Irrepressible

by Leslie Brody

  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 hys
terically 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.

  64 “Thereafter . . . stop again”: Durr and Barnard, Outside the Magic Circle, 139.

  66 “Madame, use my hat if you need it”: Ibid.

  66 “by this time Decca was looking very glamorous and beautiful”: Durr, interview, Portrait of a Muckraker.

  66 “I went up to an official looking”: JM to ER, 25 July 1940, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 51.

  66 “spontaneously and with unanimous support”: Chicago Historical Society, “Parades, Protests & Politics in Chicago: The 1940 Democratic Convention,” www.chicagohs.org/history/politics/1940.html.

  CHAPTER 7

  69 “among other new features”: “Liner’s Maiden Voyage to Be Stag Party,” Washington Post, 27 July 1940.

  70 “‘Decca Method,’ which she invented herself”: Dudley Harmon, “War Means Separation for Esmond Romillys,” Washington Post, 27 July 1940.

  70 “colossally useful”: JM to ER, 26 July 1940, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 54.

  70 “absolute riot of anti-New Dealism”: JM to ER, 29 June 1940, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 55.

  70 “about 9:30 . . . reached out”: Ibid.

  71 “only cost 58 cents for 50 words”: JM to ER, 25 July 1940, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 53.

  71 “until you get over being sick”: Durr and Barnard, Outside the Magic Circle, 139.

  72 “My plans are completely flexible”: JM to ER, 25 July 1940, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 53.

  72 “learned how to make a bed”: Durr, interview, Portrait of a Muckraker.

  72 “debunking the aristocratic”: JM to ER, 6 August 1940, OSU.

  72 “burn her hands”: JM to ER, [undated] September 1940, OSU.

  73 “Weinbergering”: JM to ER, 2 August 1940, OSU.

  73 “American glamour girl . . . all so awful”: JM to ER, 8 September 1940, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 63-64.

  73 “bony”: Durr and Barnard, Outside the Magic Circle, 151.

  73 “Decca, you have simply”: Ann Durr Lyons, interview by author, February 2010.

  74 “the most beautiful person . . . a wicked sting: Marge Frantz, interview by author, November 2005.

  74 “fresh curried shrimp”: JM to ER, September 1940, OSU.

  75 “it might save postage”: JM to ER, 10 January 1941, OSU.

  75 “bourgeois philistine . . . shirts, socks and ties”: Straight, After Long Silence, 141.

  75 “There is one thing you can say”: Ibid.

  75 “wanted an intense Christmas”: Durr, interview, Portrait of a Muckraker.

  76 “two people more completely in love”: Ibid.

  CHAPTER 8

  77 “long dead time when”: GR, Privileged Nightmare, 88.

  77 “Bloomsbury lodging house keeper”: JM to ER, late January 1941, OSU.

  78 “a quantity of stout brown paper”: JM, AWOB, 5.

  78 “Absolutely not”: JM, AWOB, 5.

  78 “I hated that idea . . . highly touted”: JM, AWOB, 5.

  78 “At each visit, for which he charged”: JM, AWOB, 5.

  79 “all v. pretty rather like”: JM to ER, 12 February 1941, OSU.

  79 “The anesthetic given there”: JM, AWOB, 5-6.

  80 “Are you any relation of Hitler’s friend?” JM to ER, 12 February 1941, OSU.

  80 “Was her baby born with teeth?” Sussman, Decca, 72n.

  80 “I was just thinking”: JM to ER, 13 February 1941, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 73.

  80 “I became increasingly restive”: JM, AFOC, 27.

  81 “How extremely thoughtful”: JM to ER, early March 1941, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 76.

  81 “Anne Constancia . . . change it we can”: JM to ER, [2 March 1941?], OSU.

  83 “Darling Muv . . . I don’t like Canada at all”: JM to Muv, 9 April 1941, OSU.

  84 “sweet refugees”: Mosley, Love from Nancy, 104.

  85 “The Durrs & most of the people”: JM to NM, 20 May 1941, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 79.

  86 “I think Constancia”: NM to JM, 9 July 1941, in Mosley, Love from Nancy, 111.

  86 “Up the Reds!” NM to Violet Hammersley, 12 July 1941, in Mosley, Love from Nancy, 113.

  87 “a whole new ball game”: JM, interview, Portrait of a Muckraker.

  87 “over-abundance of resources”: Ingram, Rebel, 218.

  87 “misgivings about going on a raid”: Ibid., 217.

  87 “None . . . shot down or not”: Ibid., 218.

  87 “The unutterable blankness”: JM, H & R, 282.

  88 “Once the Russians got into the war”: Fursland, Jessica Mitford, 132.

  88 “I was so miserable”: JM to ER, 26 June 1941, OSU.

  88 “my two main preoccupations . . . acquire some training”: JM, AFOC, 27.

  89 “feel much more confident”: JM to ER, 26 June 1941, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 80.

  89 “By the time I discovered”: JM, AFOC, 28.

  CHAPTER 9

  91 “I think it would be more difficult”: JM to ER, 1 August 1941, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 81.

  91 “However the whole decision”: Ibid.

  92 “Please don’t think”: ER to JM, 17 August 1941, OSU.

  92 “The whole thing is awfully disappointing”: JM to ER, 16-19 August 1941, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 82.

  93 “I am thinking of you … fascinating and interesting”: ER to JM, 22 September 1941, OSU.

  93 “fascinating and interesting”: ER to JM, 22 September 1941, OSU.

  94 “This is said to be the best school”: JM to ER, 14 September 1941, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 86-87.

  94 “I will never be able . . . swiftness of trip”: ER to JM, 22 September 1941, OSU.

  94 “if she really frightfully wanted to and it was possible”: ER to JM, 9 October 1941, OSU.

  94 “on a bomber”: JM to ER, 4 October 1941, OSU.

  94 “his only political motive”: Toynbee, Friends Apart, 163.

  95 “He told me how once”: Ibid.

  95 “Is the take off”: ER to JM, 5 October 1941, OSU.

  95 “the pilot hears the welcoming phrase”: Ibid.

  96 “to be all undecided”: JM to ER, 29 October 1941, OSU.

  96 “I am pretty well settled now”: ER to JM, 11 November 1941, OSU.

  96 “I sent you a cable last night”: JM to ER, 9 November 1941, OSU.

  97 “can see that you will be”: ER to JM, 11 November 1941, OSU.

  97 “the whole thing is utterly bleak and pointless”: Ingram, Rebel, 232.

  97 “LEAVING FRIDAY SO TERRIFICALLY”: JM to ER, 1 December 1941, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 92.

  98 “REGRET TO INFORM YOU THAT”: Ingram, Rebel, 232-233.

  98 “absolutely desolate”: Durr and Barnard, Outside the Magic Circle, 140.

  98 “It will take more than two men ”: Lovell, The Sisters, 104.

  99 “gracious as she always was”: Straight, After Long Silence, 141.

  99 “He said that his heart bled”: Ibid., 166.

  99 “
Churchill had got in touch”: Durr and Barnard, Outside the Magic Circle, 141.

  99 “blood money”: Sussman, Decca, 49.

  99 “I would go in there and she would say”: Durr and Barnard, Outside the Magic Circle, 141.

  99 “filthy fascist family”: Durr, interview, Portrait of a Muckraker.

  CHAPTER 10

  102 “He disgraced himself”: RT interview with Robert G. Larsen in 1988-1989 in Robert E. Treuhaft: Left Wing Political Activist and Progressive Leader in the Berkeley Co-op: Oral History Project, Berkeley Historical Society, 1989, 12.

  103 “Bob, the fun-loving Rover Boy”: Ibid., 16.

  103 “only in a peripheral way”: Ibid., 12.

  103 “the only people who were deeply involved”: Ibid., 12.

  104 “these beautiful prima ballerinas”: Ibid., 20.

  106 “ban on pleasure driving”: JM, AFOC, 32.

  106 “cruel category of sub-eligible typist”: JM, AFOC, 32.

  106 “discovered a marvelous place”: JM, AFOC, 32.

  107 “Paris was then occupied”: JM, AFOC, 30.

  107 “marvelously funny”: JM, AFOC, 33.

  107 “slanting, twinkling black eyes”: JM, AFOC, 33.

  107 “She would pick up a glass”: RT and Larsen, Robert E. Treuhaft, 27.

  108 “such frugality ”: Ibid., 27.

  108 “Drink a drink to dauntless Decca”: JM, AFOC, 33.

  108 “permanent home”: JM to Muv, 31 October 1942, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 93.

  109 “Dear Aranka, You will be pleased”: RT to Aranka Treuhaft, 28 December 1942, OSU.

  109 “You can’t imagine how”: JM to Muv, 24 November 1942, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 95.

  110 “one of those do-it-yourself”: JM, AFOC, 39.

  110 “Dear Joyce, please come to Washington”: JM, AFOC, 39.

  110 “pleased surprise . . . hopeless muddle”: JM, AFOC, 40.

  110 “She claims that she left Washington”: RT and Larsen, Robert E. Treuhaft, 28.

  110 “as far away as possible”: JM, AFOC, 40.

  CHAPTER 11

  111 “I didn’t expect to see matched . . . shopping bags”: JM, AFOC, 42.

  115 “I’m getting to like Frisco”: JM to Muv, 16 March 1943, OSU.