A writer, photographer, and journalist, she was also a traveler seduced by the Orient—especially by Persia. She traveled across Afghanistan in a Ford, in the company of Ella Maillart. Although she was a young Swiss aristocrat, she never fit in with the luxurious environment in which she lived. Thomas Mann called her “a ravaged angel.” American writer Carson McCullers dedicated one of her most important works to her, Reflections in a Golden Eye .
Martha Gellhorn (1908-1998) Saint Louis, Missouri
A journalist by vocation, Martha Gellhorn wished to exercise her profession far away from America. To this end, she traveled to Europe in the 1930s. She is known for being an outstanding reporter during the Second World War. In addition, she covered events like the Great Depression, the Spanish Civil War, and the Vietnam War. Her work reached the ears of Eleanor Roosevelt, with whom she established a close relationship, as both were fighting against social injustice. She was the third wife of Ernest Hemingway, whom she divorced.
Prominent works: What Mad Pursuit (1934), The Trouble I’ve Seen (1936), The Face of War (1959).
Oriana Fallaci (1929-2006) Florence, Italy
Oriana Fallaci was an Italian journalist who participated, from a very young age, in the Anti-Fascist Resistance. She left the study of medicine for journalism, and covered the most important events of the time, such as the Vietnam War and the death of Martin Luther King. She was an outstanding interviewer of the most powerful women and men of the world (such as Kissinger, Arafat, and Ghandi), and published novels, essays, anthologies, and countless chronicles. She contributed to prestigious periodicals including Life, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Der Spiegel. She dedicated the last years of her life to writing polemics against Islam.
Prominent works: Nothing, And So Be It (1969), Interview with History (1976), Inshallah (1990)