Idaho PBS shares an Ohio connection to Hemingway’s years in Idaho

Idaho Public Television has a new online event celebrating the “Idaho roots” of author Ernest Hemingway. “Papa” was a worldly rolling stone who wound up in Ketchum, Idaho, and lived there until he died in 1961.

Now, an Ohio University alumnus who lived in Idaho and became involved in preserving Hemingway’s legacy continues curating more information about Ernest Hemingway’s Idaho experience.

“Van Gordon Sauter, former president of CBS News and Fox News, will be part of a virtual screening and panel discussion hosted by Ohio’s WOUB Public Media, in partnership with Idaho Public Television,” according to an Idaho Public Television statement to the Idaho Capital Sun.

Sauter is the author of “The Sun Valley Story” and was the head of a committee trying to find the manager/protector of the Hemingway House in Ketchum. The Hemingway House in Ketchum and its associated 13.9 acres of land alongside the Big Wood River is on the National Register of Historic Places for its association with the writer and because it is an exquisite example of midcentury architecture.

The panel will also feature Lynn Novick, who directed and produced the Hemingway documentary series with Ken Burns, which premiered on Idaho Public Television in April; Jenny Emery Davidson of the Community Library in Ketchum, which owns and manages the Hemingway House; and Gary Holcomb, an African American studies professor at Ohio University, who published a critical collection called Teaching Hemingway and Race.

An excerpt from the PBS Hemingway documentary series and an episode of IdahoPTV’s original series Idaho Experience that focuses on the home Hemingway lived in during his time in Idaho will be screened. The panel will take questions from the virtual audience and discuss the life of Hemingway and the history of this home.

Hemingway worked on For Whom the Bell Tolls, Islands in the Stream, and a memoir, A Moveable Feast, while in Idaho. However, it was a memoir he never finished. Hemingway died by suicide on July 2, 1961, at the Idaho home.

“We are thrilled to be able to hear from Van, Lynn, Jenny, and Gary about their perspective on Hemingway and the way his Idaho home is being preserved for future generations and present-day writers who use the home for inspiration,” WOUB Community Engagement Manager Cheri Russo said in a statement.

The online event Ohio Connection to Hemingway in Idaho will held at 5 p.m. (MST) June 29. Register here to join the free discussion.