Martha Ellis Gellhorn (1908–98) was an American journalist and novelist. One of the first female war correspondents, she is celebrated for her candid descriptions of ordinary people in times of unrest. During a career that spanned six decades, she covered a dozen wars and drew praise for her fictional work—5 novels, 14 novellas, and 2 short story collections.
Born in St Louis, Missouri, Gellhorn attended the women’s liberal arts college Bryn Mawr College but left in 1927 to begin a career as a writer. After contributing to several publications, including The New Republic magazine, she took a job with the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, touring the U.S. to report on the Great Depression.
Gellhorn became a foreign correspondent for Collier’s Weekly, covering, among other things, the Spanish Civil War. She almost certainly saw more violent action than her first husband, Ernest Hemingway did. Her interest in the human conflict remained undimmed, and she continued to travel the world to report on wars in Java (1946,) Vietnam (1966,) the Middle East (1967,) and Central America (1983–85.)
Gellhorn’s earlier reportage was collected in The Face of War (1959.) Her novels include What Mad Pursuit (1934,) A Stricken Field (1939,) Liana (1943,) and The Wine of Astonishment (1948.) The short stories in The Trouble I’ve Seen (1936,) The Honeyed Peace (1953,) Two by Two (1958,) and The Weather in Africa (1978) are marked by acute observation and contain sympathy for the weak or oppressed and moral straightforwardness.
Gellhorn’s relationship with Hemingway was depicted in American filmmaker Philip Kaufman’s HBO biopic Hemingway and Gellhorn (2012,) in which Nicole Kidman played Gellhorn.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Martha Gellhorn
Citizenship is a tough occupation which obliges the citizen to make his own informed opinion and stand by it.
—Martha Gellhorn
Gradually I came to realize that people will more readily swallow lies than truth, as if the taste of lies was homey
—Martha Gellhorn
Topics: Lies
People may correctly remember the events of twenty years ago (a remarkable feat), but who remembers his fears, his disgusts, his tone of voice? It is like trying to bring back the weather of that time.
—Martha Gellhorn
Topics: Memory
I see mysteries and complications wherever I look, and I have never met a steadily logical person.
—Martha Gellhorn
Topics: Perception
Unless they are immediate victims, the majority of mankind behaves as if war was an act of God which could not be prevented; or they behave as if war elsewhere was none of their business. It would be a bitter cosmic joke if we destroy ourselves due to atrophy of the imagination.
—Martha Gellhorn
Topics: War
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