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Hemingway on the China Front: His WWII Spy Mission with Martha Gellhorn
Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn had no idea of what they would discover when they set out for Hong Kong, China, and Burma in 1941. The husband-and-wife team of celebrity literati intended to report on the China-Japan war while honeymooning in the romantic Far East. What they found was a maddening, intriguing, colorful world of dictators and drunks, scoundrels and socialites, heroes and halfwits. And their trip proved to be the beginning of the end of their marriage.When the U.S. Treasury Department hired Ernest Hemingway as a spy in China in 1941, it awakened a new obsession in America’s most adventuresome author. The great literary man of action reveled in being a government operative, while his journalist wife championed the anti-Japanese resistance of Chiang Kai-shek. Hemingway on the China Front is the first book to track Hemingway’s progress as a spy in Asia during the war, defining his duties as he saw fit. Author Peter Moreira follows Hemingway and Gellhorn as they seek stories to file―and try to adapt to each other’s strong egos―in dangerous, uncomfortable, exotic places in the throes of war. Well-versed in Asian history and culture, Moreira also adeptly provides context of time and place. All fans of Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn will want this book.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2006
5 people are currently reading
94 people want to read
About the author
Peter Moreira
21 books25 followersPeter Moreira is the author of The Haight Crime Series, in which Lieut. Jimmy Spracklin investigates crimes in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district in the late 1960s.
The series is the result of Peter’s love affair with Haight-Ashbury, which began when he hitchhiked twice to San Francisco from Vancouver in 1981. He adored the history, the friendly people, the romance of the setting. Throughout his career in journalism – which included postings in Ottawa, Hong Kong, Seoul and London – he kept mulling over the idea of a mystery set in Haight-Ashbury. He wanted to produce what he called a whodunnit with hippies.
As an author, Peter began with non-fiction, starting with Hemingway on the China Front in 2006. After a few non-fiction titles, The Haight was published in 2017 and The Haight Mystery Series was launched. Today it comprises several acclaimed novels, and Peter is always at work on the next one.
The series is the result of Peter’s love affair with Haight-Ashbury, which began when he hitchhiked twice to San Francisco from Vancouver in 1981. He adored the history, the friendly people, the romance of the setting. Throughout his career in journalism – which included postings in Ottawa, Hong Kong, Seoul and London – he kept mulling over the idea of a mystery set in Haight-Ashbury. He wanted to produce what he called a whodunnit with hippies.
As an author, Peter began with non-fiction, starting with Hemingway on the China Front in 2006. After a few non-fiction titles, The Haight was published in 2017 and The Haight Mystery Series was launched. Today it comprises several acclaimed novels, and Peter is always at work on the next one.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 1, 2009
I actually learned something about Hemingway and his short trip to China 1941. The ill fated mission had been mentioned by his former wife Martha Gellhorn in her autobiographical writing "Travels with myself and Another", of course biased against Hemingway. Peter Moreira gives an excellent historic background and describes the trip of two writers, who did not have a clear idea about China and did not speak the language, relying on Chiang Kai-Shek's translator. Hemingway reported his impressions to the American government (Morgenthau) through White (later unveiled as spy for the Kremlin), and wrote a few articles for a magazine.
Gellhorn wrote positively about the Kuomintang and its capacity to fight the Japanese, even though she witnessed the opposite. The writers impressions helped Chiang Kai-Shek to get american financial aid, which they used not against the Japanese, but to fight MaoTse-tung.
Gellhorn wrote positively about the Kuomintang and its capacity to fight the Japanese, even though she witnessed the opposite. The writers impressions helped Chiang Kai-Shek to get american financial aid, which they used not against the Japanese, but to fight MaoTse-tung.
July 6, 2023
I found this book on a shelf of "free books" at the library. What a find! As an American lit and Ap lit teacher, I've loved studying and teaching Hemingway. I've known about his life as an author, but was excited to find more about him as a war correspondent. Then, having lived in China for 4 years and just returning, the book was so much more relevant to me. I can relate to the pinyin used by Hemingway and Gellhorn. I can picture the cities and have been to so many of them. And I knew a lot about WWII history, but not from a perspective on China's part!
Definitely worth the read! History/literature/a failed love story all in one!
Definitely worth the read! History/literature/a failed love story all in one!
March 6, 2012
A fairly interesting look at an otherwise overlooked portion of Hemingway's life.
September 19, 2012
Interesting book -kinda sheds a different light on the Martha Gellhorn story than the HBO version
April 17, 2013
Historical, boring detail of Hemingway and Gellhorn. It plodded .
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April 21, 2021I have not read this book, but I just read Martha Gellhorn's account in her travel memoir, Travels With Myself and Another The honeymoon Hemingway planned was to go to NYC to his favorite hotel, where he basked in the praise of everyone after publishing "For Whom the Bell Tolls," while Martha's also recently published book, A Stricken Field was ignored as written by Hemingway's latest love interest.
When Martha's contact at Colliers said he'd love to have someone go to China, she jumped at the chance, because she was bored. So the trip was originally hers, and EH decided to go along. If he had connections in the government, it was as an afterthought. Maybe someone heard they were going and asked him to report what he'd seen.
Martha in her report in "Travels" (written much later) did not seem to be particularly impressed by Chiang or Madame, but that could also be in hindsight. Otherwise, according to her, she went off to explore the Burma Road while Hemingway sat back in more comfort.
If the US government gave Chiang money, I think they would have anyway, since they certainly wouldn't have wanted to contribute to the Communists.
I do not plan to read this book. It may be well researched, but I expect Moreira ignores what doesn't fit in with his preconceived ideas.
This is another book where Martha Gellhorn, a brilliant war journalist and writer, is relegated to being "Hemingway's 3rd wife," which she was for about 5 of her 90 years. She worked actively as a war journalist until into her 80's when she went blind and could no longer read what she'd written. Hemingway gave up soon after she left him.
When Martha's contact at Colliers said he'd love to have someone go to China, she jumped at the chance, because she was bored. So the trip was originally hers, and EH decided to go along. If he had connections in the government, it was as an afterthought. Maybe someone heard they were going and asked him to report what he'd seen.
Martha in her report in "Travels" (written much later) did not seem to be particularly impressed by Chiang or Madame, but that could also be in hindsight. Otherwise, according to her, she went off to explore the Burma Road while Hemingway sat back in more comfort.
If the US government gave Chiang money, I think they would have anyway, since they certainly wouldn't have wanted to contribute to the Communists.
I do not plan to read this book. It may be well researched, but I expect Moreira ignores what doesn't fit in with his preconceived ideas.
This is another book where Martha Gellhorn, a brilliant war journalist and writer, is relegated to being "Hemingway's 3rd wife," which she was for about 5 of her 90 years. She worked actively as a war journalist until into her 80's when she went blind and could no longer read what she'd written. Hemingway gave up soon after she left him.
August 15, 2024
I gave it a 3, because I'm a Hemingway nut, but if you are NOT, it is barely a 2, I think.
The prose is pedestrian, but the story is a good one. Hemingway was coming off an amazing success, that resuscitated his career, For Whom The Bell Tolls. But his drinking was getting out of control, and this trip was a sodden disaster from that perspective. Gellhorn, his 3rd and most independent wife, is an interesting character as well. Both wanted very different things from this trip, and neither was happy with the result.
The hype of "spy" is a little overwrought. Of course, this was pre-CIA, when the executive branch was much smaller, and there really was no professional spying done by the US, so I suppose in the sense that a couple people in government were interested in their assessment of the Nationalists and Communists in China it could qualify as "spying."
To be completely honest, I picked up this book in the hope that one or both of my grandparents were in it. I've got a picture of Hemingway with Martha and a translator, perhaps the main one of this book, that was sent to my grandfather by Hemingway because Poppa Bill helped him with logistics on the trip. My grandfather, Col. William Mayer (then Captain) was our military attache at our embassy in Peking, and was an old China hand, as was his wife, Isabel Ingram Mayer. Unfortunately, no such name checking occurred. But I still enjoyed the read. It never set up any real drama, didn't reach a crescendo or do any deep analysis of Hemingway's life or fiction. But it has a solid conclusion, and it is well footnoted. I enjoyed the appendix--it's rare to get an entire 7 pages of a letter in an appendix, and this document is rather crucial to the story.
So a niche book, but if you want that niche covered, well, I doubt anyone has done it better.
The prose is pedestrian, but the story is a good one. Hemingway was coming off an amazing success, that resuscitated his career, For Whom The Bell Tolls. But his drinking was getting out of control, and this trip was a sodden disaster from that perspective. Gellhorn, his 3rd and most independent wife, is an interesting character as well. Both wanted very different things from this trip, and neither was happy with the result.
The hype of "spy" is a little overwrought. Of course, this was pre-CIA, when the executive branch was much smaller, and there really was no professional spying done by the US, so I suppose in the sense that a couple people in government were interested in their assessment of the Nationalists and Communists in China it could qualify as "spying."
To be completely honest, I picked up this book in the hope that one or both of my grandparents were in it. I've got a picture of Hemingway with Martha and a translator, perhaps the main one of this book, that was sent to my grandfather by Hemingway because Poppa Bill helped him with logistics on the trip. My grandfather, Col. William Mayer (then Captain) was our military attache at our embassy in Peking, and was an old China hand, as was his wife, Isabel Ingram Mayer. Unfortunately, no such name checking occurred. But I still enjoyed the read. It never set up any real drama, didn't reach a crescendo or do any deep analysis of Hemingway's life or fiction. But it has a solid conclusion, and it is well footnoted. I enjoyed the appendix--it's rare to get an entire 7 pages of a letter in an appendix, and this document is rather crucial to the story.
So a niche book, but if you want that niche covered, well, I doubt anyone has done it better.
January 13, 2022
Interesting history.
June 10, 2013
I've seen Philip Kaufman's "Hemingway & Gellhorn" (2012) on HBO after it was screened in Cannes, and as much as I idolize Hemingway, I found the film a bit dragging and too romanticized (maybe this is the prosaic side taking over). Back then, I thought that the treatment might have gone that way since they were promoting the act of "finding love" in the midst of chaos that was the Spanish Civil War.
Then I came upon this book, Hemingway on the China Front: His WWII Spy Mission with Martha Gellhorn (2006) by Peter Moreira. The film's setting in Spain narrated their first meeting and their eventual union, while the book, focuses on their joint coverage of the revolution in China during the Second World War. One of the interesting topics in the book talks about Hemingway and Gellhorn's constant squabbles, which led to a few happy endings, to continuing their bouts of quarrels. At the time, both were writing about the war's effect in China, the squalor in which its people live, the generosity of the armed forces and locals, and the culture shock they experience as they went through the Asian region in 1941.
Probably what got me hooked on the closing chapters was the one about Hemingway transiting through Manila, got suffocated by all the questions people were throwing at him about his book, and ultimately flying to Baguio for a change in scenery. I have read articles about him staying at the Manila Hotel and meeting a few dignitaries, but going to Baguio on a private jet was new information.
I would have loved to read more about Hemingway and Gellhorn's interaction with locals, since Gellhorn was more empathetic towards the people who struggle for survival while Hemingway was more interested in conversing with the generals and soldiers. In a typical manner, a Westerner's aversion and ignorance about Asian culture is entertaining to read. However, one could not take out the fact that in wartime, nothing is ever comfortable.
Then I came upon this book, Hemingway on the China Front: His WWII Spy Mission with Martha Gellhorn (2006) by Peter Moreira. The film's setting in Spain narrated their first meeting and their eventual union, while the book, focuses on their joint coverage of the revolution in China during the Second World War. One of the interesting topics in the book talks about Hemingway and Gellhorn's constant squabbles, which led to a few happy endings, to continuing their bouts of quarrels. At the time, both were writing about the war's effect in China, the squalor in which its people live, the generosity of the armed forces and locals, and the culture shock they experience as they went through the Asian region in 1941.
Probably what got me hooked on the closing chapters was the one about Hemingway transiting through Manila, got suffocated by all the questions people were throwing at him about his book, and ultimately flying to Baguio for a change in scenery. I have read articles about him staying at the Manila Hotel and meeting a few dignitaries, but going to Baguio on a private jet was new information.
I would have loved to read more about Hemingway and Gellhorn's interaction with locals, since Gellhorn was more empathetic towards the people who struggle for survival while Hemingway was more interested in conversing with the generals and soldiers. In a typical manner, a Westerner's aversion and ignorance about Asian culture is entertaining to read. However, one could not take out the fact that in wartime, nothing is ever comfortable.
December 20, 2007
Another book just for the Hemingway (or Gellhorn) aficionado.
If you ever need to read 3 pages about Hemingway's supposed 4-way with Chinese ladies, here is the mother lode.
The last paragraph prior to the Appendices contains a whopper of a typo. Just basic addition subtraction stuff you'd think the publisher would catch.
If you ever need to read 3 pages about Hemingway's supposed 4-way with Chinese ladies, here is the mother lode.
The last paragraph prior to the Appendices contains a whopper of a typo. Just basic addition subtraction stuff you'd think the publisher would catch.
January 8, 2015
I am not a big Hemmingway fan, and had never heard of Gellhorn, but I found this book laying around and decided to read it. I did end up finding the story interesting. It has peaked my interest in learning more about China before/during WW2. I have read a lot about Europe, but never really thought about Asia and the impact the war had in that part of the world.
October 5, 2017
Interesting details of the time period Hemingway, and his new wife, Martha Gellhorn, spent in China during WWII. This book provided more details of the spy work that Hemingway did for the U.S. than any other biography on him I have read. I felt the author, Peter Moreira, didn't really care for either of these two people he spent so much time researching.
June 28, 2019
Interesting account of Hemingways time in China during the 2nd World War.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews