Hemingway legacy feud 'resolved'

Hemingway died in 1961

Eight grandchildren of Ernest Hemingway have settled a feud with the widow of the writer's son over his $7m (£4.2m) estate, according to one of the family.

The settlement, which includes a portion of the author's literary rights, follows the death of Gregory Hemingway two years ago.

A transsexual, he died of heart disease on the floor of a cell in the women's annexe of a Florida jail.

Family member Lorian Hemingway said the dispute had been settled.

Ms Hemingway, an author and one of the eight grandchildren, said details were confidential.

Gregory Hemingway, the writer's youngest son, died at Dade County Jail in Florida after battling alcoholism, drug abuse and manic depression.

He had had a sex-change operation and taken a new name, Gloria.

Gregory Hemingway was arrested in 2001 in Key Biscayne, Miami. He died in his cell four days later.

Gregory's eight children - Patrick, Edward, Sean, Brendan, Vanessa, Maria, John and Lorian - later challenged the estate, which would have given most of the assets to Gregory's widow, Ida.

If their father was a woman, the children argued, he could not have been legally married to Ida, who Gregory divorced in 1995 and remarried in Washington state in 1997, after the sex change. Florida does not recognise same-sex marriages.

At a hearing in August, Miami-Dade County Probate Judge Arthur Rothenberg said to resolve the probate case, he would have to decide whether Gregory Hemingway was a man or a woman, a ruling that could have set a precedent in Florida law.

His estate, valued at about $7.5m, included a third of his father's literary trusts and copyrights to his work and image, which according to court documents appear to produce millions of dollars annually.

Ernest Hemingway, author of The Old Man And The Sea, killed himself in 1961.