Ernest Hemingway wore many hats in his enigmatic lifetime. He was a writer, a fisherman, a bon vivant, an expat, a father, a husband four times over and a philanderer. He was also, as evidenced by his globe-trotting stories and overstuffed address book, a traveler. Much is said of Hemingway’s affection for places like Cuba, Paris and Key West, where a look-alike contest is an annual affair just down the road from his French Colonial home filled with six-toed cats. But out west, one underrated state became his oasis. For Hemingway, Idaho was more than a retreat; it was a creative sanctuary where he felt a cultural connection. For Idaho, conversely, the relationship with one of the world’s most prominent novelists paved the way for the world’s first travel influencer.
The year was 1939. Well over half a century before social media, Idaho’s newly opened Sun Valley Ski Resort invited the writer to spend a few days, in exchange for being photographed using the facilities, with the hopes of increasing publicity. The whole premise sounds like standard fodder for press trips today, which basically makes Hemingway the original influencer. And that fortuitous first trip proved mutually beneficial, as Hemingway was able to bolster notoriety for the new resort, while Idaho was able to woo a seminal figure in American literature. No one, though, was more influenced by that trip than Hemingway himself. The author returned time and again, until his death there in 1961.