Hemingway house group disbands

BOISE – A foundation that formed four years ago to help preserve the central Idaho house where Nobel Prize winner Ernest Hemingway killed himself has disbanded, saying it has achieved its goals.

The Hemingway House Foundation recently made a final donation of $26,200 to The Nature Conservancy, which owns the house in Ketchum and the 12 acres of land around it.

The foundation previously donated $17,500 for restoration work at the home, which included fixing furniture coverings, repairing windows and finishing wood. It disbanded last week.

The conservancy is also researching and archiving all items in the house, identifying those with cultural significance. A caretaker has been living there since November 2005.

“We are very pleased with the ongoing restoration,” Pete Smith, a foundation board member, said in a statement. “It is gratifying to see the conservancy carrying forward our original vision.”

For a time the house was used as an office by the conservancy, whose stated mission to preserve natural ecosystems includes nothing about the upkeep of historic homes.

Jan Peppler, director of philanthropy for the Nature Conservancy in Idaho, said the foundation convinced the group that Hemingway’s continued popularity as a writer and his reputation as an outdoorsman could be combined with his former home to further the conservancy’s goals.

“This home truly is a legacy and a wonderful connection to the land and introduces people to what we do,” said Peppler. “Not Hemingway the literary giant, but Hemingway who loved Idaho, who spent all these years off and on in Idaho, and his great love of the land.”