The Face of War

About this book

A collection of "first-rate frontline journalism" from the Spanish Civil War to US actions in Central America "by a woman singularly unafraid of guns" (Vanity Fair). For nearly sixty years Martha Gellhorns fearless war correspondence made her a leading journalistic voice of her generation. From the Spanish Civil War in 1937 through the Central American wars of the mid-eighties Gellhorns candid reporting reflected her deep empathy for people regardless of their political ideology. Collecting the best of Gellhorns writing on foreign conflicts The Face of War is a classic of frontline journalism by "the premier war correspondent of the twentieth century" (Ward Just The New York Times Magazine). Whether in Java Finland the Middle East or Vietnam she used the same vigorous approach. "I wrote very fast as I had to " she says "afraid that I would forget the exact sound smell words gestures which were special to this moment and this place." As Merle Rubin noted in his review of this volume for The Christian Science Monitor "Martha Gellhorns courageous independent-minded reportage breaks through geopolitical abstractions and ideological propaganda to take the reader straight to the scene of the event."