The Trouble I've Seen, By Martha Gellhorn

In 1934, cub reporter Martha Gellhorn, newly returned from Europe, was dispatched by Washington New Dealer Harry Hopkins to report on the effects of the Depression on the textile towns of North Carolina and New England.

Aged just 25 and dressed in couture from Paris, she trudged around slums and shacks to interview men and women laid low by malnutrition, illness and despair.

It was while composing these reports that she found her lifelong writing voice. The Trouble I've Seen, the quartet of novellas inspired by her experiences, is one of her finest works.