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The Correspondents: Six Women Writers on the Front Lines of World War II

The Correspondents: Six Women Writers on the Front Lines of World War II

by Judith Mackrell

Doubleday ·2021 ·464 pages
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About This Book

The riveting, untold history of a group of heroic women reporters who revolutionized the narrative of World War II--from Martha Gellhorn, who out-scooped her husband, Ernest Hemingway, to Lee Miller, a Vogue cover model turned war correspondent. On the front lines of the Second World War, a contingent of female journalists were bravely waging their own battle. Barred from combat zones and faced with entrenched prejudice and bureaucratic restrictions, these women were forced to fight for the right to work on equal terms with men. The Correspondents follows six remarkable women as their lives and careers intertwined: Martha Gellhorn, who got the scoop on Ernest Hemingway on D-Day by traveling to Normandy as a stowaway on a Red Cross ship; Lee Miller, who went from being a Vogue cover model to the magazine's official war correspondent; Sigrid Schultz, who hid her Jewish identity and risked her life by reporting on the Nazi regime; Virginia Cowles, a "society girl columnist" turned combat reporter; Clare Hollingworth, the first English journalist to break the news of World War II; and Helen Kirkpatrick, the first woman to report from an Allied war zone with equal privileges to men.


Reviews

"She brings each woman to life, tracing her childhood and entry into journalism, as well as her work and romantic life, against the backdrop of a simmering conflict that boiled over into a disastrous war."

Amy Scribner· BookPage Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"At first I wished she had included more of their work, but perhaps they are better served by leaving us wanting to go off and read firsthand how women see war."

Christina Lamb· The New York Times Read review ↗ Near the Top

"Mackrell...also paints here a picture of war reporting at a time when correspondents were not tied to their editors and their offices by cellphones, when there were opportunities to do considerable research, and when personal contacts—and personal charm—were often determining factors."

Caroline Moorehead· The Wall Street Journal Read review ↗ Near the Top

"it is above all the courage and tenacity of Mackrell's subjects that impresses ..."

Barbara Spindel· The Christian Science Monitor Read review ↗ Near the Top

"The women are deftly drawn, and their stories compelling, but their sheer number and the speed with which they are ushered on and off the stage can make Mackrell's account confusing."

Anne Nelson· Times Literary Supplement Read review ↗ Near the Top

"It is no easy feat to weave six lives into a narrative that compels the reader all the way through, but like a big-canvas painting that brings together personal dramas and machinations of state, The Correspondents is full of intriguing detail."

Stephanie Gorton· Los Angeles Review of Books Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"A vivid portrayal of six remarkable women who made history reporting on World War II."

Kirkus Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"This is an important book."

Marissa Moss· The New York Journal of Books Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"She brings every moment to life, serving up the women's views of world war on all fronts...with sizzling realism."

Barbara Bamberger Scott· Bookreporter Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"[A] dazzling, insightful, engrossing, and multifaceted group biography."

Carol Haggas· Booklist Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

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