Nancy Mitford

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Nancy Mitford, 1932
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Nancy Mitford (born November 28, 1904 in London , † June 30, 1973 in Versailles ) was a writer and journalist from the English aristocracy and one of the Mitford Sisters .

Life

Nancy Mitford was the oldest of seven children, owned by David Bertram Ogilvy Freeman-Mitford , 2nd Baron Redesdale, Member of the House of Lords, and Sydney Bowles . She grew up on estates in Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire . Your siblings are:

  1. Pamela Mitford (1907–1994), married to Derek Ainslie Jackson .
  2. Thomas Mitford (1909–1945), attended Eton College , had a relationship with James Lees-Milne , died a British soldier in Burma during World War II .
  3. Diana Mitford (1910–2003), the classic beauty of the family, Miss England 1932, married to Bryan Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne and heir to the brewing empire; second marriage to the British fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley , the 6th Baronet Mosley.
  4. Unity Mitford (1914–1948), enthusiastic National Socialist and notorious for her admiration for Adolf Hitler , frequented his personal circle and belonged to the high society of the Nazi regime. Her father felt compelled to deny his daughter's impending engagement to Herr Hitler in the British press . When Britain declared war on Nazi Germany in 1939, she tried to commit suicide.
  5. Jessica Mitford (1917–1996), writer and the only communist in the family, married first to Esmond Romilly, a nephew of Winston Churchill , whom she married during the Spanish Civil War in Spain, and then to Robert Treuhaft , both anti-fascists.
  6. Deborah Mitford (1920–2014), writer , married to Andrew Cavendish, 11th Duke of Devonshire , whose older brother William was the husband of Kathleen Cavendish , sister of US President John F. Kennedy .
Grave of the Sisters in Swinbrook Cemetery, Oxfordshire

According to her friend Evelyn Waugh , her formal schooling is said to have been largely limited to lessons in French and horse riding. She was briefly enrolled at the Slade School of Fine Art , where she was told that she had no artistic talent. Nancy Mitford married in 1933, according to her biographer, "extremely handsome" and left-leaning Peter Rodd, the youngest son of 1st Baron Rennell, a diplomat. The couple lived together for a while in France, where Rodd was involved in helping refugees from the Spanish Civil War , but also drank a lot and entered into sexual relationships with other women. In the 1930s, Nancy Mitford flirted with fascism for a short time, but then opted for "pink socialism," as her biographer puts it. Even before the Second World War, she lived separated from her husband, only to be divorced in 1957 without children, after Rodd had finally consented to a divorce. In London during the Second World War, she met the French politician Gaston Palewski (1901-1984), a close collaborator of Charles de Gaulle , who tried to organize the resistance of "Free France" to the German occupation after France surrendered from exile in London . She became his secret lover, who was available on call, until the latter made the decision to marry another woman. It remains unclear to what extent she was involved in British counterintelligence activities. In 1967 she moved to a small house in Versailles. For the last three years of her life she suffered from Hodgkin's disease and from the coldness of her former lover Gaston Palewski.

As a writer, she wrote historical biographies and successful novels; The four titles Englische Liebschaften (1945), Liebe unter Kaltern Himmel (1949), A Blessing for Love (1951) and The Ambassador's Wife (1960), all of them strongly autobiographical, became known in Germany after the Second World War . The translator of these novels into German was Reinhard Kaiser . She also wrote as a journalist about the familiar world of the British nobility.

reception

Jessica Fellowes published the detective novel "The Mitford Murders" in 2017. The protagonist is the young Louisa, who is employed as a nanny for the Mitford children, who wins the trust of the 16-year-old Nancy Mitford and with whose help investigates the murder of a nurse.

Works (selection)

  • 1931: Highland Fling
  • 1932: Christmas pudding
  • 1935: Wigs on the Green
    • Country party with three women: Roman , Translated from the English by Matthias Fienbork. With a copy by Charlotte Mosley, Munich: Graf 2011 ISBN 978-3-86220-014-6
  • 1940: Pigeon Pie
  • 1945: The Pursuit of Love
    • English love affairs . Roman, Nördlingen: Greno 1988, series The Other Library . 347 p. With 16 b / w photographs. In the dossier at the end of the book you will find a contribution by David Pryce-Jones with the title: The Mitfords, A family novel from the English aristocracy , followed by biographical and bibliographical information on the author
  • 1949: Love in a Cold Climate
    • Love chilled . Roman, Hamburg: Rowohlt 1953
    • Love under cold skies . Roman, Frankfurt: Eichborn 1990, series Die Other Bibliothek , and Munich: Graf 2013
  • 1951: The Blessing
    • A blessing for love. Novel. Frankfurt: Eichborn 1991
  • 1954: Madame de Pompadour (biography)
  • 1956: Noblesse Oblige: an Inquiry into the Identifiable Characteristics of the English Aristocracy
    • Noblesse oblige. Bad thoughts of an English lady , presented (with dossier and afterword) by RK Frankfurt: Eichborn 1995
  • 1957: Voltaire in Love
  • 1960: Don't Tell Alfred
    • The ambassador's wife . Frankfurt: Eichborn 1993
  • 1962: The Water Beetle
  • 1966: The Sun King
  • 1970: Frederick the Great (biography)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Christopher Benfey: The arbiter of aristocracy - Book review . In: AG Sulzberger (Ed.): The New York Times . No. 42,528 . New York December 7, 2019, p. 18 .
personal data
SURNAME Mitford, Nancy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British writer and biographer
DATE OF BIRTH November 28, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH London , England
DATE OF DEATH June 30, 1973
Place of death Versailles , France