The history of the book—memoir or fiction—written about Africa by Americans and Europeans has a rich tradition. Asked about literary precedents in this mode, Hemingway's son Patrick noted that the tradition "started with Olive Schreiner in the 19th century, who wrote a book called The Story of an African Farm which was very popular.... Wonderful book." Schreiner, a South African, was the first colonial African writer to receive widespread recognition for her evocations of the African people and landscape in her fiction, as well as for her role as a champion of women's rights and advocate for the freedom and dignity of Africans suffering under colonialism. Another important writer in this vein is Isak Dinesen (pen name of Karen Blixen), a native of Denmark who lived in Kenya and wrote the widely praised Out of Africa (1937).

Hemingway knew the Blixens (he used...