Gellhorn: A Twentieth Century Life

by Caroline Moorehead

Book Overview

The first major biography of legendary war correspondent Martha Gellhorn casts a vivid spotlight on one of the most undercelebrated women of the 20th century (Entertainment Weekly) Martha Gellhorn's... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805065539
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 2.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.7" x 1.6" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Sound at the core

Outward calm, inward extreme disorder of mind were characteristics of Gellhorn's self-description. In her sixties she stopped traveling and determined to live in London in Chelsea. She liked people who shaped their own lives. She hated liars and sitting on the fence. She was a bad cook. Her metaphors belittled unhappiness. She was beset with self-doubt, a strain of failure, loneliness. The Gellhorns of St. Louis had been a talking family. Martha left Bryn Mawr after her junior year and became a cub reporter to the ALBANY TIMES UNION. In the same year, 1929, she returned to St. Louis, moved on to New York City, and by spring, 1930, she was in Paris. France was the leading economic power of Europe. In 1934 Martha returned to America and was hired by the Roosevelt administration to investigate the conditions of the textile workers. Seeking to turn her material into a book, Martha stayed at the White House. She grew distracted, however, and moved to New Hartford, Connecticut. By 1937 Martha was back in Paris, the jumping off place to cover the war in Spain. She wrote for COLLIER'S. When she studied the Munich Pact, she felt she had uncovered dishonesty, cowardice. Czech democracy was lost. In 1939 Martha stayed with Hemingway in Cuba and Sun Valley, Idaho. She became fond of the three Hemingway sons. She wrote a ninety thousand word novel, LIANA, and dedicated it to her mother. Gellhorn sought to report on World War II even without formal military accreditation. She returned to Europe, England, in 1943. The city was full of journalists and many American ones. She became friends with Irwin Shaw. Except for Edmund Wilson and Cyril Connolly, the writers had succumbed to having a sincere and earnest tone. COLLIER'S appreciated Martha's gift for showing vivid images. After writing six articles she departed for Algiers. When she returned to Ernest Hemingway the couple fought over money, drinking, work, and the house in Cuba. They were openly unhappy. In order to witness the Normandy Invasion, Martha crossed secretly on a hospital ship. When found out, (she wrote two articles about the crossing), she was arrested by the military authorities. Afterwards she used energy and charm to travel with the regiments to glean information for her stories. After its liberation, Paris wasn't much changed except that everyone was starving. Martha was drawn to absolute professionalism and to James Gavin, the youngest divisional commander. She reported that she understood the true evil of man at Dachau. She covered the Nuremberg trials. Later Martha Gellhorn settled in Mexico for several years, followed by Rome, Africa, Wales and England. She married again, in 1954, and before that date adopted a son, an Italian war orphan. By 1998 she could no longer read, work, or travel. Her need to witness and record events had become impossible. This is an excellent book about a distinguished writer.

Witness to war

I found this book thoroughly absorbing, a meal for the intellect and the soul. Martha Gellhorn was a woman ahead of her time. Carolyn Moorehead does a good job of chronicling each chapter of Gellhorn's illustrious life as a war correspondent and writer. And what an amazing span of history Martha witnessed, from the Spanish Civil War up to the invasion of Panama. A rather fearless woman who "ran with the wolves", Gellhorn had friendships and love affairs with legends. Of course, she is known for having been married to Ernest Hemingway... but she was also friend and confidant of H.G. Wells, Eleanor Roosevelt, Leonard Bernstein... and she crossed paths with Diego Rivera, Colette, Adlai Stevenson, and many other notables of the 20th Century. Marha really had two great loves in her life: being where the action was, where the great issues of the century were being decided, and secondly , escaping to colorful places where she could find solitude. She best loved the places that afforded freedom and sun, like Mexico, Cuba and Kenya. Of course,she was full of contradictions, personally, and unsuited for motherhood. I wish only that this book had exposed more of her acute observations about the way that the world works, and her true courage. This is a woman who at 85 yrs. of age, suffering from macular degeneration and other maladies, made a valiant effort to continue speaking for the oppressed. She was sharp until the end of her days. Moorehead has of this writing published a book of Gellhorn's letters which better illuminates Martha's character, and should serve as a good companion to this biography. Christiane Amanpour, Lara Logan et. al. owe a great debt to this woman, though they can hardly hope to match her reportorial savvy and brilliance. As Moorehead acknowledges, Martha inspires nostalgia for the days when a reporter went to the core of things, with words honestly written in simple notebooks--words that could be believed. She believed all governments inexorably abused power. She said of Lyndon Johnson: "Never trust a Texan further than you can throw a rhino." Martha, you rocked.

Gellhorn: Lightning Rod for Various Opinions

Martha Gellhorn was a controversial journalist, and as anyone can see, this biography is either loved or hated without a lot of opinion in between.I fall in the love camp.The book is a good job at capturing the subject, warts and all.The author has clearly gone to great lengths to gather information that allowed her to capture the public and private essence of Gellhorn.Moorehead backed up her presentation many times with quotes from Gellhorn's voluminous correspondence.This is not the author's first biography and it shows;it is a first class job at piecing together the subject's long and complex life.The author is frequently clever in her wording and general handling of the book.If I have any criticism it is that the narrative occasionally moves forward without preparing the reader for a change in subject. I did not find this book boring.It is a book that would interest most readers that enjoy reading about 20th century history.Gellhorn's strong personality,wartime reporting,travel episodes ,love and sex life,marriage to Hemingway,and general passage through life offer a lot of spice for the reader. Though Gellhorn was a bit prickly or "difficult" at times,she was a witness to a substantial number of historical events.Her reports were first class and continue to be popular today within the reading public (The Face of War,Travels with Myself and Another, etc).Unquestionally she was a controversial character, but she counted and is an appropriate subject of interest.

The Life of a Fearless Reporter

I have been a Martha Gellhorn fan snce I found a copy of Travels With Myself and Another on the shelf at Hatchard's in London in 1983. I had never heard of Gellhorn, but was immediately taken with her no-nonsense reporter's style of writing. I scooped up all her non-fiction and some of her fiction. After reading both of Carl Rollyson's bios of her (one written before she died, against her wishes, the other right after her death), I thought I knew a little about Gellhorn. After reading Moorehead's bio, I found out just how little. This is likely to be the standard text on Gellhorn's life. It is complete, readable, and doesn't pull any punches. You get Gellhorn, warts and all, and there are plenty of warts. There was a lot of information here that I hadn't known, and wouldn't have guessed. It may even be too much information. I think I may know more about Gellhorn now than I really wanted to. Martha Gellhorn was a terrific war reporter, a great non-fiction writer, a competent author of fiction, and a fascinating person. Moorehead's biography captures all that and is well worth your time.

A Woman Way Ahead of Her Time

This new biography on Martha Gellhorn by Caroline Moorehead is a most gripping biography from a number of angles. First of all, Moorehead chronicles Gellhorn's personal and professional life with interesting and amusing anecdotes and many of Martha's ad hominem humorous quips. As a writer and a war correspondent, few women in this field can match Gellhorn's scope and travels. It is unfortunate that most people only know of Gellhorn as Hemingway's third wife.Moorehead, however, covers Gellhorn's entire life without added emphasis on the Hemingway marriage, which would have pleased Gellhorn greatly. A valuable fringe benefit of this biography is the expansive coverage of Gellhorn's famous acquaintances in her work as a war correspondent as well as in her personal life....Eleanor Roosevelt and President Roosevelt, Gen James Gavin, Robert Capa, photographer,Leonard Bernstein, and H.G. Wells. In reading this biography one also acquires a feel for the politics of the era and its history...the Spanish Civil War, World WarII, and even the Vietnam War. History becomes most interesting reading in this superb biography.