STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

In 1937 Ernest Hemingway penned “To Have and Have Not,” a novel about a fishing boat captain in Key West, Fla., who is forced to run contraband between Cuba and Florida during the Depression.

The book, which provides social commentary on Key West and Cuba in the 1930s, got brutal reviews at first, in part because of how it was influenced by the Marxist ideology that Hemingway was exposed to during the Spanish Civil War. But later reviewers have found much to admire.

It was adapted into a 1944 film starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, and three more film versions followed. And this coming weekend it will serve as the focus of the annual Ernest Hemingway Seminar at Ketchum’s Community Library.

The seminar revolving around the famed author who called Ketchum his home will kick off on Thursday, Sept. 5, with a reception followed by Dr. Kirk Curnutt’s keynote, “To Have and Have Not: What Should Have Been and Why It Didn’t Happen.” Curnutt, English professor at Troy University, is the executive director of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society and author of “Coffee with Hemingway.”

Boise State University Stacey Guill, has written a short play based on “Coffee with Hemingway,” which features an aspiring writer who interviews an older Ernest Hemingway. And that play will be presented during the conference.

Robert Wilson will hold court over “A More Dangerous Summer,” answering Hemingway’s question, “Who Murdered the Vets?” in the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane. Other sessions include a look at objects that have been left on Hemingway’s grave in the Ketchum Cemetery, an indigenous perspective on the Nick Adams experience and a screening of “The Breaking Point,” one of the films based on “To Have and Have Not.”

There also will be a Hemingway Trivia game at the Wood River Museum of History and Culture.

Brad Bertelli, an American historian living in the Florida Keys, will offer the closing keynote lecture, doing a deep dive into true tales of pirates, piracy and rum-running in the Florida Keys during Prohibition. It will be followed by a closing reception.

Cost to attend in person is $95 at https://thecommunitylibrary.libcal.com/event/12336930. Virtual attendance costs $30 at https://thecommunitylibrary.libcal.com/event/12337074.

Learn more at https://comlib.org/programs/hemingway-seminar/.