Martha Gellhorn: A war correspondent!!

                                                          Martha Gellhorn

Martha Gellhorn known as an American novelist, writer and a journalist who is the first female of the great war correspondents of 20^th century.  She was a fearless lady of her era who chronicled the lives of common people affected by war and conflict. In her career span of over 60 years, she covered almost every major conflict that happened all over the world in that period. That’s why apart from being one of the first female war correspondents, she is also known as one of the best war reporters of 20^th century. As a novelist, her fictional work was characterized by lucid prose.

'A Stricken Field' (1939), 'The Lowest Trees Have Tops' (1967) and a collection of stories, 'The Weather in Africa' (1978) are some of her famous novels.

Childhood and early life

 Martha Gellhorn was born on 8^th November 1908 to George Gellhorn and Edna Fischel Gelhorn in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Her mother was a suffragist and father was a gynaecologist. She was of Jewish origin. Her brothers named Walter Gellhorn and Alfred Gellhorn also gave their best in whatever they did; Walter was a renowned law professor at Columbia University and Alfred was an oncologist.

She completed her studies at John Burroughs School in St. Louis and after that, in 1926, she joined Bryn Mawr College, Philadelphia. Very soon, she left the graduation course because she wanted to pursue her career in journalism. American magazine 'The New Republic' featured her maiden articles.

A passion to become an international reporter, she went to Paris in 1930 and worked at the United Press Bureau where she became an active participant in the pacifist movement and recorded her experiences in the book 'What Mad Pursuit' (1934).

She was married to American author Ernest Hemingway. Martha Gellhorn was his third wife and that too for a short duration.

Martha Gellhorn died on 15^th February 1998, London, United Kingdom as she was unwell. Martha Gellhorn was in very painful situation. She almost lost her eyesight by the age of 89 and apparently committed suicide.

In 1999, prize for journalism, The Martha Gellhorn Prize, is given in honour of one of the 20^th century’s greatest reporters. It is awarded to a journalist whose work has been through version of tasks and strong facts with truth that will be unpalatable.

Career

• Martha Gellhorn was hired as a field investigator for Federal Emergency Relief Administration by Harry Hopkins in US. She then covered the various unexplored subjects like the effect of depression, poor lives, etc.

• In 1936, she reported about Spanish civil war and at that time she was working for Collier’s Weekly.

• She also reported on the war from other countries like Hong Kong, Singapore, Burma, England, and Finland also about Adolf Hitler in Germany and Czechoslovakia.

• In 1940, Martha Gellhorn also wrote a novel ‘A Stricken Field’ in which she described about the World War II.

• In 1960s and 70s, while she was the working for the Atlantic Monthly, she also covered conflicts between the Vietnam War and the Arab-Israel. And then in the next decade she reported the Civil Wars in Central America.

• In 1989, she reported the US invasion of Panama before retiring.

• In 1995, when she was writing her assignment faced great difficulty as she was losing her eyesight. Finally, A report on poverty, was her last foreign assignment that was published in the literary journal GRANTA in Brazil. She completed this assignment with great difficulty due to problem in her eyesight.

Major works

•  'The Trouble I’ve Seen' (1936) was her first book and was hugely successful. There is a description regarding the impact of the great depression on the American people had a sensational response

• In 'Travels with Myself and Another: A Memoir' (1978), there is a description of her journey includes voyage with Hemingway.

• She wrote several articles for example 'The Face of War' (1959 and 'The View from the Ground' (1988). She also authored 'Vietnam: A New Kind of War' (1966). She was a leading war correspondent.

Awards and achievements

•   On D-day that is 6^th June 1994, at Normday, she was the only female. She impersonated as a stretcher bearer to be present there.

•  She was the one female among five persons to be honoured in American journalists stamp series of 2008.

Personal life and legacy

• She had her first affair when she was of 22 years with French economist Bertrand de Jouvenel that lasts for 4 years.

• In 1936, she met Ernest Hemingway in Florida and after four years they got married. But she did not like the fame associated with being his wife. She once said that she had no intention of being a footnote in someone else's life. She took divorce in 1945. She had an affair with Major General James M. Gavin when she was still married

• In 1949, she adopted a child named Sandy.

• In 1954, she got married with T.S. Matthews, the former managing editor of Times Magazine and went to London. And this marriage also ended in 1963.

• She committed suicide on 15th February 1998 in London at the age of 89. She ended her life by swallowing a cyanide capsule. She was suffering from liver and ovarian cancer and continuously failing her eyesight.

• The Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism was posthumously established in 1999 in her memory.

• Martha Gellhorn had homes in 19 different locations.