Patrick Hemingway, the last surviving child of Nobel laureate Ernest Hemingway, died Tuesday at age 97 at his home in Bozeman, Montana, his grandson, Patrick Hemingway Adams, confirmed in a statement.
The second of Ernest Hemingway's three sons, Patrick spent years in Africa inspired by his father and later oversaw numerous posthumous works by the author, according to family statements and recent publications. He welcomed efforts to promote the Hemingway name and to support projects he believed could find an audience or draw critical attention.
In a statement, Adams described his grandfather — the elder Ernest Hemingway — as “the real thing: a larger than life paradox from the old world; a consummate dreamer saddled with a scientific brain. He spoke half a dozen languages and solved complicated mathematical problems for fun, but his heart truly belonged to the written and visual arts.” Adams' comments appeared in an account of the family and the correspondence between father and son.
Those letters were collected in the 2022 book "Dear Papa: The Letters of Patrick and Ernest Hemingway," which presents exchanges in which the pair shared stories of hunting and fishing and expressed mutual affection. In the volume, Ernest Hemingway complimented his son’s companionship, saying he preferred to fish and shoot with Patrick.
Family accounts contrast Patrick’s relationship with his father to that of his brother Gregory, who had a deeply troubled relationship with Ernest Hemingway. Patrick, by contrast, often spoke proudly of his upbringing and engaged with efforts to manage and promote his father's literary legacy.
Patrick Hemingway’s stewardship of posthumous material contributed to the continued public profile of one of the 20th century’s most prominent writers. Over subsequent decades, works, letters and archival materials from the Hemingway estate have fueled scholarship, reprints and adaptations, with family members playing key roles in decisions about publication and use.
His death marks the end of an immediate familial link to the Nobel Prize–winning author, leaving the management of Ernest Hemingway’s legacy in the hands of later generations and institutions that have long partnered with the family. A fuller account of survivors and funeral arrangements was not immediately available.