Martha Gellhorn American novelist, travel writer and journalist Date of Birth: 08.11.1908 Country: USA

Marta Gellhorn: A Life of Adventure and Journalism

Marta Gellhorn was an American writer, traveler, and journalist, known as one of the greatest war correspondents of the 20th century. Born on November 8, 1908, in St. Louis, Missouri, she was the daughter of suffragist Edna Fischell and George Gellhorn, a gynecologist of German descent. Both of her parents were half Jewish.

After graduating from John Burroughs School in St. Louis in 1926, Gellhorn enrolled in Bryn Mawr College in Philadelphia. However, she soon abandoned her studies to pursue a career in journalism. Her first articles appeared in the American magazine "The New Republic." In 1930, she embarked on a two-year journey to France, where she worked at the United Press bureau in Paris. During her time in Europe, Gellhorn became a supporter of pacifist movements, which she later wrote about in her book "What Mad Pursuit" published in 1934.

Upon her return to the United States, Gellhorn was appointed an investigator for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration by Harry Hopkins. Her reports for this organization caught the attention of Eleanor Roosevelt, and the two women became lifelong friends.

In 1936, Gellhorn met the renowned American writer Ernest Hemingway during a family Christmas trip to Key West. Together, they agreed to go to Spain to cover the course of the Spanish Civil War and later celebrated Christmas 1937 in Barcelona. Gellhorn chronicled World War II in her novel "A Stricken Field" and also sent dispatches from Finland, Hong Kong, Burma, Singapore, and Britain. She was one of the first journalists to report on the liberation of prisoners from the Dachau concentration camp.

After four years together, Gellhorn and Hemingway married in December 1940. However, Hemingway grew increasingly dissatisfied with his wife's constant absence, leading to their divorce in 1945.

Following the war, Gellhorn worked with "The Atlantic Monthly," reporting on the Vietnam War, the Six-Day War in the Middle East, and the civil wars in Central America. At the age of 81, she rushed to Panama to cover the US invasion. It was only when the Bosnian War broke out in the 1990s that Gellhorn considered herself too old to continue her work.

On February 15, 1998, at the age of 89, Marta Gellhorn took her own life, having battled cancer and near blindness. Although she had adopted a boy named Sandy from an Italian orphanage in 1949, she eventually gave him to relatives in Englewood, New Jersey, due to her lack of involvement in his life. This decision led to resentment between them.

Gellhorn had two marriages and numerous lovers, often involving married men. Her first significant romance was with French economist Bertrand de Jouvenel from 1930 to 1934. While married to Hemingway, she engaged in an affair with Major General James M. Gavin, the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division. Gellhorn's list of lovers also included businessmen "L," journalist William Walton, and doctor David Gurewitsch. In 1954, she married Tom Matthews, the managing editor of "Time," but divorced him in 1963.