Jessica Mitford
Jessica Lucy Mitford (born September 11, 1917 in Burford , Oxfordshire , † July 22, 1996 in Oakland , California ) was a British-American writer .
Life
Jessica Lucy Mitford was the fifth of six daughters of David Bertram Ogilvy Freeman-Mitford , 2nd Baron Redesdale and his wife Sydney Bowles. She was the sister of Nancy , Diana , Unity and Deborah . She was also a cousin of Clementine Churchill , the wife of Winston Churchill . Since Lord Redesdale had an aversion to conventional British methods of upbringing, his children did not go to school but were homeschooled at Asthall Manor in Oxfordshire . The Mitford children developed very differently. Jessica turned to communism ; By contrast, Unity and her sister Diana, who was four years her senior, became supporters of Nazi and fascist ideas. Diana later married the British fascist leader Oswald Mosley . With her great love, her cousin Esmond Romilly , Jessica ran away from home and took part in the Spanish Civil War on the Republican side . During a trip abroad to the United States , she joined the Communist Party of the United States in 1939 .
In 1960 her autobiography was published under the title Hons and Rebels , which was also a representation of the unconventional childhood of the Mitford sisters. The German edition Huns und Rebellen was published in 2013. Her observations of different aspects of American society provided her with material for her books such as her bestseller The American Way of Death 1963, in which she wrote about unethical practices in the funeral industry.
Inspired by lawsuits against activists of the anti-Vietnam War movement and her interest in the civil rights movement , she wrote her 1969 book The Trial of Dr Spock , William Sloane Coffin , Michael Ferber, Mitchell Goodman, and Marcus Raskin .
Most recently, in 1977, she published an account of her experiences in the Communist Party under the title A Fine Old Conflict and Poison Penmanship - The Making of a Muckraker (1979). At the time of her death, she was editing a new edition of her bestseller The American Way of Death .
Fonts (selection)
-
Hons and rebels . 1960
- Huns and rebels. My family and the 20th century From the English and with an afterword and comments by Joachim Kalka . Berenberg, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-937834-60-3 .
literature
- Chambers Biographical Dictionary, p. 1060, Edinburgh 2002, ISBN 0-550-10051-2
- Susanne Kippenberger : The red sheep of the family. Jessica Mitford and her sisters , Berlin: Hanser 2014, ISBN 978-3-446-24649-2
Web links
- Literature by and about Jessica Mitford in the catalog of the German National Library
- Jessica Mitford in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hitler's British Girl . In: Channel 4. 2007.
- ↑ Katharina Döbler: The family prison. deutschlandfunkkultur.de, July 25, 2013, accessed on May 9, 2020 .
- ↑ Susanne Mayer: Autobiography "Huns and Rebels": Scene with a red sheep. zeit.de, August 1, 2013, accessed on May 9, 2020 .
- ↑ THE GUARDIAN: Poison Penmanship by Jessica Mitford - review (October 10, 2010)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mitford, Jessica |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Mitford, Jessica Lucy (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British-American writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 11, 1917 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Burford , Oxfordshire |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 22, 1996 |
| Place of death | Oakland , California |