Irrepressible (49 page)

Read Irrepressible Online

Authors: Leslie Brody

BOOK: Irrepressible
6.88Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
Farve . . . . . . . . . . . . . David Freeman-Mitford, Lord Redesdale
JM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jessica Mitford
Muv . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sydney Bowles Mitford, Lady Redesdale
NM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nancy Mitford
RT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Robert Treuhaft
UM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Unity Mitford
 
SOURCES
 
AFOC
. . . . . . . . . . .
A Fine Old Conflict
AWOB
. . . . . . . . . .
The American Way of Birth
AWOD
. . . . . . . . .
The American Way of Death
DECCA
. . . . . . . .
The Letters of Jessica Mitford
H & R
. . . . . . . . . .
Hons and Rebels
OSU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Mitford Collection, Ohio State University
PP
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Poison Penmanship: The Gentle Art of Muckraking
TM-LBSS
. . . . . .
The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters
CHAPTER 1
5 “Dear Madam”: JM, interview,
Portrait of a Muckraker: The Stories of Jessica Mitford
, produced by Stephen Evans, Ida Landauer, and James Morgan, KQED, 1990 (DVD and VHS).
5 “Bank of America”: Ibid.
5 “I was never at all”: Ibid.
5 “spare shillings”: Ibid.
6 “uncompromising air”: Ottewell,
Literary Strolls Around the Cotswolds and the Forest of Dean
, 72.
6 “lunatic asylum”: JM,
H & R
, 2.
7 “The others bored me”: NM,
The Water Beetle
, 14.
7 overstimulating: JM,
H & R
, 4.
7 “are you planning to go back to Spain?” JM,
H & R
, 121.
8 “having smuggled”: JM to James Forman Junior, 20 July 1992, in
Decca
, ed. Sussman, 663.
8 “restless, unformulated”: JM,
H & R
, 35.
9 “We think with joy”: Lovell,
The Sisters
, 188.
9 “beastly Fascists”: JM,
H & R
, 68.
10 “Unfortunately, my will to live . . . bitterly regretted my lack of courage”: JM,
H & R
, 96.
10 “still loved Boud”: JM,
H & R
, 72.
10 “freezing shadow”: Ibid.
11 “God bless Muv”: Lovell,
The Sisters
, 104.
11 “about great movements in England”: JM,
H & R
, 63.
11 “irreverent outpourings”: JM,
H & R
, 32.
12 “a little jiggery-pokery”: JM,
H & R
, 12.
12 “an abortive attempt at running away”: JM,
H & R
, 75.
CHAPTER 2
14 “joint rebellion”: JM, interview,
Portrait of a Muckraker
.
15 “barbarian, possibly prejudiced against homosexuals . . . have gone through the same?” JM to Merle Miller, 3 November 1971, in
Decca
, ed. Sussman, 436.
15 “We have done all we could”: Ingram,
Rebel
, 98.
15 “amazingly long eyelashes”: JM,
H & R
, 121.
16 “very pretty”: Toynbee,
Friends Apart
, 98.
16 “a brown corduroy ski suit”: JM,
H & R
, 131.
17 “I’m afraid I’ve fallen in love with you”: JM,
H & R
, 136.
18 “completely, deeply committed . . . attractive and powerful”: JM,
H & R
, 126.
18 “a committed partisan”: JM,
H & R
, 140.
18 “He would get into a fury of frustration”: JM,
H & R
, 140.
19 “What right have you”: JM,
H & R
, 141-142.
19 “glimmerings”: JM,
H & R
, 144.
19 “far more the quality”: JM,
H & R
, 147.
19 “grim, serious town of Bilbao”: JM,
H & R
, 147.
19 “bemused, . . . all old ties”: JM,
H & R
, 147.
19 “trying to get in focus . . . understand the heroism”: JM,
H & R
, 148.
19 “determination, intelligence and courage”: JM,
H & R
, 133.
19 “sense of unreality”: JM,
H & R
, 149.
CHAPTER 3
21 “I am not a pacifist”: ER,
Boadilla
, 196.
21 “Find Jessica Mitford”: JM,
H & R
, 150.
21 “Have found Jessica”: Ingram,
Rebel
, 156.
22 “Worse than I thought”: JM,
H & R
, 159.
22 “Have them bring it out”: JM,
H & R
, 154.
22 “normal progression . . . and bedtime”: JM,
H & R
, 147.
23 “
No es sueño la vida
”: Federico García Lorca, “
Ciudad sin sueño
,” in
Poet in New York
(New York: Grove Press, 2008), 62.
23 “total war”: JM,
H & R
, 155.
24 “
Armes Kind
”: JM,
H & R
,159.
24 “You will honestly
adore
Esmond”: JM to Muv, late February 1937, in
Decca
, ed. Sussman, 24.
24 “My darling”: Muv to JM, 23 February 1937, OSU.
24 “I cannot help blaming myself”: Muv to JM, 3 March 1937, OSU.
24 “Oh, poor duck”: JM,
AFOC
, 6.
25 “I realize you are my guardian now”: JM interview,
Portrait of a Muckraker
.
25 “except Jessica”: Lovell,
The Sisters
, 456.
25 “I knew I was cut out”: Anthea Fursland,
Jessica Mitford: A Levinsonian Study of Mid-Life
, Berkeley, California: Wright Institute, 1996, 146.
26 “Esmond was always trying . . . dog of his choice”: JM,
H & R
, 173.
28 “singleness of purpose”: JM,
H & R
, 176.
28 “In Esmond’s view . . . being a member”: JM,
AFOC
, 20.
28 “Philip was forever . . . were hardly persuasive”: JM,
FOP
, 25.
28 “instinctive understanding of subtleties”: JM,
H & R
, 165.
28 “political vision” that made her seem “almost clairvoyant”: Dr. William Kurt Wallersteiner to Decca, 5 December 1980, OSU.
29 “in an open and declared”: Toynbee,
Friends Apart
, 112.
29 “Being good was never conspicuously on our agenda”: JM,
FOP
, 29.
29 “we need someone like Hitler over here”: JM,
H & R
, 165.
29 “rich vein of lunacy . . . humanity and culture”: JM,
H & R
, 280.
CHAPTER 4
31 “I am going to have a baby . . . I’m not any more now”: JM to NM, July 1937, in
TM-LBSS
, ed. Mosley, 108.
32 “known for his inability”: JM,
H & R
, 264.
32 “the center of my existence”: JM,
H & R
, 182.
32 “considerably more militant . . . seriousness of purpose”: JM,
H & R
, 177.
32 “lined up to boo”: JM,
H & R
, 177.
33 “tired, white-faced dockers”: JM,
H & R
, 177.
34 “a little gamine”: JM,
H & R
, 182.
34 “the entire community . . . as red as you may think”: JM,
H & R
, 178.
35 “Too thin”: Lovell,
The Sisters
, 259.
35 “light-hearted maternal competence”: Toynbee,
Friends Apart
, 115.
36 “Dearest Hen”: JM to Debo, 31 May 1938, in
TM-LBSS
, ed. Mosley, 88.
37 “willingness to fight and die”: Rosenstone,
Crusade of the Left
, 314.
38 “Their furled umbrellas”: JM,
H & R
, 185.
38 “unthinkable . . . tormentor”: JM,
H & R
, 190-191.
38 “Esmond had a theory . . . more ways than one”: JM,
H & R
, 191.
40 “‘Oh—Chamberlain”: JM,
H & R
, 186.
41 “depressed and restless”: JM,
H & R
, 188.
41 “An ordinary middle-aged”: JM, “She’s Come for an Abortion: What Do You Say?”
Harper’s
, November 1992, 49.
42 “he was absolutely furious”: Dinky, interview by author, January 2007.
CHAPTER 5
43 “was drawn into a war”: “Only Human,”
New York Daily Mirror
, 20 April 1937.
43 “mentioned that Herr Hitler”: Pryce-Jones,
Unity Mitford
, 224.
44 “We sat in a dim, plushly upholstered”: JM,
H & R
, 201.
44 “an amusing and sometimes”: Roger Roughton to JM, 28 January 1939, OSU.
44 “he’s an authority on burlesque” . . . “He’s exactly as you would imagine him” . . . “an elderly millionaire” . . . “who is very nice indeed” . . . “an English communist”: Ibid.
45 “In America what they want”: Walter Starkie to ER, 23 November 1938, OSU.
45 “Sex Life at Oxford University”: JM,
FOP
, 36.
45 “The Inner Life”: JM,
H & R
, 194.
46 “undeliberate but crushing domination”: Toynbee,
Friends Apart
, 155.
46 “Do you like America? . . . one could do about it”: JM,
H & R
, 205.
47 “perversely, and although”: JM,
H & R
, 261.
47 “My attitude toward Esmond is as follows”: UM to JM, 11 April 1937, OSU.
47 “I see that in the papers”: JM to Muv, 6 September 1939, in
Decca
, ed. Sussman, 32.
47 “fine wirenetting round their windows”: JM to Muv, 2 or 3 August 1939, in
Decca
,
ed. Sussman, 32.
47 “a sort of Winston Churchill-ish”: Ibid.
47 “a terrific Washington Big-shot”: ER to Peter Nevile, 5 July 1939, OSU.
48 “Ye Merrie England Village”: JM,
H & R
, 226.
49 “Blueblood Adventurers . . . Song in Their Hearts”: ER and JM, “Blueblood
Adventurers Discover America,”
Washington Post
, 28 January 1940. 49 “A gay and exciting salute”:
Washington Post
, 28 January 1940.
49 “discourse eloquently on”: JM and ER, “English Adventurers Stalk Job in Wilds of New York,”
Washington Post
, 11 February 1940.
50 “the best people”: Ibid.
50 “operas, cartoons, cooking demonstrations”: Ian Baird, “Television in the World of Tomorrow,”
Echoes
, winter 1997; and Ian Baird, “Television in the World of Tomorrow,” Baird Television Web site, RCA page, at
www.bairdtelevision.com/RCA.html
.
50 “old Scotch cottage”: ER and JM, “English Adventurers Stalk Job.”
50 “weaver imported direct”: Ibid.
50 “soft Lancashire brogue” . . . “lass who worked”: JM,
H & R
, 218.
51 “You see he’s planning”: JM,
H & R
, 216.
51 “As if he’d been there for hours ”: JM,
H & R
, 220.
51 “If we had such an introduction”: “Only Human,”
New York Daily Mirror
, 20 April 1937.
52 “disturbingly successful”: JM,
H & R
, 220.
53 “snobbish”: JM to Muv, 23 November 1939, in
Decca
, ed. Sussman, 34.
53 “old broken-down chicken houses”: Ibid.
54 “like the South of France”: JM to UM, January or February 1940, in
Decca
, ed. Sussman, 39.
54 “have a French butler”: JM to TM, 24 December 1939, in
Decca
, ed. Sussman, 35.
54 “mean, murky and meretricious”: Ingram,
Rebel
, 199.
54 “that something unpleasant”: JM,
H & R
, 270.
55 “to be recorded”: JM to Muv, 11 January 1940, in
Decca
, ed. Sussman, 38.
55 “Unity’s sister”: JM to Muv, 26 February 1940, in
Decca
, ed. Sussman, 40.
55 “terrified . . . grieved”: JM,
H & R
, 273.
55 “Do please write”: JM to Muv, 11 January 1940, in
Decca
, ed. Sussman, 38.
56 “a terrible quarrel with Hitler”: JM to Muv, 1 February 1940, in
Decca
, ed. Sussman, 38.
56 “I knew I couldn’t expect Esmond”: JM,
H & R
, 274.
56 “estrangement from our families”: JM,
H & R
, 261.
CHAPTER 6
58 “What a contrast . . . about a ‘social program’”: Ingram,
Rebel
, 195.
58 “very powerful anti-fascist, anti-Hitler spirit”: RT and Larsen,
Robert E. Treuhaft
, 26.
58 “lived and worked”: JM,
H & R
, 252.
58 “Not very sisterly”: Lovell,
The Sisters
, 325.
60 “the most impressive feeling”: Graham,
Personal History
, 78.
60 “brilliant, colorful, often hysterically funny”: Straight,
After Long Silence
, 141.
60 “fine satirical mind”: Ibid.
61 “outnumbered”: JM,
H & R
, 254.
62 “Why I’m so absolutely. . . small children”: JM,
H & R
, 256.
62 “very much engrossed . . . Muckraker Interviews”: Virginia Durr, interview,
Portrait of a Muckraker: The Stories of Jessica Mitford
, produced by Stephen Evans, Ida Landauer, and James Morgan, KQED, 1990 (DVD and VHS).
62 “aristocratic . . . upperclass . . . point-of-view”: Ibid.
62 “he was a man, not a boy”: Ibid.
62 “‘Ole Virginny’ . . . appreciate it”: Durr and Barnard,
Outside the Magic Circle
, 138.
63 “We’re already cramped”: Ann Durr Lyons, interview with author, telephone, February 2010.
63 “Just keep her until your refugees arrive”: Ibid.
63 “Well, Esmond . . . take her with you”: Durr and Barnard,
Outside the Magic Circle
, 138.
63 “I didn’t want to take”: Ibid., 139.
64 “come to the U.S. to get Decca”: Durr, interview,
Portrait of a Muckraker
.

Other books

To Refuse a Rake by Kristin Vayden
The King Arthur Trilogy by Rosemary Sutcliff
Miss Sophie's Secret by Fran Baker
Mistress by Marriage by Maggie Robinson
Spiderweb by Penelope Lively
Mango Kisses by Rose, Elisabeth
The Haunting by Garcia, Nicole