Published April 6, 2021 at 2:20 PM CDT
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Martha Gellhorn was not only Ernest Hemingway's third wife, but the third St. Louisan he married.
The newest documentary from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, which debuted Monday night on Nine PBS, promises to reveal “the man, the myth, the writer” in the story of its titanic title subject, “Hemingway.”
And that story would be incomplete without the many St. Louisans who inspired and subsidized Ernest Hemingway in his formative years. In fact, a monograph published last year by local historian Andrew J. Theising, “Hemingway’s St. Louis: How St. Louisans Shaped His Life and Legacy,” makes a compelling case that many of Hemingway’s great adventures have roots in this city. That includes not just the three St. Louis women he married, but the St. Louis fortunes that underwrote the adventures they shared.