Table of Contents
Preface 7
A Brief History of Bimini: Beginnings to 1933 15
The Lost City of Atlantis 21
The First Natives and Contact 23
The Famous Fountain of Youth 25
"The Golden Age of Piracy" Dawns in the Bahamas 27
Slavery, War, Wrecking, and Blockade-Running 30
Prohibition and Rum-Running 33
Setting the Stage: How Bimini Became the "Sport Fishing Capital of the World" 39
Why Bimini? 40
The Main Players Take the Stage 42
The First Pivotal Catches 49
Hemingway Contributes to American Big Game Fishing 54
"I'll Be of Unsavoury Parentage. I'm Shot." 67
Hemingway's Three Bimini Summers: Big-Game Fishing's "Camelot" 71
The First Unmutilated Tuna 77
The Hemingway-Lerner Friendship Begins 79
The Lerner Marine Laboratory 87
The "Big Fat Slob" of Bimini 92
Bimini Boxing 96
The Sharks and the Tommy Gun 100
The Bimini Chronology 105
The Early Fishing Clubs and the Emergence of the IGFA 111
The Salt Water Anglers of America 112
The Bahamas Marlin and Tuna Club 116
The IGFA Is Born 123
The Question of Hemingway's Contribution 126
Hemingway as Conservationist 130
Women as Equal Competitors 136
Rules and Equity 141
Hemingway's IGFA Hall of Fame Induction 141
Big Changes for the IGFA 142
The Great Bimini Mystery: Did Hemingway Return? 147
The Critical Consensus 148
The Bahamas Trip: June 1949 149
The Spanish Civil War 150
Marital Angst, a New Wife, and an International Move 152
Career Intervention 153
The Big Fish Have Gone? 155
A Conquered Fishing Ground? 155
Hemingway's Obsession Cools? 156
Questioning Loyalties 158
Bimini Was Still Calling 159
Lerner Hospitality 160
So, Did Hemingway Come Back? 162
The King's Highway Property Question Unraveled 169
The Heilner-Lerner Argument 178
The IGFA Vice Presidential Snafu 183
The Hemingway Legacy in Bimini 189
Important Historical Sites 196
Bimini Shark Lab 198
Famous Faces 211
The Big-Game Fishing Economy 216
Afterword 225
A Chronology: Important Dates and Events 229
Acknowledgments 234
Works Cited 237
Letters Cited 247
Photo Credits 253
Index 255
About the Author 259
