She was the only woman journalist to cover the Norman landings and witness the D-day. It is one of the biggest sea invasions in the history of WWII. She was also the first ones to report the Dachau concentration liberation from camps. She was a magnificent war correspondent, journalist, wrote travelogues and a fiction writer. Her writings reflected the troubles of the common man and supported their cause. She has authored five novels, has written fourteen novellas and 2 books of short stories.
Her career lasted for a long 60 years. She was the third wife of the famous American novelist Ernest Hemingway. She but did not want to remain his footnote-as stated in one of her interviews. The marriage ended in a divorce after five years of togetherness. Her last days were very painful due to her illness and she was nearly blind at 89. She ended her life in 1998 than slumming to her illness. The US government announced the Martha prize for journalism in her name in 1999.
Family,life and Legacy
- Martha Martha Ellis Gellhorn was born on 8th November 1908 in St. Louis. Her mother was a social reformer, civic leader, and a suffragist. Her father was a German-born gynaecologist and a professor at the University of Washington.
- The couple had four children and she was the third one and the only daughter. She was Jewish as her father and maternal grandfather were Jewish. But, her maternal grandmother was a Protestant.
- Her brothers were eminent professionals. Walter Gellhorn was a well-known law professor at the University of Columbia. Her younger brother Alfred specialized in Oncology. He was the dean and an oncologist in the Pennsylvanian school of medicine.
- She attended John Burroughs School in St. Louis. She attended college at Bryn Mawr College in Philadelphia in 1926. She did not peruse further and dropped out after a year in 1927 for journalism.
- Soon after college, she started writing for the New Republic. She worked for St. Louis post-dispatch and the fashion magazine the vogue. She was also a crime reporter for the local newspaper at Albany.
- Her quest to become an international reporter brought her to Paris in 1930. She worked for various publications before she joined the United Press.
- She travelled the European continent. Here, she lined up with the fascist movement. She penned down their experience in her first novel what mad pursuit in 1934.
- Martha Gellhorn was a fearless, witty, clever, lady war correspondent of the 20th century. She fought for gender equality and equal opportunity to be in line with her male colleagues.
- At 22 she had her first affair with the French economist the then son in law of the well-known novelist Colette. They got married in 1933 but ended in a divorce after four years
- In 1936 she met Hemmingway on her family trip to Key West Florida. They got married after four years. They covered the Spanish war together as she worked as a reporter at Collier’s Weekly
- Hemingway and Gellhorn got married in 1940. His novel 'For Whom the Bells Toll' is based on the Spanish Civil war and dedicated to her.
- Her marriage with Hemmingway lasted for five years.They divorced in 1945. She was his third wife and disliked his professional fame. She refused to be a footnote in his life and left him.
- Post the divorce; she married the managing editor of the Times Magazine, St. Mathews. They got married in 1954 and moved to London but their marriage ended in a divorce in 1963.
- In Italy, she adopted a child in 1949 and called him Sandy. Ms. Gellhorn raised him single-handed by writing articles to women magazines. Incidentally she left him with relatives. This is said to have strained their relationship.
- She decided to move out of United States and went from one country to another and finally settled in London. She shuttled between London, Wales and problematic places across the world.
- She suffered from ovarian cancer and it had spread to her liver. She was almost blind after the cataract surgery that went wrong. At 89 she swallowed a cyanide capsule and committed suicide.
- She spent her life writing and publishing books on fiction, travel, news reports. Some of her letters were published in 2006 after her death.
- She is survived by her Son and brothers George Alexander Gellhorn and Alfred Gellhorn of London and New York.
Professional walk
- Later in her life, she met Larry Hopkins a close associate of President, Franklin D Roosevelt in the United States and talked her way for a job. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) hired her to investigate the status of the people.
- She was among the batch of reporters to assess the situation of the American people. They were selected by the White House. It was about this time that became lifetime friends with the first lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
- She travelled the country and wrote about unemployment, the helplessness of the American people. She also covered depression undergone by the people and its effects on them.
- She recorded the plight of the common man. She also wrote on certain banned subjects with photographer Dorothea Lange. This made them one of the key contributions to the history of America
- She penned these experiences in her second book ‘the troubles I’ve seen’. It was published in 1936. She met Hemmingway the same year while on a family vacation in Key West Florida.
- After four months she travelled with Hemmingway to Spain and covered the Spanish civil war and the rise of the fascism. She was then working for the local magazine Collier's weekly.
- She reported the rise of Hitler from Germany and was in Czechoslovakia at that time. She reported this in the spring of 1938 much before the Munich agreement was signed.
- She covered significant events of the World War II. She was the only women reporter to be present on the on the D-day of 6th June 1944 of the Norman landing
- She hid in the ship bathroom and pretended to be one of the stretcher bearers. She covered the incident from the middle of the sea.
- She was the only woman reporters to report from the Dachau concentration camp. She was present there when the American troops liberated them on 29th April 1945
- In 1939 she covered the Russia Finland war. She also reported the Vietnam War in 1966 and worked at Atlantic monthly. She also covered incidents from different parts of the globe. She reported the liberation of Italy, Israel, Russia, and Poland.
- In the 60s and the 70s, she covered the conflicts of Arab-Israel war and the Vietnam War. Even at the age of 70 she travelled and spent the next decade covering the Civil Wars in Central America.
- At 80 she covered the invasion of Panama in 1989. She retired from journalism in early 1990. She travelled to Brazil in 1995 and wrote on the poverty in that country.
- She was nearly blind and could not read her own work. She completed her last piece of work on Brazil was with great difficulty. It was later published in the literary journal called ‘Granta’.
- She was the leading War correspondent of the 20th Century. Some of her articles are ‘the face of War’ in 1959, ‘the view from the ground ‘in 1988 and also ‘Vietnam: A new kind of War’ in 1966.
- In 1978 she published Her travel with Hemmingway in the travelogue 'travels with myself and another: A Memoir'. Her famous novels are ‘A Stricken field’ in 1939, ‘The lowest trees have tops’ in 1967 and ‘the Weather in Africa’ in 1978.
- She published many articles, novels, travel and her work as a reporter. Her selected letter was published in 2006 after her deat
Crowning achievements
- She was the only lady journalist to cover the Norman Landing -D- day of June 6th, 1944 live.
- She was one of the first journalists to report the US troops liberating the Dachau concentration camps on April 29, 1945.
- She spent her life publishing books of her reportage, fiction writing, and travel.
- The famous ones are 'A stricken field' in 1939, 'the lowest trees have tops' in 1967 and 'the weather in Africa' in 1978 a collection of short stories.
- The masses loved her work and praised her for the novels she wrote. The ones that received acclamation are the 'weather of Africa' based on the continent and 'the Novels of Martha Gellhorn' published in 1993.
Accolades and accomplishments
- Martha Gellhorn passed away in 1998. The following year, in 1999 The USA announced prize for budding journalists in her honour and named after her.
- The United States announced their 2008 first class postage stamp series at an Associate press Managing editors meeting in Washington DC in honour of the 20th Century journalists. She was the only lady among the other five on the list to be honoured.
- She was featured in their exclusive 60 minute series by world Media Rights series extraordinary woman. It was aired on BBC in 2011 and by PBS in the United States.
- In 2012, the actress Nicole Kidman featured Gellhorn in the movie “Hemmigway and Gellhorn” directed by Philip Kaufman
Memorabilia
Martha Gellhorn was a traveller by nature. She estimated to have created homes in nineteen different locations in her life.
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