The setting of Hemingway's novel To Have and Have Not is Florida, particularly Key West. Published in 1937, the novel follows Harry Morgan, a fishing-boat captain caught between economic desperation, criminal work, and the world of wealthy vacationers during the Great Depression.
Key West gives the story its distinctive geography and atmosphere. Morgan moves between Florida and Cuba while transporting people and contraband across the Florida Straits. The novel portrays the poverty of working-class residents alongside the privilege of wealthy yacht owners, making place central to Hemingway's social commentary.
Hemingway wrote the book from 1935 to 1937, while also traveling to Spain during the Spanish Civil War. It grew out of two earlier stories, “One Trip Across” and “The Tradesman's Return.”
Readers often confuse the novel with its film adaptations. The 1944 Humphrey Bogart–Lauren Bacall movie shifted the action to Martinique, while the 1950 film The Breaking Point moved it to Southern California. Those changes do not alter the original novel's Florida setting.