Having published "A Farewell to Arms", the years of struggle were coming to an end. Ernest M. Hemingway now was an author of worldwide reputation, he was happy with Pauline and financially independent. But his luck in business, art and marriage was overshadowed by some serious attacks on his health (anthrax infection, cut eyeball, glass-gash in his forehead, grippe, toothache, hemorrhoids; after "A Farewell to Arms": kidney trouble from fishing in Spain, torn groin muscle, finger gashed to the bone in an accident with a punching ball, laceration of arms and legs and face from a ride on a runaway horse through a deep Wyoming forest, later: car accident in Wyoming his arm was complicatedly broken).
Following the advice of John Dos Passos, he moved to Key West where he established his first American home. From the old stone house, a wedding present by Pauline's uncle, he would go fishing in the Tortugas waters, frequent Sloppy Joe's, Havana's famous bar, and travel to Spain every once in a while, gathering material for "Death in the Afternoon" and "Winner Take Nothing". A safari led him to Mombassa in fall 1932, Nairobi and Machakos in the Mua Hills. "The Green Hills of Africa", "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" and "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" were the literary results, many animal's lives were the cost.
His way of life provoked criticism by the Left. Max Eastman and many others demanded greater commitment to the affairs of the people. A young left-winger begged him to give up his lonely, tight-lipped stoicism and to write about truth and justice. For a while, it seemed as if he would do so. His article "Who Murdered the Vets?" for "New Masses", a leftist newspaper, and his book "To Have and Have Not" showed "social awareness", at least up to a certain degree. A little later, he would take political sides more explicitly.
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