| Original caption: “Ernest Hemingway in London at the Dorchester Hotel.” Located on Park Lane and Deanery Street across from Hyde Park, the Dorchester was Ernest Hemingway’s (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) favorite London hotel. Hemingway arrived in London by flying boat on May 18, 1944, while his wife and fellow Collier’s Magazine correspondent, Martha Gelhorn (November 8, 1908 – February 15, 1998) traversed the Atlantic for weeks in an ammunition ship. Setting up court at the “Dorch,” Hemingway, already a famous writer, met with fellow correspondents like Robert Capa (October 22, 1913 – May 25, 1954) in his hotel room, which was also the scene for many parties. Hemingway found his new beard — which he told his brother Private 1st Class Leicester Hemingway (April 1, 1915 – September 13, 1982) was grown because of skin cancer from sunburns from being out on the water hunting Nazi German U-Boats off Cuba — and his age deterred many young women who visited his room. At the same time, Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force Commander United States Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) and Marshal of the United Kingdom Royal Air Force Sir Charles Portal (May 21, 1893 – April 22, 1971) also took rooms at the Dorchester at the same time. Eisenhower stayed in rooms 104 and 105. When Gelhorn finally arrived on May 31, their marriage had broken down. Hemingway had a drunken accident on May 24, requiring multiple stitches in hospital. They had a row over their marriage and reporting and didn’t see each other for some months. Gelhorn hid in a hospital ship after posing as a nurse to land on D-Day. She was denied correspondent credentials as a woman. Hemingway was given credentials and claimed to have landed on the beach, but scholars debate whether or not he actually landed. His account of the D-Day landings received the cover story in Collier’s as soon as it could be published in the July 22, 1944, edition, while Gelhorn’s account was delayed until August 1944 and didn’t get cover billing. Hemingway was furious that she had snuck onto the beach; her credentials, issued after the Allied armies landed, were revoked. She wrote to him, “I came to see the war, not live in the Dorchester.” The 2 correspondents reported on the war across France and Germany. They met up 1 last time; Gellhorn walked out on Hemingway at London’s Dorchester Hotel after an argument in March 1945. “Why should I be a footnote to somebody else’s life?” She demanded of an interviewer shortly before her death in London in 1998. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0442.jpg |
| Image Size | 511.75 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2912 x 2027 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | Ernest Hemingway Collection, John F. Kennedy Library |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | August 1, 1944 |
| Location | Hyde Park |
| City | London |
| State or Province | London |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NLK-EHEMC-EUROPE-8I |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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