American writer Martha Gellhorn: biography, personal life, creativity

In the minds of many Marta Gellhorn will forever remain the third wife of Ernest Hemingway. It is in this capacity that it is represented by reference books and encyclopedias, despite the fact that she was one of the few women involved in covering military events.

Entirely devoted to journalistic craft, she devoted sixty years to writing reports. This woman was officially awarded the title of one of the five journalists who had the greatest influence on the formation and development of society in America throughout the XX century. This significant event was marked by the release of a special series of stamps for postal envelopes.

Biographical information

Marta Gellhorn was born in St. Louis (America) in 1908. Her parents were George Gellhorn (doctor) and Edna Fishell, leading an active work to protect women's rights.

Young Marta already in her childhood began to write poems and short stories, so no one was surprised when she announced her intention to reach heights in the writers' craft. After graduating from college, she went to work in a small publishing house and wrote reports about the news of the criminal world. True, here Martha did not stay and went to Europe in search of adventure and new topics.

Quick start in journalism

The amazing ability of a young journalist was the ability to find ways to get acquainted with influential people. While in the French capital, Marta Gellhorn almost in a few days got a job in the editorial office of the popular magazine Vogue. Already as a correspondent of this publication, the girl attracted the attention of the writer Bertrand de Jouvenel, whose father was a famous French politician and diplomat.

According to unofficial data, they were married, but this has not been documented. At that time, Bertrand was in a marriage, and there is no evidence that there was a divorce. In any case, these relations did not last long, as Martha Gellhorn was already fed up with French society and became interested in the war that was brewing in Europe. She left Paris, leaving Bertrand.

Homecoming

After coming to America the girl began to conduct active activity as a reporter of one of the major newspapers. Her reports were so impressive that such a powerful person as Harry Hopkins became interested in who Marta Gellhorn is. The biography of the journalist contains facts pointing to her collaboration with Franklin Roosevelt's government, to which Hopkins worked. On the instructions of the presidential administration, the girl traveled through key cities in America and wrote a series of essays on the consequences of the Great Depression for different strata of the population. The results of the observations were set out by the journalist not only in the articles, but also in the book "The trouble that I saw." This collection of short stories was the first literary work written by Martha Gellhorn. Her books, like most publications, are written in a peculiar style, jerky and without pathos ("The Lost Battle", "Travel alone and with companions").

In the process of work, Martha became a close friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of the president. In addition to common interests, they found out that the first lady knew Martha's mother by college.

The location of influential people and their patronage promised the journalist an excellent career in administration with a subsequent political career. But all the privileges were dimmed in comparison with the upcoming adventures and travel, so Martha's choice was obvious.

Relations with Wells

Visiting the presidential house, Martha got acquainted with the famous writer, who worked in the genre of fiction, with Herbert Wells. He was also a welcome guest in the president's family.

At that time, Herbert was married and, in addition, contained several mistresses, but could not resist the pressure of Martha. Under her influence, he decides to go with her to Europe, directly into the crucible of the flaring up war.

Strictly speaking, thanks to Wells and his trusteeship, the girl began to revolve in the highest journalistic circles. Heat did not disappear from their relationship even after many years, when both were family people.

Getting to Hemingway

The demand and popularity of the journalist in the mid-1930s reached impressive proportions: her trips to European countries and articles revealing the harsh truth about people's lives in the American outback were revealing. Fateful acquaintance of Martha with the famous writer Ernest Hemingway took place in the Florida bar "Nerayha Joe". According to Ernest, he was shocked by Martha's slender legs and at first fell in love with them, and then into it herself.

Left in Florida, the journalist made friends with Pauline Pfeiffer, the writer's wife at the time. Despite the fact that Pauline also wrote for Vogue magazine and was a rather interesting person, Hemingway was already carried away by Marta. Among their common interests was a passionate love for Spain, so it's no surprise that they both left for this country, engulfed in civil war.

Joint reporting activities

Hemingway and Gellhorn arrived in Spain light: they had one suitcase and no more than fifty dollars for two. Their passion was the coverage of events that took place in the country, and, according to some experts, Marta was much better at writing reports than her illustrious lover.

Both of them had a sympathy for the social party that was then in power, and their articles were written precisely from this position.

1940 was marked by the official marriage of the couple. They together conducted their reporting activities, having visited Finland, France, Indonesia and China. As a result, Marta and Ernest acquired the reputation of brilliant military correspondents.

The journalist was the muse of the enamored writer, since the novel "For Whom the Bell Tolls", which brought Ernest world fame, was dedicated to her. After several years of vagrancy, the couple acquired the estate and settled in it.

Hemingway and Gellhorn: Struggling characters

Family happiness of the famous couple was not destined to last long. Passions were heated because of Martha's reluctance to cave in to her husband's demands: she did not change her surname, lead a household and follow in the footsteps of Ernest's previous wives and mistresses.

The meaning of life for the journalist was professional activity, and her resolute actions did not find support from her husband. She completely immersed herself in the work when the war broke out: she was in the cockpit during the bombing, took part in the landing of the Allies in Normandy, watched and illuminated the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp.

Unable to withstand the constant absence of his wife and her tough position on journalism, Hemingway put an ultimatum to her. The choice of Martha was not in favor of marriage - she preferred freedom and adventure. However, forever remained in the shadow of the famous writer.

Further career of Martha Gellhorn

After the end of the world war, the journalist began to cover other military conflicts. In the second half of the 20th century, readers of newspapers and magazines perceived many events precisely through the eyes of Martha.

The horrors that fascists created led to the writer defending the rights of the Jewish people to her own state, and also wrote about the trial of the Nazis.

The third marriage of the writer, with the editor-in-chief of the Times, T. Matthews, was lengthy, but was torn by Martha after exposing her husband's lengthy novel on the side. Marta Gellhorn, whose personal life was full, but rather unsuccessful, finally became disillusioned with the institution of marriage and did not marry again. The life of the journalist was interrupted by her will in 1998: suffering from cancer and being completely blind, she took a large dose of medication.

The writer and journalist Martha Gellhorn, whose quotations are widely spread and repeatedly paraphrased, has become a kind of idol for all feminists and independent women. Her statement about her ex-husband is best known: "I was a writer before I met him, and I was a writer for 45 years after that, why should I just be a footnote to someone's life?"