Martha Gellhorn was an American journalist and author who was one of the great war correspondents of the 20th century. Reporting on virtually every world conflict that occurred during her 60 year career, she was also the third wife of famous novelist Ernest Hemingway.
Gellhorn grew up in St. Louis Missouri, the daughter of Edna Gellhorn, a suffragist who encouraged her daughter to think and live independently. After attending university, the young writer moved to Paris to pursue a career as a foreign correspondent and published her first article in The New Republic. Soon afterwards she was given writing assignments for a number of Parisian newspapers and wrote a fashion segment for Vogue magazine.
In the 1930s, Gellhorn decided to return to the States and was quickly hired as a field investigator for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. Covering the effects of the Great Depression, she travelled around the country interviewing everyday workers about the effects of the economic crisis.
Using a simple and effective style, Gellhorn expressed her frustration at the treatment of the dispossessed in America, working with renowned photographer Dorothea Lange to expose the realities of poverty in the areas she visited. Her work was highly regarded, and when the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936, The New Yorker chose to hire her as one of their chief war reporters.
As a partisan journalist, Gellhorn supported the Republican cause and made her mark by writing about the effects of war on the lives of ordinary people. She later covered the run-up to the Second World War for Collier’s and wrote a first hand report on the Allied invasion of France in 1944. When the war ended, she was one of the first people to enter Dachau concentration camp and later reported from the Nuremberg trials.
In her later life, Gellhorn lived in an apartment in Cadogan Square for 28 years, despite reportedly having a great disdain for the English weather. Visitors recalled her flat as being ‘sparsely furnished’ with beautiful views across west London and towards the Kensington museums.
Today, an apartment in the same building Gellhorn lived in has become available to rent with Dexters. Featuring an English Heritage plaque commemorating the writer, the six storey, Queen Anne revival house is Grade II Listed.
Upon entering the flat, there’s a spacious hallway that leads to a grand double reception room with floor-to-ceiling windows that open onto a private balcony overlooking Cadogan Square. Across the hall, there is a formal dining room with space to seat eight people as well as a separate two-tiered kitchen that offers integrated cabinets, a double oven and utility area.
Towards the rear of the property, there are two well sized double bedrooms with high ceilings and large windows that offer lots of natural light. Each bedroom also has its own adjoining bathroom with a bathtub.
‘Centrally located next to Sloane Square and Knightsbridge, this property has a rich history and access to some of London’s best shopping and dining destinations on Sloane Street and the King’s Road,‘ says Charlie Daniels, Lettings Director at Dexters Chelsea & Belgravia.
