Before her outstanding work in World War 2 (after the attacks on Pearl Harbor), Martha Gellhorn had been reporting for 6 years. Gellhorn had reported on the Great Depression, the Civil War in Spain, and the Russian invasion of Finland,
Great Depression: In 1931, after returning from Paris a married woman*, Martha Gellhorn reported for the St. Louis Post - Dispatch, and she wrote a novel. Her novel (What Mad Pursuit ) came to the attention of one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration's top official (Harry Hopkins) who then hired her to write about the Great Depression as she traveled throughout the country exploring the different effects it had. After fabricating a story about the lynching of a black man, however, Gellhorn lost the job although her story was praised by the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (who is thought to be unaware of the fabrication) Martha Gellhorn took her writing of the Depression Era, and turned it into a book (The Trouble I've Seen) that was published in 1936 even though the difference between the truth and fiction was unclear through her writing.
Civil War in Spain: In 1936, Martha Gellhorn met Ernest Hemingway in Key West, Florida. Gellhorn was a great admirer of the writing of Hemingway, and so they began to talk. While they talked, Hemingway mentioned to Gellhorn how he was going to Spain to cover the Spanish Civil War, and so she decided to join him. When 1937 came around, Martha Gellhorn arrived in Madrid, Spain to cover the war for Collier's Weekly. With her, Gellhorn brought nothing more than $50 and a small backpack. "Gellhorn sympathized passionately with the democratically elected socialist government of Spain in its fight against the fascist generals led by Francisco Franco." (Encyclopedia of World Biography). Today, it is difficult to find the writings of Martha Gellhorn on the War in Spain, but, Marc Weingarten has said that they were better than Hemingway's reports, and that Gellhorn "revealed a gift for unflinching observations and unforced pathos."
Russian Invasion of Finland: In the November of 1939, Martha Gellhorn visited Finland for Collier's Weekly, and she reached just in time to see the Russian Invasion and visit the front lines. However, Gellhorn got "bored" very easily and left Finland.
Note: *While in Paris, Martha Gellhorn had met the French writer Bertrand de Jouvenel and they had married. They soon divorced however, and Gellhorn married Ernest Hemingway a few years later.