The Posthumous Life of Ernest Hemingway By Martin L. Peterson Universiy of Idaho Editor’s Note: Fifty years ago this summer, novelist Ernest Hemingway took his own life in Ketchum, Idaho. In the fall of this year, the Community Library in Ketchum and the University of Idaho will host public programs on the life and work of Hemingway (see sidebar page 4). In preparation for this issue of Idaho Humanities, we asked IHC Board member Volume XV, No. 2 and devoted Hemingway aficionado Martin L. Peterson to The Newsletter of the Idaho Humanities Council Summer 2011 reflect upon the author’s enduring popularity. The Civility of Architecture By Doug StanWiens Boise High School Robert “Bungalow Bob” Winter, the architectural history professor at Occidental College, who taught the favorite senior course: L.A. Architecture. Friday afternoon trips in a school bus around Los Angeles to see such amazing structures as the Gamble House and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House hooked me long before I had the guts to admit it to my circle of college buddies. Architecture seemed so intellectual, so civilized, so creative, especially to an economics major. Six years ago, when this latent interest crashed into a need to create a meaningful, post-Advanced Placement exam project for my U.S. History students at Timberline High School, I decided Idaho Falls aviator Pete Hill poses with Ernest Hemingway at the Ketchum to create a tribute to Professor house, 1959. Winter. Thus, the Boise Architecture hortly before she died from cancer in 2003, the Pulitzer Project was born. Prize-winning author Carol Shields was interviewed At first, the project (known as the S BAP) was one of those ubiquitous by Terry Gross on her National Public Radio program, Fresh Air. Shields was asked what her legacy would be as Power Point projects that students a writer. She responded that she would be like most famous do. But one of my technologically writers. Four months after she died, her name would fade off advanced students offered to create into obscurity. a website of our projects. He The Idanha Hotel in downtown Boise, at one time the tallest building in Idaho at five purchased web space, designed a Ernest Hemingway died fifty years ago on July 2, 1961. stories, features a French-chateau style, quite unusual in the area for its time. But Hemingway hasn’t faded off into obscurity as Shields page, and we secured the domain thought most great writers do. If anything, his star has gained Editor’s Note: In March of this year, Washington State name “boisearchitecture.org,” where we parked luster with every passing year. University’s Thomas Foley Center, in cooperation twelve of our quickly researched and photographed Hemingway’s death was arguably the most newsworthy with the state humanities councils of Idaho and buildings in Boise, Idaho. With the help of several event ever to occur in Idaho. University of North Carolina pro- Washington, sponsored a two-day conference on generous grants from the Idaho Humanities Council, fessor and Hemingway scholar John Bittner has commented, “Civility and Democracy,” which explored the Boise Arts and History Department, and others, “In July 1961, the life and the literature of Ernest Hemingway concept and practice of civility as reflected in history, students at Timberline, Capital High School, and created more press coverage than any other literary event in religion, philosophy, mass media, architecture, and Collister Elementary along with folks from the history.” It was the front-page headline story in newspapers more. Asked by the Foley Center to invite to the community, have created a resource where the throughout the country, including the New York Times, Boston conference a few Idaho library and museum program histories, photographs, and stories of more than Globe, Atlanta Constitution, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago managers, media professionals, teachers, and others two hundred buildings appear for public viewing. Daily News, Washington Post and Des Moines Register. involved in organizing programming around issues The BAP has grown from there too. Since 2005, Hemingway and Mark Twain, whose work Hemingway of public concern, we asked Boise High School BAP students have contributed hundreds of hours greatly admired, are probably the two most recognizable history and government teacher Doug StanWiens in volunteer service to preservation organizations American authors who have ever lived. In fact, with the addi- to attend the conference, given his enthusiastic and events, sat on boards of community groups, tion of William Shakespeare, they may be the most readily interest in architecture. Some years ago, StanWiens developed Wikipedia pages and documentary films recognizable authors in the world. launched with his students “The Boise Architecture on local structures, and blogged, facebooked, and Hemingway is one of the few authors who has sold more Project,” a student-focused digital media project tweeted about architecture, history, and culture in books since his death than before it, keeping in mind that dur- that documents local history and architectural Boise. During the short time that the BAP is ing his lifetime he was one of the world’s most popular writers, preservation. A recipient of grant support from the active each school year, students quickly learn about winning both the Pulitzer and Nobel Prize for literature. Idaho Humanities Council, the Boise Architecture architectural styles, preservation needs, and digital Amazon.com lists 3,928 different books and editions by Project (BAP) has caught the imaginations of project management. We’re not experts, but we’re and about Ernest Hemingway, including over 60 different edi- StanWiens’ students and inspired them to document over five hundred students strong, and we’ve helped tions and reading guides to The Sun Also Rises alone, which unique architecture in the city of Boise. The BAP bring Boise’s architecture to the web in a way that was first published 85 years ago. has become a model project for teachers to replicate enriches our democratic society through a focus on A Google search for Ernest Hemingway gets 7.8 million in other cities. Given his infectious interest in local history and preservation. hits, about the same number as Richard Nixon, as opposed to architecture, we asked StanWiens how architecture So, when Idaho Humanities Council Director 2.6 million for William Faulkner, 4.6 million for John Grisham, reflects “civility.” Rick Ardinger contacted me earlier this year and 2 million for Leo Tolstoy. about participating in a National Endowment for The Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery tells have a confession to make . I love architecture. the Humanities-funded conference in Spokane, the history of America through individuals who have shaped its IMy 1990 Subaru Loyale has a bumper sticker Washington, titled “Civility and Democracy in on it that says “Random Acts of Architecture.” America,” and he mentioned that there would be culture. In 1999, the Gallery featured a tremendously success- ful exhibit titled Picturing Hemingway: A Writer in His Time. When walking downtown anywhere, I look up at an architecture strand, I enthusiastically agreed. The Atlantic Monthly, New York Times, CNN and the the walls and the tops of buildings to see where The conference was attended by a large number Kansas City Star have at various times all had web sites the architects hid the cool stuff, often at my own of Northwest nonprofit and civic-related folk devoted to Hemingway. peril. I recently left a good job at a relatively new interested in considering and joining the conference’s Of course, nothing demonstrates the continuing interest in high school in Boise in part to teach at historic and discussion on the nature of civility in our democracy. Hemingway better than the plethora of posthumous books that century-old Boise High, where the heating system There were five discussion strands: history, religion, have come from unpublished manuscripts. The first was A creaks and groans and there are rumors of secret, philosophy and ethics, media, and . architecture. Moveable Feast, published in 1964, three years after his death. underground tunnels. Historic architecture causes While most of the participants deftly opined on the In 2009, 45-years after the publication of the first edition, a me to drive slowly through neighborhoods to ponder other subjects, architecture was an outlier. I have revised edition of A Movable Feast, edited by Hemingway what it would be like to live in one of those houses. found over the last five years of working on the BAP grandson Sean Hemingway, was published. Other posthumous But, I am not an architect. Clearly, I have a problem. that non-architects have a difficult time considering This infatuation with architecture started in (See HEMINGWAY, Page 4) college as many infatuations do. I blame it on (See ARCHITECTURE, Page 3) From the Director Help us widen the circle By Rick Ardinger ough times for the about Mari Sandoz’s Old Jules, remind us about civility Tpublic humanities. As when discussing the Constitution, promote tolerance and this newsletter goes to understanding of religious faith, sexual preference, political press, Congress is cutting federal persuasion, racial and cultural diversity, reveal the virtues programs to combat the deficit. of public service, alert us to the need for recorded memory, Vol. XV, No. 2, Summer 2011 The National Endowment for the teach us empathy. Idaho Humanities is published three times a Humanities took a big hit earlier At our tactical planning meeting, the IHC board spent year by the Idaho Humanities Council this spring, with deeper cuts a full day discussing our mission, the costs of programs, 217 W. State Street proposed for 2012. The impact target audiences, and ways of better serving Idahoans. We Boise, Idaho 83702 on state humanities councils is also had to remind ourselves later around a campfire, that (208) 345-5346 proportionately severe.