ABSTRACT

In the mid-1930s, H. G. Wells was an institution, a household name, and Martha Gellhorn was an ambitious and fearless young woman carving out a new career with the US government. As for the biographies of Wells, Gellhorn is truly the footnote she claimed to be. This is curious, since she and Hulton Getty (HG) were open and affectionate friends during the last decade of his life. The intimate affair between Gellhorn and Wells lasted less than a year; then it turned forever Platonic. Gellhorn’s letters to HG span nearly a decade, from 1936 to 1945. Like their author, they are many things: girlish and sophisticated, optimistic and pessimistic, silly and wise, but, more than anything else, entertaining. Martha’s intense interest in her craft undoubtedly reflected her relationship with one of the world’s greatest writers. She mentioned her husband several times in her letters to HG.