True tales of writers and pirates, painters and potheads, guitar pickers and drug merchants in America's southernmost city: Key West, Florida. The small town on the two-by-four-mile island has long been an artistic haven, a wild refuge for people of all persuasions, and the inspirational home for a league of great American writers. Some of the artists went there to be literary he-men. Some went to re-create themselves. Others just went to disappear--and succeeded. Key West in the seventies was the right place at the right time, when an astonishing collection of artists--the likes of Jimmy Buffett, Tom McGuane, and Hunter S. Thompson--wove a web of creative inspiration. This book tells the story of how these writers and artists found their identities and maintained their friendships over the decades, despite oceans of booze and boatloads of pot, through serial marriages and sexual escapades, in that dangerous paradise.--From publisher description.

The taco man -- Island of bones -- The template -- A different society -- McGuane -- The boys -- Nowhere to hide -- The failure -- This republic of ours -- Square grouper -- A year of living dangerously -- Margaritaville -- The king of gonzo -- Bum Farto and Ping-Ping -- Redemption -- Evacuation -- Don't stop the carnival.