Wayson Choyauthor of Paper Shadows
“Yours, for Probably Always is a rich resource about an extraordinary life well-lived. The literary stream-of-consciousness letters, uncensored and intimate, read like a novel. There are dramatic flashpoints, but also revelations of everyday existence that are equally absorbing. The book provides genuine insight about Martha Gellhorn and how real she was.”
Catherine Gildinerauthor of Too Close to the Falls
“I loved this book. I read it almost in one day. It is astonishing to realize that the courageous war journalist, Martha Gellhorn, was born in 1908, for the letters read as totally contemporary.I kept saying just one more letter— and pushed on. It is totally mesmerizing and Somerville is easily as urbane, knowledgeable and well-informed as Gellhorn. How can you know everyone from Eleanor Roosevelt to Colette? The only woman to leave Hemingway and say—keep the champagne glasses! How can Gellhorn have been at every hot spot in the first half of the 20th Century and never whined but covered it for America. As she said, all she could do was leave a record.
It was a huge job to pull this all together and make it read smoothly when you are covering so much territory and Janet Somerville did that with perfect aplomb. She chose wisely so you see Gellhorn’s wit, her charisma, but also her hard work and dedication to mankind.”
Charles Foranauthor of Mordecai: The Life & Times
“The remarkable Martha Gellhorn leaps from the pages of these vivid, witty, deeply human and humane letters. Through her loving curation and attention, Janet Somerville gives voice to a 20th century literary pioneer, too long in shadow.”
Adam Hochschildauthor of Spain in Our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939
“As much as any woman in the twentieth century, Martha Gellhorn succeeded in her ambition to ‘go everywhere and see everything and sometimes write about it.’ It is wonderful to have this compendious new collection of letters from and to her, a few newly discovered. Janet Somerville has carefully set each group of correspondence in its historical context and further enriched them with photographs which even longtime Gellhorn admirers will not have seen.”
Ward Justauthor of American Romantics and An Unfinished Season
“Yours, for Probably Always is an essential book, a ticket into the past, a life spent wildly, often bravely, sometimes not so wisely… The great writer: presented in full throat, the real thing. Read in full, as the careful writer would do, can light an afternoon. Janet Somerville has done a marvellous job with marvellous material. Bravo.”
Azar Nafisiauthor of Reading Lolita in Tehran and The Republic of Imagination
“Martha Gellhorn was courageous and committed in love and in war. What a pleasure reading her correspondence and being reminded of how beautifully she wrote, filled with passion and insight.”
Rex Pickettauthor of The Archivist
“Martha Gellhorn was a force of nature, with the velocity of a supernova, and a polymorphously talented artist in her own right. She more than deserves this rekindled recognition in Yours, for Probably Always. Janet Somerville has done the almost unimaginable: brought Gellhorn back to life, resurrected her from the ash-heap of over-rated male accomplishments that existed parallel to her generation. The timing couldn’t be more serendipitous or, more aptly, prescient. For young women today, she should be a beacon of hope, because she trailblazed the future, with others, but…none like her.”