Ernest decided to write a
story set in the heart of Africa
at this historic house in Key West
which he hoped would be his best
about a struggling but dying
writer who dreamed of writing
his stories about earlier experiences
and named it “Wings over Africa,”
regarding an arriving rescue plane,
in which he would die up in the sky.
Ernest sent it off to Charlie Scribner
who loved his story but suggested
creating a much more catching title
making Ernest feel somewhat bitter
for a week or so until he came up with
“The Snows of Kilamanjaro,” truly,
of all his great stories, the very best
he sent from his home in Key West.
—
Richard F. Fleck is an 88 year old author whose books include Desert Rims to Mountains High (2013), Henry Thoreau and John Muir Among the Native Americans (2016), and Bamboo in the Sun: Poems of Japan (2020). His poems have appeared in a variety of journals in the US, Canada, France, and Japan
