In this commentary on Gregory Clark’s To Have and Have Not: The Determinants of Social Status in England, 1600-2026, third in a trilogy of Hemingway-themed books, we discuss five topics: (1) the “shared environment” component in behavioural genetics; (2) misunderstanding over indirect versus direct genetic effects; (3) the meaning of genetic nurture; (4) the strength of assortative mating, and (5) parenting. We agree with Clark that genetics has an encouraging message concerning fecundity. We applaud the ambition and scale of this book which will stimulate research and discussion. We hope that scholars from different fields will engage with Clark’s thesis. Probing the nature of social status and its determinants is a pressing matter in the social sciences.