[Added 6-9-12: Hemingway was recruited by the KGB in October 1940, months before he and Gellhorn went on their “spy mission” to China in early 1941, though Harvey Klehr, co-author of Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America (2009) does not believe he gave them anything. It is thus crucial to read my essay in all its segments.] HBO screened a movie based on the Gellhorn-Hemingway marriage, May 28, 2012. The film stars Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen, and has been shown at the Cannes Film Festival. Part 4 has the money quote from Gustav Regler, demonstrating EH’s defense of Communist tactics in Spain, and also suggesting mental instability. The movie, directed by Philip Kaufman, is remarkably pornographic and grossly distorts history along Stalinist/Popular Front lines, meantime making Gellhorn a Great Woman and pioneer war correspondent, while Hemingway is a slobbering idiot for much of the script. In my view, it parrots a common hot pink line on the lead up to World War 2, alleging that 1930s Communists were THE true and only antifascists.
My review of Peter Moreira’s book took eight months of focused research, went through many drafts, and was vetted by scholars.
https://clarespark.com/2011/06/30/ernest-hemingway-and-gellhorn-in-china-1941-1/
https://clarespark.com/2011/06/30/ernest-hemingway-and-gellhorn-in-china-1941-2/ (Because of Nicole Kidman’s star power and sex appeal, over 3300 views of this segment alone)
https://clarespark.com/2011/06/30/ernest-hemingway-and-gellhorn-in-china-1941-3/
https://clarespark.com/2011/06/30/ernest-hemingway-and-gellhorn-in-china-1941-4/ (This segment has the Gustav Regler quote that demonstrates EH’s support of the Communists in the Spanish Civil War)
The Clare Spark Blog 
[…] This blog is about his other claims, some of which were similarly startling, for instance that Ho Chi Minh was a nationalist, but not a communist (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho_Chi_Minh.) Similarly, Chairman Mao is not a regular Red, but a unique figure, because the Chinese Revolution in 1949 pitted peasants, not workers, against Chiang Kai-shek. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_Zedong, also my review of Moreira’s book https://clarespark.com/2011/06/30/links-to-review-essay-on-hemingway-spy-mission-to-china/) […]
Pingback by The Cold War, a liberal version | The Clare Spark Blog — January 10, 2020 @ 6:47 pm |
[…] 2008.Forthcoming review of Peter Moreira, Hemingway on the China Front: His WWII Spy Mission with Martha Gellhorn, Journal of Cold War Studies (withdrawn for publication on my website: https://clarespark.com/2011/06/30/links-to-review-essay-on-hemingway-spy-mission-to-china/). […]
Pingback by CV as of 2008: Clare Spark, Ph.D. | YDS: The Clare Spark Blog — July 27, 2014 @ 1:21 am |
[…] https://clarespark.com/2011/06/30/links-to-review-essay-on-hemingway-spy-mission-to-china/ […]
Pingback by Martha Gellhorn blogs « YDS: The Clare Spark Blog — December 26, 2012 @ 4:55 am |
[…] I have no doubt that Moorehead thinks of herself as a feminist, yet she trots out as many as four abortions, perhaps to undermine her subject’s credibility as a humanitarian like herself. (Moorehead wrote other biographies, for instance of Freya Stark, an Arabist, or Bertrand Russell, whose anti-Zionist views are well known.) And I wonder if Moorehead is not a Third Worlder, for she slams MG for suppressing her initial negative reaction to Chiang-Kai Shek and Madame Chiang: i.e., Moorehead, unlike MG, is truly devoted to The People. (For more on this point, see my review essay https://clarespark.com/2011/06/30/links-to-review-essay-on-hemingway-spy-mission-to-china/.) […]
Pingback by Gellhorn’s “blind spot” on Israel « YDS: The Clare Spark Blog — October 28, 2012 @ 11:55 pm |
[…] having quoted from his book regarding Hemingway’s feisty defense of the Communists in Sparin (see https://clarespark.com/2011/06/30/links-to-review-essay-on-hemingway-spy-mission-to-china/) I was not amazed that briefly opened Soviet archives revealed that Hemingway was recruited by the […]
Pingback by Ernest Hemingway, Carlos Baker, and the Spanish Civil War « YDS: The Clare Spark Blog — August 20, 2012 @ 7:13 pm |
[…] she repressed her dislike of the rulers of China, and Moreira took her to task for the lie. (See https://clarespark.com/2011/06/30/links-to-review-essay-on-hemingway-spy-mission-to-china/.) Whether or not they consciously did it, the HBO film is friendly to Maoism and Third World-ism in […]
Pingback by HBO Does Gellhorn in Red « YDS: The Clare Spark Blog — July 9, 2012 @ 6:59 pm |
[…] Such journalists as Theodore White and Edgar Snow transmitted the Maoist message to American radicals, where they might have received support from a communist-sympathetic faction in the U.S. Department of State, but I doubt from Morgenthau. (For details, see https://clarespark.com/2011/06/30/links-to-review-essay-on-hemingway-spy-mission-to-china/.) […]
Pingback by Progressive uplift vs. “New Left” nihilism « YDS: The Clare Spark Blog — May 15, 2012 @ 8:57 pm |