Ida Cook

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Ida Cook (* 1904 in Sunderland , Great Britain , † December 22, 1986 ) was a novelist and campaigned for Jewish refugees during the Nazi era . She published more than 125 romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Burchell .

Together with her sister Mary Louise Cook, Ida Cook helped Jews flee the Nazis in the 1930s. The sisters saved 29 people, financed mainly through Ida's literary work. The Cook sisters were honored as “ Righteous Among the Nations ” by the Israeli Yad Vashem Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority .

Life

Ida Cook was born in Sunderland, England, UK in 1904. Together with her older sister Mary Louise (1901-1991) she attended the Duchess' School in Alnwick and later worked in the public service. The two sisters developed a passionate interest in opera. In the 1930s they visited Germany together, where as fanatical opera fans they traveled all over the place to see their favorite singers. When they returned to England, they smuggled valuables into the country that would enable Jews trying to flee Germany to provide evidence of financial security so that they could meet British immigration requirements. Mary-Louise and Ida Cook worked together with the Austrian conductor Clemens Krauss and his wife, the soprano Viorica Ursuleac , whom they met on their trip to Germany and whom they had informed about the persecution of Jews in Germany. Made possible by Ida's writing activity, the sisters were able to save 29 people in this way. In 1964 Israel honored them as Righteous Among the Nations .

Writing career

In 1936, Ida Cook published her first romance novels as Mary Burchell. Over the course of her career, Mills & Boon published more than 125 of her novels (new to Harlequin Books), including the famous Warrender Saga, a series of novels set in the world of opera. Using the pseudonym James Keene, Cook wrote several westerns together with the author William Everett Cook (also known as Will Cook or Frank Peace). Ida Cook was a co-founder and for many years also President of the Romantic Novelists' Association (advocacy group for romance novelists ). In 1950 Ida Cook wrote her autobiography We followed Our Stars , which was reissued in 2008 under the title Safe Passage .

literature

  • Louise Carpenter: "Ida & Louise. How two sisters outwitted the Gestapo". Translated from the English by Miriam Mandelkow. Verlag Dörlemann, Zurich 2010. ISBN 3-908777-54-2

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ida Cook on the website of Yad Vashem (English)
personal data
SURNAME Cook, Ida
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Burchell, Mary (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British novelist and Righteous Among the Nations
DATE OF BIRTH 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Sunderland , UK
DATE OF DEATH December 22, 1986