Nothing Ever Happens to the Brave: The Story of Martha Gellhorn - Hardcover

Rollyson, Carl

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312051255 ISBN 13: 9780312051259

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1990

Synopsis

The first full-scale study of the life of Martha Gellhorn captures her life as a war correspondent who vividly wrote about wars from the Spanish Revolution to Vietnam and Nicaragua, as the wife of Hemingway, and as an indomitable spirit

About this title

Reviews

Of Gellhorn, journalist and author of 15 books, an acquaintance once said, "Martha had real brains, beauty and the body of a Circe." Yet Gellhorn, now in her 80s, has seen her accomplishments overshadowed by her brief and stormy marriage to Ernest Hemingway. In this entertaining and revealing biography, Rollyson ( Lillian Hellman ) allows Gellhorn to stand on her own two feet. Spirited, restless and dedicated to social progressivism, Gellhorn early on forsook the security of her affluent St. Louis, Mo., family for adventure, most notably as a daring war correspondent. Rollyson frames a picture of her courage, contrariness and complexity, and in the process further dismantles the Hemingway legend. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Much to Martha Gellhorn's irritation, her reputation as a journalist and novelist has long been overshadowed by her marriage to Ernest Hemingway. Now in the first full-scale study of her life, Rollyson, author of Lillian Hellman: Her Legend and Legacy ( LJ 4/15/88), attempts to remedy that oversight. Unfortunately, Gellhorn deserves better than this ploddingly dull biography. Although Rollyson dutifully traces her career as a war correspondent, discusses her relationship with Hemingway, and analyzes her novels, he is handicapped by Gellhorn's refusal to cooperate with biographers. As a result, he relies mainly on secondary sources, giving a sketchy, vague feel to the book. Public library collections should stick with Bernice Kert's excellent The Hem ingway Women ( LJ 5/15/83) and Gellhorn's The Face of War (1959; Atlantic, 1988) and The View from the Ground (Atlantic, 1988).
- Wilda Williams, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312051255
• ISBN 13: 9780312051259
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 398