About The Book

As Martha Gellhorn explains, “This book is a selection of articles written during six decades; peace-time reporting. That is to say, the countries in the background were at peace at the moment of writing; not that there was peace on earth.” America during the Depression, Spain in the anxious aftermath of Franco’s death, a Christmas with the have-nots in London and a weekend in Israel, the magnificent protests at the White House, a memoir of domestic life in Africa and an account of returning to Cuba after a forty-one-year absence . . . these writings are as wide as Martha Gellhorn’s life as a writer for nearly sixty years, and all of them are marked by her grace, her passion, her fierce belief in the right, and her loathing of the wrong. Informed by the horrors of fascism in Spain and Germany as well as the highly modern terror in Central America, and by the courage of those defenders of decency who stand up to the thugs both in an out of government, The View From the Ground is a singular act of testimony that”like its companion volume, The Face of War“is unique in our time.

Praise

“By the general agreement of her peers, Martha Gellhorn was the premier war correspondent of the twentieth century.” –Ward Just, The New York Times Magazine

“What you will find in this collection is first-rate front-line journalism by a woman singularly unafraid of guns.” –Vanity Fair

“Wide-ranging and provocative, a blend of cool lyricism and fiery emotion, alternately prickly and welcoming, funny and stern, they are proof enough that Gellhorn is one of the most extraordinary women of her era.” –Alida Becker, The Philadelphia Inquirer

“An eloquent, unforgettable history of a chaotic century. . . Gellhorn’s gift as a writer is forsimple, impassioned statement and memorable images . . . the pieces are powerful and important. Gellhorn’s writing is always rooted in what she saw, in the moment of reaction. She cares for human rights, in moral right and wrong, not in the abstractions of geopolitics, credibility or standing tall.”–Jeffrey Rodgers, San Francisco Chronicle

“She is not a novelist or a journalist or a travel writer: she is all of these, an done of the most eloquent witnesses of the twentieth century.” –Bill Buford, Granta

“Gellhorn’s writing informs as well as moves its reader.” –The Utne Reader

“All of her essays are well written and timeless and I find her evaluation of war–as our primary evil–most significant.” –Grace Halsell, Los Angeles Times