Everyone Knows Ernest Hemingway, The Trailblazing American Author, But His Third Wife Was Also An Exceptional Novelist And War Correspondent
Ernest Hemingway was one of America’s most recognized authors and is still very well-known today for his novels and short stories.
However, his third wife, Martha Gellhorn, was also an extraordinary person, novelist, travel writer, and war correspondent who deserves more credit for all her work.
Martha was born in Missouri in 1908. She was very passionate about activism at a young age, beginning by supporting the women’s suffrage movement in the 1910s. As she got older and graduated from high school, Martha realized she wanted to become a journalist, specifically a foreign correspondent.
In the late 1920s, Martha began traveling around Europe and wrote travel pieces for newspapers. Martha even wrote some fashion pieces for Vogue magazine. When she returned to America in the 1930s, she befriended First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. She began assisting her at the White House, helping her with her column for the magazine, “Woman’s Home Companion.”
Through her connections to Eleanor, Martha began working as a field investigator for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, reporting on how the Great Depression affected Americans’ everyday lives.
Then, in 1936, she met Ernest Hemingway on a vacation in Key West, Florida, with her family. She was 28 years old, and he was 39. She was a big admirer of his since her early 20s.
Not long after they met, Martha was called to cover the Spanish Civil War for Collier’s magazine. She packed everything she had, and Ernest joined her on her journey to work as correspondents in Spain. She wrote all about bombings during the war, injured soldiers, and life on the frontlines.
Martha later moved on to cover invasions of Czechoslovakia and Finland in the late 1930s. She wrote a book titled “A Stricken Field,” published in 1968, about the atrocities she saw in Europe as the Gestapo entered Prague.
In 1940, Martha and Ernest married, making her his third wife. Not long after their Wyoming wedding, she was asked by Collier’s to report on conflicts in China. Though Ernest didn’t want to go, she convinced him to travel with her.
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Martha wrote incredible news stories during this time and wasn’t afraid to put herself in harm’s way to get all the reporting information she needed for her coverage.
Over the next few years, Ernest tried convincing Martha to settle down and stay at their home in Cuba. He didn’t want her traveling anymore, which caused a lot of tension in her marriage.
In 1943, Martha stayed focused on her career and left for England without Ernest to cover more of World War II for Collier’s. Ernest decided to get revenge by stealing her credentials and signing on with Collier’s to report on the same subjects. He pulled strings to get into London earlier than she did.
Despite Ernest’s attempts to get her to end her career, Martha chose to end their marriage and continue working. They officially divorced in 1945, after Martha stayed in Europe and bravely reported on D-Day, hiding in a hospital ship to continue getting coverage.
After World War II and divorcing Ernest, Martha continued to write and report on wars and conflicts worldwide for decades. In addition to her news stories, she wrote several books throughout her impressive career, as she witnessed some of the biggest events the world has seen.
Martha retired from journalism in the late 1980s and died in London in 1998 at 89 years old. She was so much more than a famous author’s wife and will always be remembered for her talent and bravery.
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