Martha Gellhorn
Martha Ellis Gellhorn or Martha Gellhorn (November 8, 1908 – February 15, 1998) born in America was a journalist, a novelist and travel writer. She was one of the first and finest female war reporter of twentieth century, who reported on almost every major world conflict that occurred in her prolonged 60-years of career. Martha was also the third wife of Ernest Hemingway (from 1940 to 1945) who himself was a journalist and a novelist. She has major contributions in American novel writings and journalism, with the command over her work she was always the top-rated journalist. She travelled to different part of the world and created homes in 19 different locales. At the age of 89 in the year 1998 Gellhorn died by suicide, thus leaving a vacuum which can never be filled. The ‘Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism’ was posthumously named after her as a token of respect to her service.
Early life & Childhood
Marth was born on November 8, 1908, in St. Louis, Missouri, to Dr. George Gellhorn and Edna Fischel Gellhorn. She was youngest among the three kids. Her father Dr. George was prominent physician and professor at Washington university and mother Edna Gellhorn was an influential civic leader, social reformer and suffragist.
Marth completed her graduation from John Burroughs School in St. Louis. She also attended Bryn Mawr college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, but left without completing the degree. Her elder brother Walter became a noted law professor at University of Columbia and younger brother Alfred was an oncologist and former Dean at Pennsylvania University School of Medicine.
Career
The hard-hitting Career of Martha Gellhorn started working with ‘New Republic’, a progressive political magazine, and then for a popular newspaper, the ‘Albany Times Union’, in New York, U.S.A
In 1930, she decided to become a foreign correspondent and to fulfill her dream she went to France for two years, where she worked at the ‘United Press Bureau’ in Paris, but due to her complain of sexual harassment against a man who was connected to the organization, she was fired. The incident shook her badly which she revealed later in a column.
After returning back to U.S.A in 1932, Gellhorn was hired by Henry Hopkins as an investigator for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). She travelled throughout the nation covering ‘Great Depression’ on everyday American. It was this time that she became close friends with the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
Gellhorn was soon fired when she successfully encouraged a group of people to raise their voice against a corrupt contractor in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. She wrote about the experience in her second book, ‘The Trouble I’ve Seen’ which was published in, 1936.
Martha Gellhorn met Ernest Hemingway in 1936 on Christmas vacation in Key West, Florida. The duo travelled together to Spain where she reported on fascism and Spanish civil war. Six years of together working made them understand each other well and they got married in 1940. After her marriage she traveled to China to cover its war with Japan for the magazine ‘Collier’s Weekly’.
In the year 1945 Gellhorn was there when the U.S.A, seventh Army liberated the Dachau concentration camp, and that weird experience deeply affected her for the rest of her life. She later did report on the prosecution of Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials in Nuremberg, Germany.
Martha had reported for many countries like Finland, Hong Kong, Singapore, Burma as well as England. She was one such reporter who reported even from the goriest of crime scenes and impossible locations.
She reported the Vietnam War and the Arab-Israel conflicts in the 1960s and 70s when she was working for the ‘Atlantic Monthly’. For the next 10 years, she reported the Civil Wars in Central America.
Before superannuating from journalism, due to an advanced age, she successfully reported the U.S.A ’s Panama invasion in 1989. The last foreign assignment she did was for Brazil in the year 1995, there she covered poverty which was published in literary journal ‘Granta ‘.
Major Work
Being a leading war correspondent, she wrote many articles like ‘The Face of War’ (1959) – an assortment of wartime writing and ‘The View from the Ground’ (1988) an assortment of peacetime essays. In between, she also wrote ‘Vietnam: A New Kind of War’ (1966).
Apart from being a journalist she was a brilliant novelist; this lady wrote numerous books. Gellhorn’s journeys, including a voyage with Hemingway, were best described in ‘Travels with Myself and Another: A Memoir’ (1978).
Her book ‘The Trouble I’ve Seen’ (1936) regarding the impact of the great depression on the American people was hugely successful and had tremendous response.
Awards & Achievements
To honor the amazing lady and her work ‘The Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism’ was named in 1999 by the Martha Gellhorn Trust. This award is presented to journalists ‘who tell the truth, validated by powerful facts.
Martha’s relationship with Ernest Hemingway is the subject of Paula McLain’s 2018 popular novel, ‘Love & Ruin’.
Gellhorn was the first lady journalist to be honored by the American government to be in the ‘American Journalists Stamp Series’ of 2008.
A movie, ‘Hemingway & Gellhorn’ (2012) was based on her life. Martha’s character was depicted by Nicole Kidman.
Personal life and legacy
Martha Gellhorn was Ernest Hemingway’s third wife who himself was a celebrated novelist. She married him in 1940, but took divorce in 1945. She begrudged being famous as ‘Hemingway’s third wife’ when she herself was a self-made woman.
While being in marriage to Hemingway, she had an affair with Major General James M. Gavin of USA. She had an adopted son, Sandy, in 1949 from an Italian orphanage.
When she was 22 years old, Gellhorn had a serious affair with the French economist Bertrand de Jouvenel, which ended after 4 years. She brook with him when Jouvenel’s wife refused to give him a divorce.
During last days of her life, Martha became almost blind and suffered from ovarian and liver cancer. She committed suicide by swallowing cyanide at the age of 89 on February 15, 1998.
Net worth
There is no exact record of her net worth available but Gellhorn owned houses in 19 different locations
General Trivia
Martha Gellhorn hated being called third wife of Ernest Hemingway because she herself was an independent and popular lady
She owned houses in 19 different locations.
Challenges Faced: Divorce
