Emily Hahn
Emily Hahn ( Chinese 項 美麗 , born January 14, 1905 in St. Louis , Missouri , † February 18, 1997 in Manhattan , New York City ) was an American journalist and author. It has been named a hidden American literary treasure by The New Yorker magazine . She has authored 52 books and more than 180 articles and stories. Her works in the 20th century played a special role in the opening up of Asia by the West.
Life
Emily Hahn was one of six children of a salesman and a self-employed mother. Her nickname was Mickey . When Emily was 15, her family moved to Chicago , Illinois .
China and Hong Kong
Her years in Shanghai , China (from 1935 to the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong in 1941) were the most turbulent of her life. There she became known to prominent personalities in what was then Shanghai, such as the wealthy Sir Victor Sassoon . She had a habit of showing up at dinner parties with her dressed up pet.
As a writer for The New Yorker , she lived in an apartment in a richer part of Shanghai. Here she made the acquaintance of the Chinese poet and publisher Sinmay Zau ( 邵 洵 美 , Shao Xunmei ). He gave her the opportunity to write biographies about the influential Soong sisters . Song Qingling was married to Sun Yat-sen , Song Meiling to Chiang Kai-shek .
Hahn often visited Sinmay's house, which was rather unusual for a Western woman in the 1930s. Shanghai was divided between China and the West at the time of the Humen Treaty . Sinmay was the one who introduced Emily Hahn to opium smoking and she became addicted. She later wrote “ Though I had always wanted to be an opium addict, I can't claim that as the reason I went to China. - No hurry to get home ”(German:“ Although I always wanted to be an opium addict, I can't say that was the reason I went to China. I was in no hurry to go home. ”).
After moving to Hong Kong, she began an affair with Charles Ralph Boxer , the local head of the British Secret Intelligence Service . According to a Time article published in December 1944, Hahn decided “ […] that she needed the steadying influence of a baby, but doubted if she could have one. "(German:" [...] that she needs the stabilizing influence of a baby, but doubted whether she could have one "). The unhappily married Major Charles Boxer replied, “ Nonsense! [...] I'll let you have one! ”(German:“ Nonsense! I'll give you one! ”). And so their daughter Carola Militia Boxer was born in Hong Kong on October 17, 1941.
When the Japanese invaded Hong Kong, Boxer was interned in a POW camp and Hahn was interrogated. Hahn tells in her book China to Me (1944) that she had to give English lessons to Japanese officials in exchange for food. She once punched the Japanese chief of intelligence in the face. Before she was repatriated in 1943, the man came to see her again and he repulsed her. China to Me was an instant success.
According to Roger Angell of the New Yorker , Hahn was actually something rare:
“Hahn was, in truth, something rare: a woman deeply, almost domestically, at home in the world. Driven by curiosity and energy, she went there and did that, and then wrote about it without fuss. "
“A woman, more at home, at home in the world. Driven by curiosity and energy that went where she wanted and then wrote about it without much ado. "
Return to the USA
In 1945 she married Boxer, who was interned by the Japanese during that time. Their reunion - their love story, which was revealed in the letters published by Hahn, made headlines in the United States. They settled in Dorset , England at " Conygar ", where Boxer had inherited a large property.
In 1948 the second daughter, Amanda Boxer (now a theater and TV actress in London) was born.
Hahn found family life too restrictive, so she moved into her own apartment in New York City in 1950 and only visited her husband and children in England occasionally. She continued to write articles for the New Yorker , including the biographies of Aphra Behn , James Brooke , Fanny Burney , Chiang Kai-shek , DH Lawrence, and Mabel Dodge Luhan .
In 1978 she published Look Who's Talking . In this book she dealt with the controversial subject of animal-human communication (her personal favorite among her non-fiction books). In 1988, when she was in her eighties, she wrote her last book, Eva and the Apes . Since 1987 she was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters .
Hahn went to her editorial office regularly before she died on February 18, 1997 at the age of 92. The cause of death was complications after an operation on her destroyed thighbones.
In 1998, Canadian author Ken Cuthbertson published the biography Nobody Said Not to Go: The Life, Loves, and Adventures of Emily Hahn . Nobody said not to go was one of their characteristic sayings.
Publications
| year | Works |
|---|---|
| 1930 | Seductio ad Absurdum: The Principles and Practices of Seduction — A Beginner's Handbook |
| 1931 | Beginner's Luck |
| 1933 | Congo Solo: Misadventures Two Degree North |
| 1934 | With naked foot |
| 1935 | Affair |
| 1940 | Steps of the Sun |
| 1941, 1970 | The Soong Sisters |
| 1942 | Mr. Pan |
| 1944,1975,1988 | China to Me: A Partial Autobiography |
| 1946 | Hong Kong Holiday China: A to Z The Picture Story of China Raffles of Singapore |
| 1947 | Miss Jill |
| 1949 | England to Me |
| 1950 | A Degree of Prudery: A Biography of Fanny Burney Purple Passage: A Novel About a Lady Both Famous and Fantastic (published in the UK as Aphra Behn (1951)) |
| 1951 | Francie |
| 1952 | Love Conquers Nothing: A Glandular History of Civilization |
| 1953 | Francie Again Mary, Queen of Scots |
| 1955 | The First Book of India Chiang Kai-shek: An Unauthorized Biography |
| 1956 | Francie Comes Home Spousery |
| 1958 | Kissing cousins |
| 1959 | The Tiger House Party: The Last Days of the Maharajas Subscription from: First Rabbi of the Americas |
| 1960 | June Finds a Way |
| 1963 | China Only Yesterday, 1850–1950: A Century of Change Indo |
| 1964 | Africa to Me |
| 1967 | Romantic Rebels: An Informal History of Bohemianism in America Animal Gardens |
| 1968 | The Cooking of China Recipes: Chinese Cooking |
| 1970 | Times and Places (reissued as No Hurry to Get Home 2000) |
| 1971 | Breath of God: A Book About Angels, Demons, Familiars, Elementals and Spirits Fractured Emerald: Ireland |
| 1974 | Once Upon A Pedestal |
| 1975 | Lorenzo: DH Lawrence and the Women Who Loved Him |
| 1977 | Mabel: A Biography of Mabel Dodge Luhan |
| 1978 | Look Who's Talking! New Discoveries in Animal Communications |
| 1980 | Love of gold |
| 1981 | The Islands: America's Imperial Adventures in the Philippines |
| 1988 | Eve and the Apes |
literature
- Emily Hahn: Shanghai Magic. Reports from the New Yorker . Ed .: Dagmar Yu-Dembski . 1st edition. Edition Ebersbach, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-938740-89-7 .
- Roger Angell: Let Me Finish . Harcourt, Orlando 2006, ISBN 978-0-15-101350-0 .
- Ken Cuthbertson: Nobody said not to go: the life, loves, and adventures of Emily Hahn , Boston [u. a.]: Faber and Faber, 1998, ISBN 0-571-19950-X
Web links
- Emily Hahn: Shanghai Magic. Reports from the New Yorker
- Obituary: Emily Hahn. The Independent
- Emily Hahn, Chronicler of Her Own Exploits, Dies at 92 . New York Times
Individual evidence
- ↑ Members: Emily Hahn. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed April 2, 2019 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Rooster, Emily |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | 項 美麗 (Chinese) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American journalist and author |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 14, 1905 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | St. Louis , Missouri |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 18, 1997 |
| Place of death | Manhattan , New York City |