STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

“Lucky for him he could write.”

That’s what actor Jeff Daniels said of Ernest Hemingway at a press conference promoting the new PBS documentary about the man who is unequivocally one of America’s best-known authors.

“I was aware of this sort of edifice of the macho characteristic and good writing,” filmmaker Ken Burns added, according to The Guardian. “The writing only increased in its power and glory and majesty. And as I confronted all of this negative stuff, it became important that the art transcended it and basically didn’t excuse it. And we do not excuse him. And we hold his feet to the fire.”

Ken Burns’ new three-part six-hour documentary series “Hemingway,” which as he says holds Hemingway’s feet to the fire, will air April 5-7 on Idaho Public Television.

Ahead of that, Idaho PTV will air “Idaho’s Hemingway.” The documentary, which explores how Hemingway’s time in Idaho from 1939 to 1961 shaped his life and work, will air Thursday, March 4, repeating Sunday March 14.

It was largely informed by the Hemingway materials in Hemingway’s Ketchum home, which is overseen by The Community Library.

PBS is hosting a series of eight free online discussions looking at the topics discussed in the series by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. Idaho Public TV and The Community Library in Ketchum will present one of those discussions, “Hemingway and the Natural World,” on Tuesday, March 2.

The conversation will feature Ken Burns, producer Sarah Botstein and writer Terry Tempest Williams, who was The Community Library’s 2019 Hemingway Distinguished Lecturer.

The discussion will be moderated by Community Library Executive Director Jenny Emery Davidson and will feature clips from the upcoming documentary.

Register for the free discussion at https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_VqupiWOCTcSQ8eAseaq3-A

Other “Conversations on Hemingway: A Virtual Event Series” are taking place via Zoom on Tuesdays and Thursdays through March 18 with a final event on March 24. They look at Hemingway and Celebrity; Hemingway, the Sea and Cuba; Hemingway, Gender and Identity; Hemingway the Author; Hemingway and Biography, and Hemingway and Women.

Learn more at https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/hemingway/events/

​