World Literary Awards

← Back to Home

Martha Gellhorn

マーサ・ゲルホーン

Māsa Geruhōn

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1908-11-08 （St. Louis, Missouri）
Died
1998-02-15 （London, England） age 89
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Religion
None
Residence History
St. Louis, Missouri (childhood) → Paris (1930s) → Key West, Florida → Havana, Cuba (Hemingway era) → London (later years) → Kilgwrrwg, Wales (1980-1994)

Career

Occupations
novelist, travel writer, journalist, war correspondent
Active Years
1934-1998
Affiliations
Collier's Weekly, Atlantic Monthly

Education

John Burroughs School
Period: ～1926
Year of Graduation: 1926
Country: United States
Bryn Mawr College
Period: 1926頃-1927
Country: United States
left without graduating

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Trouble I've Seen

1936 short stories

Collection of short stories set during the Great Depression.

povertyGreat Depression

A Stricken Field

1940 novel

Novel set in Czechoslovakia on the eve of war.

shadow of warrefugees

The Face of War

1959 non-fiction

Collection of war journalism.

warcivilian suffering

Travels with Myself and Another

1978 memoir

Memoir of travels, including with Hemingway.

traveladventure

Bibliography

  • What Mad Pursuit (1934)
  • The Trouble I've Seen (1936)
  • A Stricken Field (1940)
  • The Heart of Another (1941)
  • Liana (1944)
  • The Undefeated (1945)
  • Love Goes to Press (1947)
  • The Wine of Astonishment (1948)
  • The Honeyed Peace (1953)
  • Two by Two (1958)
  • The Face of War (1959)
  • His Own Man (1961)
  • Pretty Tales for Tired People (1965)
  • Vietnam: A New Kind of War (1966)
  • The Lowest Trees Have Tops (1967)
  • Travels with Myself and Another (1978)
  • The Weather in Africa (1978)
  • The View from the Ground (1988)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
journalisticconcise and directrestrained emotion
Recurring Motifs
horrors of warcivilian perspectiverecurring historical tragedies

Health

  • cataracts
    1990年代
    Unsuccessful surgery led to permanently impaired vision and near blindness.
  • ovarian cancer
    晩年
    Spread to liver, causing frail health.

Legacy

Considered one of the greatest war correspondents of the 20th century. The Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism is named in her honor.

In Popular Culture

  • Portrayed by Nicole Kidman in the 2012 film Hemingway & Gellhorn.
  • Voiced by Meryl Streep in the 2021 PBS documentary Hemingway.
  • Featured on U.S. postage stamps in 2008.

Quotes

  • I've been a writer for over 40 years. I was a writer before I met him and I was a writer after I left him. Why should I be merely a footnote in his life?
    Source: Interview
  • Are you a war correspondent or wife in my bed?
    Source: Letter from Hemingway (1943)

Trivia

  • The only woman war correspondent to land at Normandy on D-Day, disguising herself as a nurse to stow away on a hospital ship.
  • Committed suicide at age 89 by swallowing a cyanide capsule.
  • Third wife of Ernest Hemingway.
  • At age 7, participated in the women's suffrage 'Golden Lane' rally.