Ernest Hemingway has had one of the most active posthumous lives of any writer. He died in 1961 and since that time there have been five books published "by Ernest Hemingway." These books include A Moveable Feast (1964), Islands in the Stream (1970), The Dangerous Summer (1985), The Garden of Eden (1986), and True at First Light (1999). A sixth posthumous installment was published in September of 2005 and this may be the very last posthumous work we see from the great Hemingway.

Under Kilimanjaro is the full account of Hemingway's 1953-1954 safari in Kenya with his fourth wife Mary. It is somewhat of a supplement to the 1999 True at First Light. The publisher's web site describes the manuscript as "part handwritten and part typed, with many of the pages heavily edited in Hemingway's hand." They go on to explain where the book has been for all of these years: "He then left this manuscript, along with those for A Moveable Feast, Islands in the Stream, and The Garden of Eden, in a safe-deposit box in Cuba, often referring to them as his 'life insurance' for his heirs."

"Life insurance for his heirs" — Hemingway's posthumous life has provided just that. For devoted Hemingway fans and scholars, there is a certain sense of excitement when a new Hemingway book is published. Why is that? Good marketing? Good writing? Or is it simply because Hemingway's image and essence still interests people enough to buy his books. When a movie becomes a blockbuster hit, how many sequels will it spawn? Hemingway was literature's blockbuster hit and it is no surprise that his writing legacy has lived on, sequel after sequel.