President’s Welcome

Welcome…

…to the website of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation, more generally known as the Hemingway Society. We hope that if you have not joined the Society, you will decide to become a member now. Just click on Join and go from there. If you are already a member then click on Renew Membership to renew your membership, update your contact information and enjoy free access to The Hemingway Review.

Who We Are and What We Do

Mary Walsh HemingwayThe Ernest Hemingway Foundation was established in 1965 by Mary Hemingway, Ernest’s widow, “for the purposes of awakening, sustaining an interest in, promoting, fostering, stimulating, supporting, improving and developing literature and all forms of literary composition and expression.” Within that context, the Foundation’s activities have emphasized “the promotion, assistance and coordination of scholarship and studies relating to the works and life of the late Ernest Hemingway.”

In 1980 at Thompson Island in Boston Harbor, a group of Hemingway scholars assembled for a conference near the John F. Kennedy Library (the principal repository of Hemingway manuscripts and memorabilia) formed the Hemingway Society. After the death of Mary Hemingway in 1986, Ernest’s sons Patrick and John Hemingway generously invited the Society to assume the resources, duties and functions of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation.

Since that time, the Foundation, as run by the Society, has taken the lead in advancing Hemingway studies. Among other things, we

  • Edit and publish The Hemingway Review, which appears semi-annually in the spring and fall. This outstanding journal is edited by Susan Beegel, and is mailed free to members of the Society.

  • Publish online The Hemingway Newsletter, edited by Al DeFazio. This newsletter is published twice a year, in winter and summer, and is available online to members along with back issues.

  • Hold biennial International Conferences in even-numbered years, generally alternating overseas sites with those in the United States.

  • Award annually one or two $1,000 Smith-Reynolds Fellowships to support research and writing on the work and life of Ernest Hemingway. These competitive awards are made to Society members with worthy projects, and are funded in honor of the memory of two outstanding leaders in the Society: Paul Smith, our founding president, and Michael S. Reynolds, Hemingway biographer who was president until shortly before his death in August 2000.

  • Sponsor and fund the annual PEN/Hemingway Award for the best first book of fiction. This award is presented at the Kennedy Library in Boston each spring. The winner receives a cash award of $10,000 and a one-week residency in the Distinguished Visiting Writers Series at the University of Idaho’s MFA Program in Creative Writing. The 2013 Hemingway/PEN Award winner is Kevin Powers for his first book of fiction, The Yellow Birds. A list of previous award winners may be found here. The Society works closely with the Hemingway collection at the Kennedy Library in other ways as well, for example by evaluating applications from scholars seeking to do research among the treasure trove of manuscripts assembled there.

  • Organize and chair sessions on Hemingway at both the MLA (Modern Language Association) and ALA (American Literature Association) annual meetings, where members of the Hemingway Society have an opportunity to present papers and participate in panels.

  • Supervise major book projects, including an edition of Hemingway’s complete (or nearly so) letters and a full-text version of his Africa book.

  • Above all, encourage the reading and appreciation of the writing of Ernest Hemingway, and the fellowship of his admirers. In short, there are many reasons for Hemingway scholars and enthusiasts to join the Society.

Won’t you join us in this important work?

Yours for the Society,

James Meredith, President