By DREW WINCHESTER, “mailto:dwinchester@breezenewspapers.com”>dwinchester@breezenewspapers.com

The legacy of Ernest Hemingway looms large over most anyone who has ever tried putting pen to paper, fingers to keys, or truth in adventure.

He is the rare juggernaut whose exploits and quests rival his literary prowess; he floats in the kind of rarefied air usually reserved for those who have done more than simply write — those who have touched history in one way or another.

He is a brand name, a catch word, an institution, a writer, a God. He has pushed the literary envelope by stripping the language to its purest form, leading to countless imitations and comparisons and the term “Hemingway-esque,” which is blessing and curse for new and seasoned writers alike.

Imagine, then, what it must be like to truly live in the man’s shadow, to share his last name, his DNA, to be part of a family legacy that is known around the globe. It would be pretty hard to keep the family secrets secret.

For Cape Coral resident and “Papa” niece Hilary Hemingway, that legacy has helped to shape part of her career as an author, screenwriter, journalist and Hollywood producer.

She has co-authored two books about her celebrated uncle: “Hemingway in Cuba” and “Hunting with Hemingway.” She filmed a documentary about Hemingway at his onetime Cuban home. And Hilary recently completed a screenplay with actor Andy Garcia about her uncle’s relationship with Cuban fisherman Gregario Fuentes, who, as literary legend has it, was the inspiration for the main character of the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Old Man and the Sea.“

Now, she and her husband, Jeff Lindsay, will be keynote speakers at an Ernest Hemingway Festival in Sun Valley, Idaho, on Sept 25-28. The festival’s focus will be on Hemingway’s time in Cuba.

“You know you know too much about your family when you can talk about it like this,” she said. “I could say this about any uncle and nobody would care, except that my uncle happened to be Ernest Hemingway, and people say, ‘Oh, it’s juicy gossip.’“

The impetus for the book and the documentary came about when Hilary and Lindsay took a trip to Cuba to speak about their book, “Hunting with Hemingway,” It was then they uncovered a lot about the author’s life that had, until then, remained unknown.

“We realized pretty quickly there was so much about Ernest Hemingway’s life in Cuba that the American scholars did not know, did not have access to, and there was so much I had no idea of,” she said. “Everything about his life up until he goes to Cuba in Christmas of ’39 is out there, then you don’t hear about what happened to him till the ’50s when he wins the Nobel Prize.”

According to Hilary, that 11-year “missing” period of the author’s life is the subject of a recently completed feature-length screenplay she co-authored with actor, producer and director Andy Garcia.

The script, tentatively called “Hemingway and Fuentes,” will explore the creation of “Old Man and the Sea,” and Hemingway’s relationship with Gregario Fuentes. It might very well dispel the longstanding myth that Fuentes is the “Old Man.”

“It’s a wonderful story, and Andy wants to direct, produce it and play Fuentes,” she said. “I very much enjoyed writing the story and realized while researching the story there wasn’t any one Cuban fisherman who inspired this, but it was a combination of Cuban fishermen.“

Hilary said she and Garcia tried to instill a definite sense of truth and reality in the screenplay, leaning heavily on the letters of Hemingway instead of the research of biographers. The letters came from never before seen papers discovered in Hemingway’s Cuban home, Finca Vigia.

“They (the biographers) perpetuate something that is incorrect,” she said. “So, when you go back to what he wrote in his letters, from the horse’s mouth, that’s when you get the real scoop.“

Hilary’s father is Leicester Hemingway, Ernest’s youngest brother, one of five brothers and sisters. Hilary’s husband, Jeff Lindsay, is another accomplished author, creator of the successful “Dexter” series of novels, which have now been adapted to a successful show for Showtime and CBS.

Hilary and Lindsay have “known” each other since they were babies, as their parents were friends in Miami. They did not grow up together in the traditional sense, and they did not officially reconnect until Hilary graduated from the University of Miami and went to Los Angeles to pursue a career in filmmaking.

It was in Los Angeles where they finally got together. Hilary jokingly says their marriage was “arranged” by their parents, but it was probably more serendipitous than anything else.

They have co-authored multiple books together, including a science fiction novel called “Dreamland,” which at one point was close to being produced by Steven Spielberg.

Of their working process, she said one will write a first draft while another will come along and do a second draft polish and rewrite. Until working with Andy Garcia on the screenplay, the only person Hilary has worked with has been her husband.

“Most of the time it worked out really good,” she said. “When we were coming up with ideas for screenplays in L.A., (it) would involve first sitting down with a pitcher of margaritas.“

Though the couple have had successful, sustainable careers working in the entertainment, news and education industries for more than two decades, their recent successes have been great.

“Believe me, there were a lot of close calls when we both said, ‘Maybe we should get real jobs,'” she said.

For more information on the Ernest Hemingway Festival in Sun Valley, visit: ernesthemingwayfestival.org.