Martha Ellis Gellhorn (8 November 1908 – 15 February 1998) was an American novelist,
travel writer
The genre of travel literature encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs.
One early travel memoirist in Western literature was Pausanias, a Greek geographer of the 2nd century CE. In the early modern per ...
, and journalist who is considered one of the great
war correspondents of the 20th century.
Gellhorn reported on virtually every major world conflict that took place during her 60-year career. She was also the third wife of American novelist
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...
, from 1940 to 1945. She died in 1998 by apparent suicide at the age of 89, ill and almost completely blind.
The
Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism is named after her.
Early life
Gellhorn was born on 8 November 1908, in
St. Louis,
Missouri
Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...
, the daughter of
Edna Fischel Gellhorn, a
suffragist
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...
, and George Gellhorn, a German-born
gynecologist
Gynaecology or gynecology (see spelling differences) is the area of medicine that involves the treatment of women's diseases, especially those of the reproductive organs. It is often paired with the field of obstetrics, forming the combined ...
.
Her father and maternal grandfather were Jewish, and her maternal grandmother came from a
Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
family.
[ Her brother Walter became a noted law professor at ]Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, and her younger brother Alfred was an oncologist
Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the study, treatment, diagnosis and prevention of cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an ''oncologist''. The name's etymological origin is the Greek word ὄγκος (''ó ...
and dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
At age 7, Gellhorn participated in "The Golden Lane," a rally for women's suffrage at the Democratic Party's 1916 national convention in St. Louis. Women carrying yellow parasols and wearing yellow sashes lined both sides of a main street leading to the St. Louis Coliseum
The St. Louis Coliseum was a venue in St. Louis, Missouri.
The closing of the 1904 World’s Fair left the city without a convention center for three years. A group of businessmen led by attorney Guy Golterman assembled $450,000 in private fun ...
. A tableau of the states was in front of the Art Museum; states that had not enfranchised women were draped in black. Gellhorn and another girl, Mary Taussig, stood in front of the line, representing future voters.
In 1926, Gellhorn graduated from John Burroughs School
John Burroughs School (JBS) is a private, non-sectarian college-preparatory school with 631 students in grades 7– 12. Its 49-acre () campus is located in Ladue, Missouri (US), a suburb of St. Louis. Founded in 1923, it is named for U.S. natu ...
in St. Louis, and enrolled in Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United ...
, several miles outside Philadelphia. The following year, she left without having graduated to pursue a career as a journalist. Her first published articles appeared in ''The New Republic
''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...
''. In 1930, determined to become a foreign correspondent, she went to France for two years, where she worked at the United Press
United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20t ...
bureau in Paris, but was fired after she reported sexual harassment by a man connected with the agency. She spent years traveling Europe, writing for newspapers in Paris and St. Louis and covering fashion for ''Vogue
Vogue may refer to:
Business
* ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine
** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine
** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine
** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine
** ''Vogue China'', ...
''. She became active in the pacifist
Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campai ...
movement, and wrote about her experiences in her 1934 book ''What Mad Pursuit''.
Returning to the United States in 1932, Gellhorn was hired by Harry Hopkins
Harry Lloyd Hopkins (August 17, 1890 – January 29, 1946) was an American statesman, public administrator, and presidential advisor. A trusted deputy to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Hopkins directed New Deal relief programs before servi ...
, whom she had met through her friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...
.[Kert, Bernice – ''The Hemingway Women: Those Who Loved Him – the Wives and Others'', W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 1983.] The Roosevelts invited Gellhorn to live at the White House, and she spent evenings there helping Eleanor Roosevelt write correspondence and the first lady’s “My Day” column in '' Women's Home Companion''. She was hired as a field investigator for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration
The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) was a program established by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933, building on the Hoover administration's Emergency Relief and Construction Act. It was replaced in 1935 by the Works Progress Admi ...
(FERA), created by Franklin D. Roosevelt to help end the Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. Gellhorn traveled around the United States for FERA to report on how the Depression was affecting the country. She first went to Gastonia, North Carolina
Gastonia is the largest city in and county seat of Gaston County, North Carolina, United States. It is the second-largest satellite city of the Charlotte area, behind Concord. The population was 80,411 at the 2020 census, up from 71,741 in 20 ...
. Later, she worked with Dorothea Lange
Dorothea Lange (born Dorothea Margaretta Nutzhorn; May 26, 1895 – October 11, 1965) was an American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Lange' ...
, a photographer, to document the everyday lives of the hungry and homeless. Their reports became part of the official government files for the Great Depression. They were able to investigate topics that were not usually open to women of the 1930s. She drew on her research to write a collection of short stories, ''The Trouble I've Seen'' (1936).[ In Idaho doing FERA work, Gellhorn convinced a group of workers to break the windows of the FERA office to draw attention to their crooked boss. Although this worked, she was fired from FERA.]
War in Europe and marriage to Hemingway
Gellhorn met Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...
during a 1936 Christmas family trip to Key West
Key West ( es, Cayo Hueso) is an island in the Straits of Florida, within the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it cons ...
, Florida. Gellhorn had been hired to report for ''Collier's Weekly
''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened in 1905 to ''Colli ...
'' on the Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...
, and the pair decided to travel to Spain together. They celebrated Christmas of 1937 in Barcelona.[ In Germany, she reported on the rise of ]Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and the ...
; in the spring of 1938, months before the Munich Agreement
The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, Mníchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. It provided "cession to Germany ...
, she was in Czechoslovakia. After the outbreak of World War II, she described these events in the novel ''A Stricken Field'' (1940). She later reported the war from Finland, Hong Kong, Burma, Singapore, and England.[
In June 1944, Gellhorn applied to the British government for press accreditation to report on the ]Normandy landings
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...
; her application, like those of all female journalists, was denied. Lacking official press credentials, she posed as a nurse and was allowed onto a hospital ship where she promptly locked herself in a bathroom. Upon landing two days later she saw the many wounded and became a stretcher-bearer. Later she recalled, "I followed the war wherever I could reach it." She was the only woman to land at Normandy on D-Day
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...
on 6 June 1944.
She was among the first journalists to report from Dachau concentration camp
,
, commandant = List of commandants
, known for =
, location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany
, built by = Germany
, operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS)
, original use = Political prison
, construction ...
after it was liberated by U.S. troops on 29 April 1945.
Gellhorn and Hemingway lived together off and on for four years, before marrying in November 1940.[ (Hemingway had ostensibly lived with his second wife, ]Pauline Pfeiffer
Pauline Marie Pfeiffer (July 22, 1895 – October 1, 1951) was an American journalist, and the second wife of writer Ernest Hemingway.Harris, Peggy ( Associated Press) (30 July 2000)Ernest Hemingway Museum Popular in Quiet Farm Town ''The Tus ...
, until 1939). Increasingly resentful of Gellhorn's long absences during her reporting assignments, Hemingway wrote to her when she left their Finca Vigía estate near Havana
Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. in 1943 to cover the Italian Front: "Are you a war correspondent, or wife in my bed?" Hemingway, however, would later go to the front just before the Normandy landings, and Gellhorn also went, with Hemingway trying to block her travel. When she arrived by means of a dangerous ocean voyage in war-torn London (he had landed there eleven days before her, via an RAF flight on which she had arranged a seat for him), she told him she had had enough.[ She had found, as had his other wives, that, as described by Bernice Kert in ''The Hemingway Women'': "Hemingway could never sustain a long-lived, wholly satisfying relationship with any one of his four wives. Married domesticity may have seemed to him the desirable culmination of romantic love, but sooner or later he became bored and restless, critical and bullying."] After four contentious years of marriage, they divorced in 1945.[
The 2012 film '']Hemingway & Gellhorn
''Hemingway & Gellhorn'' is a 2012 television film directed by Philip Kaufman about the lives of journalist Martha Gellhorn and her husband, writer Ernest Hemingway. The film premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and aired on HBO on May ...
'' is based on these years. The 2011 documentary film ''No Job for a Woman: The Women Who Fought to Report WWII'' features Gellhorn and how she changed war reporting.
Later career
After the war, Gellhorn worked for the ''Atlantic Monthly
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'', covering the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
and the Arab-Israel conflicts in the 1960s and 70s. She passed her 70th birthday in 1979 but continued working in the following decade, covering the civil wars in Central America. As she approached 80, Gellhorn began to slow down physically and although she still managed to cover the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989, she finally retired from journalism as the 1990s began. An operation for cataracts was unsuccessful and left her with permanently impaired vision. Gellhorn announced that she was "too old" to cover the Balkan conflicts in the 1990s. She did manage one last overseas trip to Brazil in 1995 to report on poverty in that country, which was published in the literary journal ''Granta
''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...
''. This last feat was accomplished with great difficulty as Gellhorn's eyesight was failing, and she could not read her own manuscripts.[
Gellhorn's books include a collection of articles on war, ''The Face of War'' (1959); ''The Lowest Trees Have Tops'' (1967), a novel about ]McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner.
The term origin ...
; an account of her travels (including one trip with Hemingway), ''Travels with Myself and Another'' (1978); and a collection of her peacetime journalism, ''The View from the Ground'' (1988).[
Peripatetic by nature, Gellhorn reckoned that in a 40-year span of her life, she had created homes in 19 locales.][
]
Personal life
Gellhorn's first major affair was with the French economist Bertrand de Jouvenel
Bertrand de Jouvenel des Ursins (31 October 1903 – 1 March 1987) was a French philosopher, political economist, and futurist. He taught at the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, the University of Manchester, Yale University ...
. It began in 1930, when she was 22 years old, and lasted until 1934. She would have married de Jouvenel if his wife had consented to a divorce.[
She met Ernest Hemingway in ]Key West
Key West ( es, Cayo Hueso) is an island in the Straits of Florida, within the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it cons ...
, Florida, in 1936. They married in 1940. Gellhorn resented her reflected fame as Hemingway's third wife, remarking that she had no intention of "being a footnote in someone else's life." As a condition for granting interviews, she was known to insist that Hemingway's name not be mentioned. As she put it once, "I've been a writer for over 40 years. I was a writer before I met him and I was a writer after I left him. Why should I be merely a footnote in his life?"
While married to Hemingway, Gellhorn had an affair with U.S. paratrooper
A paratrooper is a military parachutist—someone trained to parachute into a military operation, and usually functioning as part of an airborne force. Military parachutists (troops) and parachutes were first used on a large scale during Worl ...
Major General James M. Gavin, commanding general of the 82nd Airborne Division
The 82nd Airborne Division is an airborne infantry division of the United States Army specializing in parachute assault operations into denied areasSof, Eric"82nd Airborne Division" ''Spec Ops Magazine'', 25 November 2012. Archived from tho ...
. Gavin was the youngest divisional commander in the U.S. Army in World War II.
Between marriages after divorcing Hemingway in 1945, Gellhorn had romantic liaisons with "L," Laurance Rockefeller, an American businessman (1945); journalist William Walton (1947) (no relation to the British composer); and medical doctor David Gurewitsch (1950). In 1954, she married the former managing editor of ''Time Magazine
''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Ma ...
'', T. S. Matthews
Thomas Stanley Matthews (January 16, 1901 – January 4, 1991) was an American magazine editor, journalist, and writer. He served as editor of ''Time'' magazine from 1949 to 1953.
Background
Thomas Stanley Matthews was born on January 16, 1901 ...
. She and Matthews divorced in 1963. She stayed in London for some time before moving to Kenya and then to Kilgwrrwg near Devauden in Gwent, South Wales, She was very taken by the niceness of the Welsh people and lived there from 1980 to 1994 before finally returning to London because of her ill-health.
In 1949, Gellhorn adopted a boy, Sandro, from an Italian orphanage. He was formally renamed George Alexander Gellhorn, and widely called Sandy. Gellhorn was reportedly a devoted mother for a time but was not by nature maternal. She left Sandy in the care of relatives in Englewood, New Jersey
Englewood is a city in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, which at the 2020 United States census had a population of 29,308. Englewood was incorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from po ...
, for long periods as she travelled, and he eventually attended boarding school. Their relationship was said to have become embittered.[
Gellhorn and the writer ]Sybille Bedford
Sybille Bedford, OBE (16 March 1911 – 17 February 2006) was a German-born English writer of non-fiction and semi-autobiographical fiction books. She was a recipient of the Golden PEN Award.
Early life
She was born as Sybille Aleid Elsa von ...
met in Rome in 1949 and developed a strong platonic friendship. It long survived volatility on both sides and entailed much moral, creative and financial support for her friend on Gellhorn's part until she ended the friendship in the early 1980s.
Regarding sex, in 1972 Gellhorn wrote:
If I practised sex out of moral conviction, that was one thing; but to enjoy it ... seemed a defeat. I accompanied men and was accompanied in action, in the extrovert part of life; I plunged into that ... but not sex; that seemed to be their delight, and all I got was a pleasure of being wanted, I suppose, and the tenderness (not nearly enough) that a man gives when he is satisfied. I daresay I was the worst bed partner in five continents.
On her relationship with Hemingway, she said "My whole memory of sex with Ernest is the invention of excuses, and failing that, the hope that it would soon be over."
However, the legacy of Gellhorn's personal life remains shrouded in controversy. Supporters of Gellhorn say her unauthorized biographer, Carl Rollyson, is guilty of "sexual scandal-mongering and cod psychology." Several of her prominent close friends (among them the actress Betsy Drake, journalist John Pilger
John Richard Pilger (; born 9 October 1939) is an Australian journalist, writer, scholar, and documentary filmmaker. He has been mainly based in Britain since 1962. He was also once visiting professor at Cornell University in New York.
Pilger ...
, writer James Fox, and Martha's younger brother Alfred) have dismissed the characterizations of her as sexually manipulative and maternally deficient. Her supporters include her stepson, Sandy Matthews, who describes Gellhorn as "very conscientious" in her role as stepmother; and Jack Hemingway
John Hadley Nicanor Hemingway (October 10, 1923 – December 1, 2000) was a Canadian-American fly fisherman, conservationist, and writer. He was the son of American novelist and Nobel Prize-laureate Ernest Hemingway.
Early life
Jack Hemingway w ...
once said that Gellhorn, his father's third wife, was his "favorite other mother."
Death and legacy
In her last years, Gellhorn was in frail health, nearly blind and suffering from ovarian cancer
Ovarian cancer is a cancerous tumor of an ovary. It may originate from the ovary itself or more commonly from communicating nearby structures such as fallopian tubes or the inner lining of the abdomen. The ovary is made up of three different ...
that had spread to her liver
The liver is a major organ only found in vertebrates which performs many essential biological functions such as detoxification of the organism, and the synthesis of proteins and biochemicals necessary for digestion and growth. In humans, it i ...
. On 15 February 1998, she died from suicide in London apparently by swallowing a cyanide
Cyanide is a naturally occurring, rapidly acting, toxic chemical that can exist in many different forms.
In chemistry, a cyanide () is a chemical compound that contains a functional group. This group, known as the cyano group, consists of ...
capsule.
The Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism was established in 1999 in her honor.
In 2019, a blue English Heritage plaque was unveiled at Gellhorn's former London home, the first to feature the dedication of "war correspondent".
In 2021 a Purple Plaque was placed on the cottage she lived in near Kilgwrrwg, as part of a national scheme to commemorate remarkable women.
In popular culture
On 5 October 2007, the United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the ...
announced that it would honor five 20th-century journalists with first-class rate postage stamps, to be issued on 22 April 2008: Martha Gellhorn; John Hersey
John Richard Hersey (June 17, 1914 – March 24, 1993) was an American writer and journalist. He is considered one of the earliest practitioners of the so-called New Journalism, in which storytelling techniques of fiction are adapted to n ...
; George Polk; Ruben Salazar; and Eric Sevareid
Arnold Eric Sevareid (November 26, 1912 – July 9, 1992) was an American author and CBS news journalist from 1939 to 1977. He was one of a group of elite war correspondents who were hired by CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow and nicknamed " Murrow's ...
. Postmaster General
A Postmaster General, in Anglosphere countries, is the chief executive officer of the postal service of that country, a ministerial office responsible for overseeing all other postmasters. The practice of having a government official responsib ...
Jack Potter announced the stamp series at the Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. new ...
Managing Editors Meeting in Washington, D.C.
In 2011, Gellhorn was the subject of an hour-long episode of the World Media Rights series ''Extraordinary Women'', which airs on the BBC, and periodically in the United States on PBS.
In 2012, Gellhorn was played by Nicole Kidman
Nicole Mary Kidman (born 20 June 1967) is an American and Australian actress and producer. Known for her work across various film and television productions from several genres, she has consistently ranked among the world's highest-paid act ...
in Philip Kaufman's film, ''Hemingway & Gellhorn
''Hemingway & Gellhorn'' is a 2012 television film directed by Philip Kaufman about the lives of journalist Martha Gellhorn and her husband, writer Ernest Hemingway. The film premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and aired on HBO on May ...
''.
Martha Gellhorn's relationship with Ernest Hemingway is the subject of Paula McLain
Paula McLain (born 1965) is an American author best known for her novel, '' The Paris Wife'', a fictionalized account of Ernest Hemingway's first marriage which became a long-time ''New York Times'' bestseller. She has published two collections o ...
's 2018 novel, ''Love and Ruin''. In April 2021, ''Hemingway'', a three-episode, six-hour documentary recapitulation of Hemingway's life, labors, and loves, debuted on the Public Broadcasting System
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educati ...
. It was co-produced and directed by Ken Burns
Kenneth Lauren Burns (born July 29, 1953) is an American filmmaker known for his documentary films and television series, many of which chronicle American history and culture. His work is often produced in association with WETA-TV and/or th ...
and Lynn Novick
Lynn Novick is an American director and producer of documentary films, widely known for her work with Ken Burns.
Early life
Novick was born in 1962, raised in New York City, and graduated from Horace Mann School in 1979. She graduated magna cum ...
. It contains considerable footage and photographs of Gellhorn, who is voiced by Meryl Streep
Mary Louise Meryl Streep (born June 22, 1949) is an American actress. Often described as "the best actress of her generation", Streep is particularly known for her versatility and accent adaptability. She has received numerous accolades throu ...
, and recollections of those who knew her and her life with Hemingway first-hand.
Bibliography
*
* ''The Trouble I've Seen'' (1936, new edition by Eland, 2012) Depression-era set of short stories;
* ''A Stricken Field'' (1940) novel set in Czechoslovakia at the outbreak of war;
* ''The Heart of Another'' (1941);
* ''Liana'' (1944);
* ''The Undefeated'' (1945);
* ''Love Goes to Press: A Comedy in Three Acts'' (1947) (with Virginia Cowles);
* ''The Wine of Astonishment'' (1948) World War II novel, republished in 1989 as ''Point of No Return'';
*
* ''The Honeyed Peace: Stories'' (1953);
* ''Two by Two'' (1958);
* ''The Face of War'' (1959) collection of war journalism, updated in 1993;
* ''His Own Man'' (1961);
* ''Pretty Tales for Tired People'' (1965);
* ''Vietnam: A New Kind of War'' (1966);
* ''The Lowest Trees Have Tops'' (1967) a novel;
* ''Travels with Myself and Another: A Memoir'' (1978, new edition by Eland, 2002);
* ''The Weather in Africa'' (1978, new edition by Eland, 2006);
* ''The View From the Ground'' (1989; new edition by Eland, 2016), a collection of peacetime journalism;
* ''The Short Novels of Martha Gellhorn'' (1991); US edition being ''The Novellas of Martha Gellhorn'' (1993)
* ''Selected Letters of Martha Gellhorn'' (2006), edited by Caroline Moorehead
Caroline Mary Moorehead (born 28 October 1944) is a human rights journalist and biographer.
Early life
Born in London, Moorehead is the daughter of Australian war correspondent Alan Moorehead and his English wife Lucy Milner. She received a B ...
;
* ''Yours, for Probably Always: Martha Gellhorn's Letters of Love and War 1930–1949'' (2019), edited by Janet Somerville.
;Books about Gellhorn
* Somerville, Janet (2019) ''Yours, for Probably Always: Martha Gellhorn's Letters of Love and War
Amazon link
* Clayton, Meg Waite (2018) ''Beautiful Exiles: A Novel''
* Hardy Dorman, Angelia (2012). ''Martha Gellhorn: Myth, Motif and Remembrance''.
* Mackrell, Judith (2021). ''Going with the Boys: Six Extraordinary Women Writing from the Front Line'' (also: ''The Correspondents: Six Women Writers on the Front Lines of World War II'' - in USA & Canada).
*
*
* (a.k.a. ''Gellhorn: A Twentieth-Century Life'')
*
*
*
*
References
Notes
Sources
*
*
(re-published as ''Gellhorn: A 20th-Century Life'', Henry Holt & Co., New York (2003) )
Further reading
*
* O'Toole, Fintan, "A Moral Witness" (review of Janet Somerville
Janet may refer to:
Names
* Janet (given name)
* Janet (French singer) (1939–2011)
Surname
* Charles Janet (1849–1932), French engineer, inventor and biologist, known for the Left Step periodic table
* Jules Janet (1861–1945), French psy ...
, ed., ''Yours, for Probably Always: Martha Gellhorn's Letters of Love and War, 1930–1949'', Firefly, 528 pp.), ''The New York Review of Books
''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...
'', vol. LXVII, no. 15 (8 October 2020), pp. 29–31. Fintan O'Toole writes (p. 31): "Her ardispatches were not first drafts of history; they were letters from eternity. ..To see history – at least the history of war – in terms of people is to see it not as a linear process but as a series of terrible repetitions .. It is her ability to capture ..the terrible futility of this sameness that makes Gellhorn's reportage so genuinely timeless. are ..drawn ..into the undertow of her distraught awareness that this moment, in its essence, has happened before and will happen again."
External links
"Is There a New Germany?"
Martha Gellhorn, ''The Atlantic Monthly
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'', February 1964
"The Arabs of Palestine"
from Martha Gellhorn
"The Outsiders: Martha Gellhorn"
a 1983 interview by John Pilger
John Richard Pilger (; born 9 October 1939) is an Australian journalist, writer, scholar, and documentary filmmaker. He has been mainly based in Britain since 1962. He was also once visiting professor at Cornell University in New York.
Pilger ...
*
*
Electric Sky – "Martha Gellhorn – On The Record"
Martha_Gellhorn_talks_about_the_Spanish_Civil_War
_.html" ;"title="Spanish Civil War">Martha Gellhorn talks about the Spanish Civil War
">Spanish Civil War">Martha Gellhorn talks about the Spanish Civil War
(from a BBC Radio 4 live stream).
*
*
Review of "Martha Gellhorn: A Life"
(''The Age
''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...
'')
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gellhorn, Martha
1908 births
1998 suicides
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American novelists
20th-century American women writers
American expatriates in France
American expatriates in England
American expatriates in Spain
American people of German-Jewish descent
American women civilians in World War II
American women journalists
American women novelists
American women war correspondents
Drug-related suicides in England
Esquire (magazine) people
Hemingway family
Novelists from Missouri
O. Henry Award winners
Women in war 1900–1945
Women in war in Spain
Writers from St. Louis