Hemingway was joined in Spain by journalist and writer Martha Gellhorn, who he had met in Key West a year earlier. Like Hadley, Martha was a St. Louis native, and like Pauline, she had worked for "Vogue" in Paris. Of Martha, Kert explains, "she never catered to him the way other women did". In July 1937 he attended the Second International Writers' Congress, the purpose of which was to discuss the attitude of intellectuals to the war, held in Valencia, Barcelona and Madrid and attended by many writers including André Malraux, Stephen Spender and Pablo Neruda. Late in 1937, while in Madrid with Martha, Hemingway wrote his only play, "The Fifth Column", as the city was being bombarded by Francoist forces. He returned to Key West for a few months, then back to Spain twice in 1938, where he was present at the Battle of the Ebro, the last republican stand, and he was among the British and American journalists who were some of the last to leave the battle as they crossed the river.