martha gellhorn

Born and raised a scant 3 blocks from Tennessee William's boyhood home in Mayberry, today we celebrate the natal day of Ernest Hemingway's third wife, Martha Gellhorn.  Martha was a doctor's daughter, her mother a suffragette,  and although the William's family lived nearby, it's unlikely their paths would have ever crossed the local social divide.

 Martha was one of the first women war correspondents, and perhaps the best of all war correspondents of the 20th century. She wrote for Collier's during the Spanish Civil War, where she met and had an affair with Hemingway. They married in 1940, she was the only of his 4 wives to leave him, unable to tolerate his fragile ego, and tantrums.  He dedicated For Whom The Bell Tolls to her.

During WWII she reported for The Atlantic from Normandy on D-Day, from bombers over Germany and was at Dachau when it was liberated. She was a pro, tough,  hardened and a fine writer. She covered the world's conflicts until the war in Serbia.

3 blocks from Tennessee williams boyhood home, she was 3 years older which is a lifetime at that age.

Today she is best known as Hem's wife, which is a great disservice to her tremendous legacy.

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