How wealthy was Hemingway at the time of his death?
According to a February 22, 1964 New York Times article titled, “Hemingway Estate $1.4 Million; Widow is His Lone Beneficiary”, Hemingway left “a gross estate of $1,410,310.” After taxes, legal fees, funeral expenses, and other miscellaneous debts, “the adjusted gross estate was listed as $1,289,336.” Of this money, Mary Hemingway was expected to receive approximately one million dollars. Mary did admirable things with the money left to her. At the time of her death, she bequeathed $100,000 to the World Wildlife, Inc. (Washington, D.C.), the Audobon Society of New York, the Legal Defense Fund of the NAACP, and the Hospital for Joint Diseases & Medical Center Orthopedic Institute (New York). She also established the Ernest Hemingway Foundation in 1979 and in her will left $200,000 to be “invested and maintained for the express and sole purpose of awarding annually … a prize to the writer of a published book of fiction in English.” This prize is the PEN/Hemingway Award for the best first
