, will be the speaker on Sunday, March 14, when the Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum is dedicated as a national Literary Landmark.

Standiford is the author of the John Deal novels and in recent years has written highly regarded works of historical nonfiction, starting with "Last Train to Paradise," which chronicles the building and destruction of Henry Flagler's Overseas Railway, connecting the Florida Keys to the mainland for the first time.
The railroad was destroyed when a Category 5 hurricane crossed the Upper Keys on Labor Day 1935. Hemingway was in the Keys at the time and went to Islamorada immediately afterwards to help in rescue and clean-up efforts. He was outraged at the deaths of hundreds of World War I veterans who were working on a New Deal highway program in Islamorada -- a rescue train was sent too late -- and wrote about the event in a piece for The New Masses.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

More details!

Copies of "To Have and Have Not" -- in regular and large print -- are now available at the Key West Library if you want to start reading. And we have a brochure with a handy calendar of events -- all taking place in the first two weeks of March -- including a showing of the movie version (yes we know it barely resembles the book but it's got Bogart and Bacall and a script by William Faulkner). We'll also be showing the documentary Soul of a People about the Works Progress Administration, which was very active in Key West in the 1930s. The Book Bites Reading Group will hold a special session at the Florida Keys Community College Library. Historian Tom Hambright will talk about the WPA in Key West. And it will all wrap up with a long-overdue honor: the Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum will become a Literary Landmark on Sunday, March 14. Stay tuned here for more details or stop by the library. You can also call us at 305-292-3595.