Carl Rollyson - Beautiful Exile: The Life of Martha Gellhorn

Beautiful Exile

The Life of Martha Gellhorn

Carl Rollyson

C ONTENTS

A CKNOWLEDGMENTS

Where does a biographer begin? After reading Gellhorns work, I turned to Jacqueline Orsaghs informative Ph.D. dissertation on Gellhorns life and work. Orsagh had the inestimable advantage of having interviewed Gellhorn, so I could draw on Gellhorns own words. Similarly, Bernice Kert, (The Hemingway Women) not only interviewed Gellhorn but was given access to letters which Gellhorn later sequestered in her closed archive in Special Collections, Mugar Memorial Library, Boston University.

Of course, biographies of Hemingway also provided leads and documentation.

I got help at just the right time from a friend and fellow biographer, Ann Waldron, who gave me the address of Delia Mares, one of Edna Gellhorns close associates. Mrs Mares, in turn, provided me with the names, addresses and phone numbers of several people in St Louis whom I was able to visit and interview: Mrs Virginia Deutch, Mrs Aaron Fischer, Mary Taussig Hall and Emily Lewis Norcross. Mrs Hall suggested I see William Julius Polk and Martha Love Symington, both of whom were very helpful on Martha Gellhorns St Louis years. Mrs Deutch provided an invaluable tape recording of Edna Gellhorn and helped me to secure an important early photograph of Martha. I was fortunate enough to record all of my interviews, which are now deposited in my archive at the University of Tulsa.

When I visited St Louis, Carol O. Daniel, Director of the Library of the John Burroughs School, took me on a tour of the school, provided me with Gellhorns publications in the John Burroughs Review, and assisted me in obtaining several photographs. Patricia Adams, Associate Director of the Western Historical Manuscript Collection, University of Missouri-St Louis, was especially helpful in locating information on the Gellhorn and Fischel families. Charles Brown, Reference Librarian of the St Louis Mercantile Library, retrieved from clipping files a number of important items. Noel C. Holobeck in the History and Genealogy Department of the St Louis Public Library, patiently dealt with my inquiries about the Fischels and the Gellhorns, and put me in touch with Mrs Coralee Paull, who did some of the genealogical investigation for me and turned up several items that proved useful. Beryl Manne and Kevin Ray of the Washington University Archives, John M. Olin Library made available files from the Edna Gellhorn Collection and Katherine Burg sent materials from the Mary Institute.

Outside St Louis, several librarians and archivists have supplied me with invaluable information: Fred Bauma, Manuscripts Reading Room, Library of Congress, Washington, DC; Denison Beach, Houghton Reading Room, The Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Mary Burkee, Norman B. Brown, Anne E. Champagne, John Hoffman, Special Collections, University Library, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Ned Comstock, Archives of Performing Arts, University Library, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California; Megan Floyd Desnoyers, John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library, Boston, Massachusetts; Fiorella Superbi Gioffredi, Villa I Tati, Florence, Italy; Alan Goodrich, John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library, Boston, Massachusetts; Cathy Henderson, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Austin, Texas; James R. Hobin, Albany Public Library, Albany, New York; Patrick Lawler, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York City; Jane Moreton and Jean Preston, Firestone Library, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey; Caroline Rittenhouse, Bryn Mawr College Library, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania; Dean M. Rogers, Special Collections, Vassar College Library; Elizabeth Shenton, Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Andar Skotnes, Biographical Oral History Collection, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York City; Audrey J. Smith, Humanities Reference Services, New York State Library, Albany, New York; Raymond Teichman, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York; Ann Van Arsdale, Firestone Library, Princeton University, Princeton, New jersey; Patricia C. Willis, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University Library, New Haven, Connecticut.

Lisa Middents and Stephen Plotkin at the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library in Boston, Massachusetts were especially diligent and prompt in searching out items that might be of interest to me in the Ernest Hemingway Collection. Similarly, Hilary Cummings in Special Collections, University of Oregon Library, Eugene, Oregon not only did a thorough search of the Joseph Stanley Pennell Papers, she also put me in touch with two researchers, Mary Anteaux and Sally Hague, who found more material. It was my good fortune that Sally Hague, having returned to New York City, was able to do further research in Special Collections at the New York Public Library, where the Colliers magazine archive, which had been under my nose, had been located by Rutherford Witthus, a librarian at Auraria Library in Denver, Colorado contacted by my old friend Joan Fiscella. Eric Neubacher, who is known as the genius of inter-library loan at Baruch College, saved me many hours of time and trouble in securing hard to find books and articles. Similarly, Diane DiMartino went out of her way to conduct successful searches for information that I could only define in the vaguest terms.

I have often found it profitable to call upon my fellow biographers for information and advice. Bernice Kert was very generous in giving me background information about The Hemingway Women. Jeffrey Meyers suggested several avenues of research, gave me a quick sketch of Gellhorn and directed my attention to a stimulating article he had written about researching his Hemingway biography. Michael Reynolds wrote me a very thoughtful letter. One of his suggestions led me to the discovery of a cache of material at the New York Public Library. Similarly, Kenneth S. Lynn suggested an archival source that was of immense help to my biography. Blanche Cook shared with me her formidable knowledge of Eleanor Roosevelt and the part Gellhorn had played in Roosevelts life. When I wrote to Genevieve Dormann inquiring about the life of Bertrand de Jouvenel, she recommended that I consult his associate, Jeannie Malige, who in turn gave me the address of John R. Braun, who sent me a detailed letter about his biography of Jouvenel. Marion Meade shared her Gellhorn correspondence with me and alerted me to a Gellhorn item in the Houghton Library at Harvard. Richard Whelan answered a letter of mine with a friendly phone call about his impressions of interviewing Gellhorn for his biography of Robert Capa. Other biographers, Joan Peyser, Robert Newman, Eric Gordon, have been great sources of inspiration, encouragement and advice.

Frederick Vanderbilt Field patiently went over his reminiscences of Gellhorn and Hemingway for me that are included in his autobiography as did Stanley Flink who had only a passing but vivid recollection of Martha Gellhorn and T. S. Matthews when they made a handsome couple. Robert A. Martin respected Gellhorns injunction not to co-operate with an unauthorized biographer, but he wrote me a charming letter conveying a sense of his friendship with her. I also thank Cornell Capa for a brief phone conversation about his impressions of Gellhorn and her friendship with his brother Robert. Richard Cohen discussed his friendship with Gellhorn while I was at work on my biography of Rebecca West. Sydney Knowles shared his Gellhorn correspondence and his sharp memory of their meeting. Dan Brennan, Dr Heinz Richard Landmann and Ernie Sibley provided vivid vignettes of Gellhorn in action. Frances Saunders alerted me to the existence of David R. Meekers fine Hemingway collection. I am indebted to Mr Meeker (Nick Adams & Co., Rare Books) for allowing me to examine the superb materials he has collected. Similarly, Rob and Abby Mouat allowed me to read the Gellhorn and Hemingway letters in their collection. I regret that I cannot name all of my sources, many of whom knew Martha Gellhorn well but who preferred anonymity.