War, As She Saw It

Martha Gellhorn was born and bred in St. Louis. Let's pretend she was still alive today and you met her somewhere here. Maybe you'd know of her mainly because she was once married to Ernest Hemingway. You'd want to do the prudent thing and avoid the Hemingway topic in favor of what Gellhorn actually accomplished and was justifiably very proud of -- her war reporting. Gellhorn covered many war zones, beginning with the Spanish Civil War, during her long and intrepid life, but it was her reporting from the battlefields of World War II that earned her her most lasting fame. Not that it was easy for Gellhorn to do her job; her male editors thought this no role for a woman and tried to keep her safe at home. A documentary, No Job For a Woman: the Women Who Fought to Report World War II, tells Gellhorn's story as well as those of two other highly respected female war reporters, Ruth Cowan and Dickey Chappelle. The film screens tonight at 7 p.m. at the Missouri History Museum (Lindell Boulevard and DeBaliviere Avenue; 314-746-4599 or www.mohistory.org). Admission is free.
Tue., March 19, 2013