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| Martha Gelhorn, Sun Valley, 1940 |
Joanna’s gate off the Old Croton Aqueduct will be open at noon on the 17th, and she will ring the bell promptly at 1pm. (Actually, her gate is always open, and you are certainly welcome to enter by her driveway, I just liked the way that sounded.) She also asked that you please enter the house through her garden (kitchen) and not the driveway (front door), adding, “Not to be too risqué, but I'll be happy to show you my exposed joists afterwards.” So much to look forward to!
If it's looking sunny and you think we might be spending a little bit of time outdoors, please bring layers and hats, as you see fit. A light not-lunch will be served.
Hoping to see most of you on Wednesday, and fingers crossed for a beautifully sunny day on Wednesday!–x Jacquie
P.S. Please excuse the silly tone of this reminder. The morning sun and the fact that we are not at all-out war in the Middle East is making me a bit giddy.
Christineʼs Minutes Fourteen members of the Literature, and one guest–Linda’s daughter Rebecca–gathered in Joanna’s lovely kitchen, which allowed for better-than-usual proximity to the source of food.
Joanna rang the bell at precisely 1 pm, and made an apt analogy between our somewhat cramped quarters in the kitchen, and the exigencies of war correspondence.
Lori, our treasurer, reported that coffers are full to bursting with $422.73. Though a check will soon be written, for $16.00 to the Barkin Corner Book Shop, for books that will be delivered to the Family Social Services of Yonkers.
The minutes for March 13th were read and accepted.
The minutes for March 27th were also read and accepted.
Our Vice-President, Laura Rice, handed out a list of possible topics for next year’s theme, and asked us to circle five that we would like to see in the final ballot.
Then, putting on her presenter hat, Laura launched her program on Martha Gellhorn. Born in 1947, one of the themes Laura could choose from, was “American Literature of the Past 25 Years.” Meanwhile, she had also read the novel, The Paris Wife, about Hemingway’s first wife. And had come across the work of Martha Gellhorn. A topic was born. Martha Gellhorn however was not the subject of The Paris Wife; she was Hemingway’s third, penultimate wife. But quoi faire? Our speaker had already fallen for Gellhorn, through her collection of letters from the thirties and forties. Laura focused her report on the years 1930 to 1949.
But first a quick timeline of her life.
Martha was born in 1908 in St Louis. Her mother was a suffragette, and her father was a gynecologist. Moving right along, in 1929 she left Bryn Mawr after her junior year, and began working as a fact checker for The New Republic in New York. That was followed by other jobs in newspapers and ad agencies. While at the Albany Times Union, she met Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of the governor, Franklin. Mostly importantly, on Bastille Day of 1930, she met the very French and sexy Bertrand de Jouvenal. His father, Henri, a member of the old French nobility, had divorced Bertrand’s mother in order to marry Colette. Yes, that mononymic Colette. As a teenager, Bertrand had an affair with his step-mother. Martha fell head over heels for him. But in 1931 she returned to the Midwest to get an abortion. Bertrand could not marry her, because his wife refused to allow a divorce.
Between 1931 and 1933, Martha traveled throughout the United States with Bertrand, taking odd jobs as they went along. In 1934 she worked for FERA (Federal Emergency Relief Administration), reporting on the state of unemployment; but she was fired in 1935 for inciting a riot by unemployed workers in Idaho. Later that year she stayed at the White House, at the invitation of Eleanor Roosevelt, and there she met H.G. Wells. The following year she stayed with Wells in London. Later in 1936, she traveled to Key West with her now-widowed mother and a brother, and there she met Ernest Hemingway. The year1937 found Martha reporting from Spain, working on the documentary The Spanish Earth. In the following years she traveled between Europe and Cuba, and in 1940 she and Hemingway married, one day after his divorce from Pauline Pfeiffer. There were more travels, of course. In 1944, she took a slow boat to England, and went on to cover the Normandy Invasion. She visited Dachau in 1945. In December of that year, she divorced Hemingway. In 1949 she adopted a boy from an Italian orphanage. Five years later she married Tom Matthews in London. They divorced in 1963. In 1966 she reported from Vietnam. But her health was declining, and in 1970 she bought a flat in London. She died by suicide in 1998, at the age of 89.
Next, in pursuit of listener participation and interactive-learning, Laura handed out selections from Martha’s letters. Each member was to pair up with her neighbor, read the selections, and then share with the group certain points they found especially interesting.
The first selection was a letter describing her fateful meeting with Bertrand de Jouvenal, the Adonis. In a later letter, also regarding Bertrand, she writes how work can heal the wounds of unhappy love. In a 1931 letter from Mexico, Martha spoke of meeting and conversing with Diego Riviera. In 1935, we heard her deliver an ultimatum to Bertrand. There was also a letter from H.G. Wells, expressing his admiration for her. There were several letters, in 1934 and 35, written to Harry Hopkins of FERA, describing her despair for the unemployed, and her concern that the ‘dole’ was pauperizing the poor.
Then in 1941, suffering from a hangover, she writes to her dear friend, Hortense Flexner, called Teechie, about her desire for both excitement AND solitude. She laments the condition of womanhood. In 1944, also writing to Teechie, Martha describes icebergs as well as her breakup with Hemingway.
Following upon the letters, Laura read us Martha’s only work of fiction, from 1931, a heart-rending story of a young woman getting an abortion. It required no great imagination to conceive of a similar story occurring right now.
In the thirties Martha spent a lot of time in Spain, reporting on the Civil War there. In 1941 she went to China, on assignment from Collier’s, bringing along Ernest, who is referred to in her letters as U.C., for Unwilling Companion. She was able to interview Chiang Kai-shek, and even asked Madame Chiang Kai-shek about the Chinese treatment of lepers. We did not hear the response. Martha also met Zhou Enlai and thought him “the best of China”. Her writing consistently showed great attention to detail, and empathy.
After the war years, Martha continued to report from all over the troubled spots of the world, Vietnam, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Israel.
Laura ended with the closing paragraph of Gellhorn’s Travels with Myself and Another. It was a vivid and very moving program, of great interest to all.
Respectfully submitted,
Christine Lehner, Recording Secretary
Joanna rang the bell at precisely 1 pm, and made an apt analogy between our somewhat cramped quarters in the kitchen, and the exigencies of war correspondence.
Lori, our treasurer, reported that coffers are full to bursting with $422.73. Though a check will soon be written, for $16.00 to the Barkin Corner Book Shop, for books that will be delivered to the Family Social Services of Yonkers.
The minutes for March 13th were read and accepted.
The minutes for March 27th were also read and accepted.
Our Vice-President, Laura Rice, handed out a list of possible topics for next year’s theme, and asked us to circle five that we would like to see in the final ballot.
Then, putting on her presenter hat, Laura launched her program on Martha Gellhorn. Born in 1947, one of the themes Laura could choose from, was “American Literature of the Past 25 Years.” Meanwhile, she had also read the novel, The Paris Wife, about Hemingway’s first wife. And had come across the work of Martha Gellhorn. A topic was born. Martha Gellhorn however was not the subject of The Paris Wife; she was Hemingway’s third, penultimate wife. But quoi faire? Our speaker had already fallen for Gellhorn, through her collection of letters from the thirties and forties. Laura focused her report on the years 1930 to 1949.
But first a quick timeline of her life.
Martha was born in 1908 in St Louis. Her mother was a suffragette, and her father was a gynecologist. Moving right along, in 1929 she left Bryn Mawr after her junior year, and began working as a fact checker for The New Republic in New York. That was followed by other jobs in newspapers and ad agencies. While at the Albany Times Union, she met Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of the governor, Franklin. Mostly importantly, on Bastille Day of 1930, she met the very French and sexy Bertrand de Jouvenal. His father, Henri, a member of the old French nobility, had divorced Bertrand’s mother in order to marry Colette. Yes, that mononymic Colette. As a teenager, Bertrand had an affair with his step-mother. Martha fell head over heels for him. But in 1931 she returned to the Midwest to get an abortion. Bertrand could not marry her, because his wife refused to allow a divorce.
Between 1931 and 1933, Martha traveled throughout the United States with Bertrand, taking odd jobs as they went along. In 1934 she worked for FERA (Federal Emergency Relief Administration), reporting on the state of unemployment; but she was fired in 1935 for inciting a riot by unemployed workers in Idaho. Later that year she stayed at the White House, at the invitation of Eleanor Roosevelt, and there she met H.G. Wells. The following year she stayed with Wells in London. Later in 1936, she traveled to Key West with her now-widowed mother and a brother, and there she met Ernest Hemingway. The year1937 found Martha reporting from Spain, working on the documentary The Spanish Earth. In the following years she traveled between Europe and Cuba, and in 1940 she and Hemingway married, one day after his divorce from Pauline Pfeiffer. There were more travels, of course. In 1944, she took a slow boat to England, and went on to cover the Normandy Invasion. She visited Dachau in 1945. In December of that year, she divorced Hemingway. In 1949 she adopted a boy from an Italian orphanage. Five years later she married Tom Matthews in London. They divorced in 1963. In 1966 she reported from Vietnam. But her health was declining, and in 1970 she bought a flat in London. She died by suicide in 1998, at the age of 89.
Next, in pursuit of listener participation and interactive-learning, Laura handed out selections from Martha’s letters. Each member was to pair up with her neighbor, read the selections, and then share with the group certain points they found especially interesting.
The first selection was a letter describing her fateful meeting with Bertrand de Jouvenal, the Adonis. In a later letter, also regarding Bertrand, she writes how work can heal the wounds of unhappy love. In a 1931 letter from Mexico, Martha spoke of meeting and conversing with Diego Riviera. In 1935, we heard her deliver an ultimatum to Bertrand. There was also a letter from H.G. Wells, expressing his admiration for her. There were several letters, in 1934 and 35, written to Harry Hopkins of FERA, describing her despair for the unemployed, and her concern that the ‘dole’ was pauperizing the poor.
Then in 1941, suffering from a hangover, she writes to her dear friend, Hortense Flexner, called Teechie, about her desire for both excitement AND solitude. She laments the condition of womanhood. In 1944, also writing to Teechie, Martha describes icebergs as well as her breakup with Hemingway.
Following upon the letters, Laura read us Martha’s only work of fiction, from 1931, a heart-rending story of a young woman getting an abortion. It required no great imagination to conceive of a similar story occurring right now.
In the thirties Martha spent a lot of time in Spain, reporting on the Civil War there. In 1941 she went to China, on assignment from Collier’s, bringing along Ernest, who is referred to in her letters as U.C., for Unwilling Companion. She was able to interview Chiang Kai-shek, and even asked Madame Chiang Kai-shek about the Chinese treatment of lepers. We did not hear the response. Martha also met Zhou Enlai and thought him “the best of China”. Her writing consistently showed great attention to detail, and empathy.
After the war years, Martha continued to report from all over the troubled spots of the world, Vietnam, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Israel.
Laura ended with the closing paragraph of Gellhorn’s Travels with Myself and Another. It was a vivid and very moving program, of great interest to all.
Respectfully submitted,
Christine Lehner, Recording Secretary
