Sunday evening we watched a good movie on HBO: Hemingway & Gellhorn. Ernest Hemingway had four wives, Gellhorn was his third. She became quite an accomplished war correspondent, first learning her trade in the Spanish Civil War of the 1930's. Neither she nor Hemingway could stay married for long, so this union ended in divorce, too.
The compassion she showed to the down trodden in society attracts me to her story. In the introduction of her biography (which I found in the library) it was written she did not like leaders like Nixon, Kissinger, and Mrs. Thatcher saying of them that they "led the innocent into chaos and the dark night, stupidity and arrogance."
She could find plenty to write about these days. But back to the Spanish Civil War. It drew world attention in the years prior to the beginning of World War II and many youth were attracted to the country to join the fight. Franco led an insurrection against the established government or Republicans and gained support from Hitler and the Nazis who sent planes and tanks that overpowered their opposition. Hemingway went to Spain to support the Republicans and Gellhorn made her way there, too.
With Franco's victory he went on to be dictator of Spain for forty years. The supporters who hadn't been killed in the battles melted away and went on to other things. Hemingway wrote a great book, For Whom the Bell Tolls, about this war, married a fourth time, drank lots of alcohol, and killed himself with a shotgun in Idaho. Gellhorn wrote for many more years, and, finally, at the age of 89, because she'd gone blind, killed herself with sleeping pills.
The compassion she showed to the down trodden in society attracts me to her story. In the introduction of her biography (which I found in the library) it was written she did not like leaders like Nixon, Kissinger, and Mrs. Thatcher saying of them that they "led the innocent into chaos and the dark night, stupidity and arrogance."
She could find plenty to write about these days. But back to the Spanish Civil War. It drew world attention in the years prior to the beginning of World War II and many youth were attracted to the country to join the fight. Franco led an insurrection against the established government or Republicans and gained support from Hitler and the Nazis who sent planes and tanks that overpowered their opposition. Hemingway went to Spain to support the Republicans and Gellhorn made her way there, too.
With Franco's victory he went on to be dictator of Spain for forty years. The supporters who hadn't been killed in the battles melted away and went on to other things. Hemingway wrote a great book, For Whom the Bell Tolls, about this war, married a fourth time, drank lots of alcohol, and killed himself with a shotgun in Idaho. Gellhorn wrote for many more years, and, finally, at the age of 89, because she'd gone blind, killed herself with sleeping pills.
