Martha Gellhorn

Here is a comprehensive biography of Martha Gellhorn, the acclaimed American journalist, war correspondent, and author:

Martha Gellhorn — Life, Career, and Legacy

Martha Gellhorn (1908–1998) was one of the first and most daring female war correspondents of the 20th century. Over a six-decade career, she covered wars, revolutions, and human suffering around the globe, refusing to be overshadowed by her more famous husband, Ernest Hemingway. This article explores her life, major works, style, and enduring influence.

Introduction

Martha Ellis Gellhorn carved a distinctive place in journalism and literature by consistently privileging the human experience in conflict zones over grand narratives or propaganda. Known for her courage, sharp eye, and moral clarity, she pushed the boundaries of war reporting at a time when few women dared to follow armies into battle. Beyond wars, she wrote novels, travel pieces, and memoirs, but always remained grounded in a voice committed to truth, empathy, and witnessing.

Early Life & Family

• Martha Gellhorn was born on November 8, 1908 in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.

• Her mother, Edna Fischel Gellhorn, was a prominent suffragist, and her father, George Gellhorn, was a German-born gynecologist.

• As a child, she was exposed to progressive activism (through her mother) and developed a strong sense of independence.

• She graduated from John Burroughs School in St. Louis in 1926.

• She enrolled at Bryn Mawr College, but left before finishing, determined to pursue journalism.

Early Career & Formative Years

• After leaving college, Gellhorn began publishing articles, including in The New Republic.

• In 1930, she moved to Paris and worked at the United Press bureau. She was later fired after exposing sexual harassment by a coworker.

• During the 1930s, she traveled widely across Europe, wrote for various periodicals (including Vogue), and engaged with the pacifist movement.

• In 1932, she returned to the U.S. and joined the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) under Harry Hopkins, reporting on the effects of the Great Depression across states.

• Her reports for FERA documented poverty, migration, and human suffering with vivid detail.

• She published The Trouble I’ve Seen (1936), a collection of stories drawn from her FERA work.

War Correspondence & Journalism

Spanish Civil War & Early Conflicts

• Gellhorn’s first major war assignment was the Spanish Civil War (1937 onwards). She traveled there, sending dispatches about civilians under siege, refugees, and the human cost of conflict.

• It was during her time covering Spain that she met Ernest Hemingway, and they traveled together as correspondents.

World War II & D-Day

• During World War II, Gellhorn reported from multiple fronts: Finland, China, Burma, Singapore, and England.

• Notably, she was the only woman journalist to land at Normandy on D-Day (June 6, 1944). Denied official accreditation, she stowed away on a hospital ship and crossed into France.

• She also was among the first reporters to reach Dachau concentration camp after liberation.

Later Conflicts & Later Career

• After WWII, Gellhorn continued reporting on global conflicts: Vietnam, the Arab-Israel conflicts, civil wars in Central America, and more.

• Even in her later years (in her 70s and 80s), she went on assignments: for instance, covering civilian casualties during the U.S. invasion of Panama (1989).

• Her eyesight declined (due to cataract surgery complications), and she gradually withdrew from field work in the 1990s.

Personal Life & Relationships

• Martha Gellhorn was the third wife of Ernest Hemingway, from 1940 to 1945.

• Their marriage was fraught; Hemingway often criticized her absences, and Gellhorn resisted being overshadowed by his fame. She insisted she would never be reduced to a “footnote” in his life.

• After divorcing Hemingway, she later married T. S. Matthews (managing editor of Time) in 1954; they divorced in 1963.

• Gellhorn adopted a boy from an Italian orphanage named Sandro (renamed George Alexander or “Sandy”).

• In her last years, she lived in London and also in Wales (South Wales) before returning to London due to health issues.

Major Works & Writings

Gellhorn’s body of work spans journalism, fiction, travel writing, memoir, and reportage. Some notable works:

• What Mad Pursuit (1934) — her early reflections and experiences

• The Trouble I’ve Seen (1936) — short stories arising from Depression reporting

• A Stricken Field (1940) — a novel set in wartime Europe

• The Heart of Another (1941)

• The Undefeated (1945) and Love Goes to Press (1947)

• The Face of War (1959) — collection of her war journalism

• Travels with Myself and Another (1978) — memoir and travel writing

• The View From the Ground (1988) — peacetime journalism anthology

• The Lowest Trees Have Tops (1967) — novel with political themes

• Posthumous collections of letters and essays have also been published.

Style, Values & Journalistic Ethos

• Gellhorn’s hallmark was empathetic reporting: she focused on individual lives, suffering, civilian perspectives, and the “small truths” of war, not just politics or strategy.

• She rejected the idea of pure objectivity. She aimed to “get in among the people” and show texture, voice, and consequence.

• Her writing is often spare, direct, unsentimental — yet emotionally powerful.

• She believed journalism was as much education for the writer as for readers.

• Across decades, she retained a restless curiosity, willingness to immerse herself in hardship, and an uncompromising standard.

Legacy & Influence

• Gellhorn is widely regarded as one of the greatest female war correspondents of the 20th century.

• In her honor, the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism was established in 1999 to reward reporting that “penetrates the established version of events and tells an unpalatable truth.”

• Her life inspired portrayals in film and literature: e.g. Hemingway & Gellhorn, a TV film starring Nicole Kidman, dramatizing their relationship and wartime reporting.

• Her letters, essays, and reportage remain studied in journalism and literary programs.

• In 2019, a blue heritage plaque was unveiled in London at her former home to commemorate her contribution to war reporting.

Death

• Martha Gellhorn died on February 15, 1998 in London, England, by suicide (having been ill, nearly blind, and suffering from cancer).

• She was 89 years old.