Gellhorn: A Twentieth Century Life

Rating:
Summary: A mediocre Book About A Wretched Human Being
Review: Caroline Moorhead has produced the most complete biography of Martha Gellhorn to date. But that isn't saying much. For all her industry in mining archives (and Gellhorn delivered a carefully managed archive of extensive size to Boston U.) and interviewing those that knew the subject Moorhead has produced a frequently muddled book. Errors of fact and wierdly presented information abound. As an example of the latter is a statement about the effect of Primo Levi's 'sudden' death on Gellhorn. It was sudden alright since Levi committed suicide. Also for all the detail presented about Gellhorn the background is frequently presented in such a muddled way that it is difficult to firmly fix the subject and her actions in the historical context of what was going on.

However, errors and questionable analysis aside, Moorhead presents a wealth of information on just how horrible a person Martha Gellhorn was. Her endless dissatisfaction with life and poisionous rancorous personality shines through over and over again. She was truly one of those people where everything is about me. After three abortions, products of her promiscious lifestyle, she decides to adopt an Italian war orphen for rather the same reasons that bored suburban wives adopt a dog from the animal shelter; to have some company for number one. As might be expected even though the lad was shuffled off to many expensive prep schools and finally Columbia U Moma made his life hell.
Hectoring the unfortunate Sandy about his weight, diet, posture, and character in between her frequent absences to do some important task. Not surprisngly her son became a drug user and had a miserable life until (without Gellhorn's assistance) he dried himself out.

As Moorhead shows over and over again Gellhorn lived the life of a comfortable and frequently affluent expatriot by selling articles to upper crust US magazines all the while loudly intoning her loathing for her native country and the source of her lucre.

There are some delicious sections in this book. Probably the best is the record of the remarkable romantic triangle of Gellhorn, Marlene Dietrich, and MG James Gavin. It is hilarious to read of one of the greats of 20th century cinema, a leading highly sophisticated foreign correspondent, and one of the US Army's premier battlefield commanders behaving like high school juniors with Gavin playing the role of the caddish football hero and his two femmes carrying on as though they were a couple of cheer leaders vying for Mr. Touchdown's favors.

This is a through if not very well written book that provides plenty of information to convince most reader's that Gellhorn may have been a good writer but a horrible human being.

Rating:
Summary: Full Life
Review: I had never heard of Martha Gellhorn until a read a magazine review of this book. What an amazing woman; she certainly covered a lot of ground in her very long, very full life. While she was by no means perfect - in fact, often selfish and detached - she was a strong, active and fearless woman who always went after what she wanted. Moorehead's biography is a beautiful read, including direct quotes from many of Martha's personal notes, together with her own talented writing.

Rating:
Summary: The Life of a Fearless Reporter
Review: I have been a Martha Gellhorn fan snce I found a copy of Travels With Myself and Another on the shelf at Hatchard's in London in 1983. I had never heard of Gellhorn, but was immediately taken with her no-nonsense reporter's style of writing. I scooped up all her non-fiction and some of her fiction. After reading both of Carl Rollyson's bios of her (one written before she died, against her wishes, the other right after her death), I thought I knew a little about Gellhorn. After reading Moorehead's bio, I found out just how little.

This is likely to be the standard text on Gellhorn's life. It is complete, readable, and doesn't pull any punches. You get Gellhorn, warts and all, and there are plenty of warts. There was a lot of information here that I hadn't known, and wouldn't have guessed. It may even be too much information. I think I may know more about Gellhorn now than I really wanted to.

Martha Gellhorn was a terrific war reporter, a great non-fiction writer, a competent author of fiction, and a fascinating person. Moorehead's biography captures all that and is well worth your time.




Rating:
Summary: Is suicide the natural end for an independent life?
Review: I loved this book. I admire Martha Gellhorn not because she was an admirable woman, but because she lived a life uniquely hers and kept a sense of humor until the end. But the end is again troubling. Yet another strong woman who ends her own life. Is this the only way to have the ultimate control? It is consistent with the way she lived her life and thus, perhaps, the only natural end.

Rating:
Summary: The Old Man and the Blonde Reporting Whiz: Ernest and Martha
Review: Martha Gellhorn is not a household name in America. However she led a remarkable life worthy of recounting. Gellhorn was the daughter of a German doctor and a suffragete mother growing up as a rebel in turn of the century St. Louis. The rebel dropped out of Bryn Mawr after two years to pursue her dream of reporting
on a variety of newspapers as well as respected periodicals such as Colliers and The New Yorker.
Moorhead details Martha's long odyssey through the twentieth century as she covered the Spanish Civil War, World War II and even a brief stint in Vietnam. Along the way this braniest of Hemingway's quartet of wives managed to have several abortions and countless affairs.
Moorhead reveals Gellhorn's fixation on a slim fgure and a pretty face. Her relationship with an adopted son from war ravaged Italy was rocky and she lacked mothering skills.
Gellhorn was a feminist before her time who lived a life of travel, excitement and glamour.
My problems with the book are:
a. Moorhead doesn't include enough excerpts from Gellhorn's writings.
b I found Gellhorn's character to be self-centered. She longed for love but couldn't settle her incessant wanderlust. Perhaps her most important relationship was with her mother Edna.
Hemingway is portrayed negatively as a bragging, bully who worshipped himself and eschewed long term commitments,
This book is OK but I come away not caring much for Martha despite her many achievements

Rating:
Summary: Terrible Person...Boring Subject for a Book
Review: Martha Gellhorn was a repulsive, self-absorbed person and at best, a mediocre writer whose notoriety stems mainly for whom she spent time with during her life (Ernest Hemingway, H.G. Wells, Eleanor Roosevelt, Leonard Bernstein, etc.) and not her work.

The books I like to read are usually biographies and/or American history. This book basically boils down to a story about a miserable person who never really accomplished much. I don't know, maybe I'm biased after recently reading biographies of great people like Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams.

What a scumbag. Here's Martha's life...
·Numerous affairs with married men (including all three of her eventual husbands).
·Dumping on everyone with reckless abandon. She would declare that she was bored and then drive people away with vicious precision. She repeated her bad behavior with co-workers, husbands, and siblings. Her worst behavior was reserved for "friends." After the initial excitement wore off she'd belittle them, ignore, kick them out, leave without explanation, etc. Even her "beloved" mother was not immune. Martha left her mother's side as she was dying. The worst involved her adopted son. She dragged her poor son all over (Italy, Mexico, the U.S., England) and criticized him endlessly for being fat, stupid, and lazy. Subsequently her son ended up a drug addict who spent several stints in jail. Just terrible.
·In Africa she ran over a child, killing him. It's OK, she capitalized by using the tragedy as an idea in a novel.
·As a reporter she was biased and dishonest. The biggest example of bias is her uncompromising contempt for the Palestinians on all issues regardless of facts. Her dishonesty was also at times severe. The most egregious example is her magazine article detailing a lynching she witnessed. She never did. Liar.
·She wasn't much of a writer. I had never heard of her. Her body of work consists of magazine articles here and there and a bunch of books that were poorly reviewed and mostly forgotten. Much of her fiction was taken directly her experiences (like Hemingway, however, Hemingway had the ability to add nuance and depth to his writing). Often she would go months or years without publishing or even writing anything of value. It's amazing with all of the places she saw and people she met that she had so much trouble coming up with anything of value. I guess that explains a lot about the level of her talent.

To the author's credit, she is honest in detailing all of Gellhorn's flaws. With that said, the topic of Gellhorn is a dreadful read. All I can take from this book are lessons on how not to behave. It certainly isn't entertaining. Save your time and money and pass on this boring story of this disgusting person.

Rating:
Summary: Well done biography!
Review: Martha Gellhorn was a woman ahead of her time with an insatiable appetite for adventure and a gift for reporting on world events. She was not suited for marriage and knew it despite her two failures. The author has done an excellent job researching the life of this very independent woman and I was surprised at the very end (read the book to learn about this). As a lover of well written biographies I was fascinated by this one.

Rating:
Summary: A Woman Way Ahead of Her Time
Review: This new biography on Martha Gellhorn by Caroline Moorehead is a most gripping biography from a number of angles. First of all, Moorehead chronicles Gellhorn's personal and professional life with interesting and amusing anecdotes and many of Martha's ad hominem humorous quips. As a writer and a war correspondent, few women in this field can match Gellhorn's scope and travels. It is unfortunate that most people only know of Gellhorn as Hemingway's third wife.Moorehead, however, covers Gellhorn's entire life without added emphasis on the Hemingway marriage, which would have pleased Gellhorn greatly. A valuable fringe benefit of this biography is the expansive coverage of Gellhorn's famous acquaintances in her work as a war correspondent as well as in her personal life....Eleanor Roosevelt and President Roosevelt, Gen James Gavin, Robert Capa, photographer,Leonard Bernstein, and
H.G. Wells. In reading this biography one also acquires a feel for the politics of the era and its history...the Spanish Civil War, World WarII, and even the Vietnam War. History becomes most interesting reading in this superb biography.

Rating:
Summary: Boring!
Review: What a painfully boring book! I was really looking forward to reading this book, as I normally love biographies and had heard some interesting things about Gellhorn. Unfortunately, this turned out to be soooo boring! What a waste of my money. I kept waiting for it to get better, but it never did.

Rating:
Summary: Martha Gellhorn's life isn't worth reading.
Review: why did anyone choose to do her biography? only real accomplishment of her life was marrying EH. Sooooo, self obsessed, war-loving, name dropping, floosie.

I've read a lot about this era and these folks--I've never heard of Martha Gellhorn and after reading this tedious, fawning, hero-worshipping (god, it's worse than watching Larry King), now I know why. This was not a women of substance. She was a dillitante and a hanger-on with good legs.