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Collection Overview

Creator:
Gellhorn, Martha (1908-1998)
Collector:
Princeton University. Library. Special Collections
Title:
Princeton University Library Collection of Martha Gellhorn Materials
Repository:
Manuscripts Division
Permanent URL:
http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/hx11xj003
Dates:
1936-1974
Size:
1 box and 0.2 linear feet
Storage Note:
  • Firestone Library (scamss): Box B-000788
Language:
English

Abstract

Consists of an open collection of letters and memorabilia of American war correspondent, journalist, and novelist Martha Gellhorn (1908-1998), assembled from various sources. Contents include approximately fifty letters (1968-1974) to her adopted son George "Sandy" Gellhorn and fourteen letters (1941-1946) to George Brown, who was Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway's personal trainer, tennis partner, and friend, as well as badges from Gellhorn's time as a war correspondent and a portrait drawing of her.

Collection Description & Creator Information

Scope and Contents

Consists of an open collection, assembled from multiple sources, of letters and memorabilia of American war correspondent, journalist, and novelist Martha Gellhorn (1908-1998). In addition to authoring numerous works of fiction, many of which were drawn from her reporting, Martha Gellhorn was one of the first female war correspondents during World War II. She accepted her first war assignment in 1937, covering the Spanish Civil War for Collier's Weekly, during which time she began an affair with the American novelist Ernest Hemingway, whom she had met on vacation in Key West, Florida, the previous Christmas. Gellhorn next worked as a foreign correspondent in Czechoslovakia and Finland during the late 1930s and traveled as a journalist along the Burma Road and to China in 1940 and 1941 with Hemingway; they married in 1940. Punctuated by her frequent travels abroad, Gellhorn and Hemingway lived together between their villa, Finca Vigía, in San Francisco de Paula, Cuba, and Sun Valley, Idaho, as Gellhorn continued to work for Collier's as a war correspondent in England, Italy, France, and Germany from 1943 to 1945, reporting on the beach at D-Day, at the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp, and at the Nuremberg trials. After a tumultuous marriage plagued by Hemingway's resentment of Gellhorn's successful career as a journalist and frequent travels, the couple divorced in 1945. In 1949, Gellhorn adopted a son, George Alexander ("Sandy") Gellhorn, from an orphanage in Italy. She went on to cover the Vietnam War and the Arab-Israeli conflict in the 1960s and 1970s and civil unrest in Latin America in the 1980s. She also continued to publish fiction and nonfiction works regularly, spending prolonged stretches of time living and writing in Kenya.

The collection contains fourteen letters from Gellhorn to George Brown, written primarily from Finca Vigía, San Francisco de Paula, Cuba, and Sun Valley, Idaho, during the time Gellhorn was married to Ernest Hemingway in the 1940s. Brown was Gellhorn and Hemingway's personal trainer, tennis partner, and friend, and the letters focus largely on Gellhorn and Hemingway's physical condition, diet, and domestic life. There are also approximately fifty letters from Martha Gellhorn to her adopted son, George "Sandy" Gellhorn, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, written from Kenya, England, Germany, and the United States. Gellhorn's letters to her son are intimate and include her thoughts and reflections on current events, her travels as a war correspondent and journalist, writing projects, family matters, and her complex relationship with her son. A long sequence of letters written from Kenya in 1969 contains a thorough accounting of Gellhorn's experience in Africa, as well as commentary on Hemingway's prose and troubled relationship with his parents. Other materials include a sketch portrait of Martha Gellhorn by Bernard Perlin, circa 1953, and a group of dog tags, pins, and badges from Gellhorn's career as a war correspondent during the Spanish Civil War, World War II, and afterward.

Arrangement

Arranged in order of accession.

Collection History

Acquisition:

Purchases, 2016 (AM 2016-108, AM 2017-76).

Appraisal

No materials were separated during 2016-2017 processing.

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Kelly Bolding in September 2016. Finding aid written by Kelly Bolding in September 2016. Finding aid updated by Kelly Bolding in January 2017.

Access & Use

Conditions Governing Access

Open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Single copies may be made for research purposes. To cite or publish quotations that fall within Fair Use, as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission is required. For instances beyond Fair Use, it is the responsibility of the researcher to determine whether any permissions related to copyright, privacy, publicity, or any other rights are necessary for their intended use of the Library's materials, and to obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders, if they have not already done so. Princeton University Library's Special Collections does not charge any permission or use fees for the publication of images of materials from our collections, nor does it require researchers to obtain its permission for said use. The department does request that its collections be properly cited and images credited. More detailed information can be found on the Copyright, Credit and Citations Guidelines page on our website. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through the Ask Us! form.

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

For preservation reasons, original analog and digital media may not be read or played back in the reading room. Users may visually inspect physical media but may not remove it from its enclosure. All analog audiovisual media must be digitized to preservation-quality standards prior to use. Audiovisual digitization requests are processed by an approved third-party vendor. Please note, the transfer time required can be as little as several weeks to as long as several months and there may be financial costs associated with the process. Requests should be directed through the Ask Us Form.

Credit this material:

Princeton University Library Collection of Martha Gellhorn Materials; Manuscripts Division, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library

Permanent URL:
http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/hx11xj003
Location:
Firestone Library
One Washington Road
Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
(609) 258-3184
Storage Note:
  • Firestone Library (scamss): Box B-000788