Martha Gelhorn, born in St Louis in 1908 to two parents that wanted much more for their daughter then the role women were to play at the time. Her father George was a doctor and her mother Edna was politically active in the suffrage movement and also served as a president of Bryn Mawr.
Her father pulled her out of school as soon as he learned the nuns had covered the pictures of the female anatomy in health class and took her to the Mary Institute where her mother was the president. It was also the school of another young girl that had been there a few years before, Hadley Richardson.
At just 8 years old, her mother took her to the Democratic Party Suffrage rally in 1916 in St Louis giving her a very early view of the rights women should have. After attending Bryn Mawr for one year she decided to leave and chase her career as a writer. In 1930 it would take her to Paris with a backpack and $50. Even in 1930 Paris it was hard to find an inexpensive place to stay and came across a brothel where she could stay for a few francs.
Inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, think the times Eat Pray Love that inspired people to pack up and head to Europe. With a copy in her backpack she found a cheap place to stay and a job at the United Press as a foreign correspondent and also for Vogue. While in the city of love, she would later meet Bertrand de Jouvenal. Jouvenal had also been the step son of Colette and later her lover of five years. Some historians say Martha had married Bertrand, but in her own biography she doesn’t say they did.
Martha was not content to stay in one place too long. She became one of the first female war correspondents after she traveled the US documenting the Depression for President Roosevelt. Never one to shy away from conflict she was able to bring the stories in a way nobody else did. Gelhorn would find the real story and tell it from a raw and sympathetic point of view that touched her readers.
Her outspoken way would get her in trouble in one job after another. While working for Roosevelt, she supported and pushed angry FERA workers in idaho to lash back about their horrible boss they didn’t like and encouraged them to break the windows of the office. Roosevelt fired her. She really didn’t care.
In 1936 after her father died, Martha, her mother and brother decided to spend Christmas in Key West. She was a fan of Hemingway’s writing, even had a picture of him hanging in her apartment at one time and knew where to go to find him. They walked into the Sloppy Joe’s Bar in Key West, still there today and found Hem sitting at the bar. There is a popular recounting that says she walked in, wearing a tight fighting black dress and her blond hair catching everyone’s attention. She did get attention, but it wasn’t so dramatic.
He was interested in her right away, she was unlike any of the women in his life, ever. She was also a writer and war correspondent, her own career and marched to her own drum. It is exactly what would split them apart. It was a friendship at first, the seasoned writer and supporting and influencing her. Once she took off for Spain to cover the Civil War he quikly followed and their affair began. Pauline was back in Key West and now another woman was doing exactly what she did to Hadley.
As one of the very first female war correspondents she would travel to Germain in 1938 and see the rise of Hitler and to know what was to come. Gelhorn traveled wherever the story was, Czechoslovakia, Singapore, Russia, Finland, Burma, Hong Kong chasing the next story and reported on it in a way no other writer did at the time, with love and empathy.
In May 1939, Martha went to Cuba to write and she found the home that would be tied to him for the rest of his life. The Finca Vigia was rundown and in disrepair but she saw the potential, even though he hated it at first. He would spend his mornings writing and afternoons drinking and she rarely sat still, always leaving to chase wars.
In Wyoming on November 21, 1940 in a small room in Wyoming shortly after his divorce with Pauline was finalized the two married. As a honeymoon, the two traveled to China, he wasn’t happy about it. Hem was used to his wives catering to him and doing what he wanted, that was never going to be Martha. He didn’t understand why she didn’t want to just be a wife and stay at home.
Becoming more and more disenfranchised by the United States she wanted to be in Europe as more of the continent was being taken over by Hitler. Finally finding some passage to Europe she hid in a bathroom on a cargo ship from New York to England. It was the days leading up to D-Day and to get to France she dressed as a paramedic traveled in an ambulance and was the only woman on the beaches of Normandy.
Martha had tried to help get her husband to Europe and asked Roald Dahl of Charlie & the Chocolate Factory fame who also served in the Royal Air Force to get him a seat on a flight from New York. Hem had another idea, he contacted Collier's who Martha worked for and offered to write for them on the war. This move would move her down the ladder and he not only stole her job but also was over her. He tried all he could do to get to the beaches but never made it, although he would retell it a different way over time.
The last straw came when on her return to England, she was asked about his health and she knew nothing about a car accident he had been in that was the beginning of many crashes and head injuries. Arriving at St George hospital he was surrounded by boysturus friends and on his bed, numerous empty bottles of alcohol. She was done with it and told him just that. No woman left Hem, except Agnes the nurse during WWI and Martha and his ego couldn't take it.
At the same time in Londo and then off to Paris he was sleeping with his worst of all wives, Mary who was also a journalist and was also married. In Paris Martha and Hem had planned a dinner to discuss their relationship. He showed up with a group of plans, she walked out. From Holland she sent him a letter on November 3 that she wanted a divorce, he was pissed but did agree. On December 21, 1945 the decree was granted and it was over. Gelhorn never wanted to be the postscript in his biography, nor should she be.
She continued chasing wars, going where women wouldn’t go. Her personal life was always a mess, she put herself first above anything or anyone else. In 1949 she adopted a son, George Alexander Gelhorn in Italy and would travel the world. Eventually she left him with family in New Jersey and never looked back and the two would never have much of a relationship.
In 1954 she married again to T.S. Mathews, editor of Time magazine and divorced 9 years later. “Marriage bored me” she said.
Aside from writing about wars she also wrote 5 novels and 14 novellas and two collections of short stories many of which are very witty and funny. In her books, she never mentioned Hemingway, or let anyone else bring him up, she always called him the “unwilling companion”.
In 1970 she finally settled down in London buying a flat in the city and a house in Wales and would continue to write and travel to Vietnam, Israel and Nivaragua until she was 81 years old.
In her final years she suffered from liver and ovarian cancer and lost her eyeset. Always wanting to be control of her life Martha died on February 15, 1998 at 89 years old, taking her own life by swallowing cyanide pills.
Listen to the newest episode of La Vie Creative - Paris History Avec A Hemingway today.
Support Claudine on Patreon and get more of Paris and all her stories and benefits like discounts on her tours, custom history and exclusive content https://www.patreon.com/bleublonderouge
facebook https://www.facebook.com/BleuBlondeRouge
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/claudinebleublonderouge/
Sign up for the weekly Blue Blonde Rouge newsletter https://view.flodesk.com/pages/5e8f6d73375c490028be6a76