It is astonishing that this book is so little known. Here is a memoir which records Hemingway's insights on writing as given to his only pupil, a young writer/hobo who shows up one day at Hemingway's Key West house hoping for a few words of advice. "He left me with that damned marvelous feeling you can have only once in a lifetime if you are a young man who wants to become a writer and you have just met the man you admire as the greatest writer alive and you know instinctively that he is already your friend." Impulsively Hemingway hires the twenty-two-year-old "tramp" to guard his new boat, the Pilar. Samuelson carefully records Hemingway's thoughts on writing (including a "mandatory" reading list for the young, aspiring writer). Not only does the book illuminate Hemingway, his life, his fishing, his family and his work, but it also tells the story of a fascinating individual who spent a year with him.