by Leslie Brody
201 “an extremely slow one but not uncomfortable”: RT to Aranka Treuhaft, 1 September 1955, OSU.
201 “Muv’s lonely barren life here is relieved”: RT to Aranka Treuhaft, 1 September 1955, OSU.
201 “Everywhere were reminders of childhood . . . we went our separate ways”: JM, AFOC, 231-232.
201 “very comfortable, just a little bit bigger than Versailles”: RT to Aranka Treuhaft, 16 September 1955, OSU.
201 “the size of a small planet”: Lane, “Parent Traps,” New Yorker, 14 November 2005, 101.
201 “I had come back to a different world”: JM, AFOC, 228.
202 “HONNISH CONGRATULATIONS ON A SUCCESSFUL SEASON’S DUKE HUNTING” JM, quoting herself to Pele deLappe and Steve Murdock, 25 September 1955, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 156.
202 “ambivalence”: JM, AFOC, 235.
202 “Having taken such pains . . . not a good guest”: Ibid.
202 “Actually Bob fared better than I did”: Ibid.
202 “dazzled by the openness and ease”: JM, AFOC, 236.
203 “brilliant, attractive person”: JM to Eddie Romilly, 12 August 1967 OSU.
203 “hopelessly addicted”: JM to Virginia Durr, 18 August 1955, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 369.
203 “It seems the Romillies wrote their wills”: JM to NM, 2 May 1957, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 167.
203 “inheritance prone,” “accident prone”: JM to Muv, 4 June 1958, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 175.
203 “sheer curiosity”: JM, AFOC, 229.
203 “wasn’t all that keen”: Fursland, Jessica Mitford, 156.
203 “I’d have been quite interested to see him. I offered to see him”: Ibid.
203 “impossible conditions”: JM, AFOC, 20.
204 “When you’ve had this much of a break”: Fursland, Jessica Mitford, 156.
204 “Whom would you like best . . . Decca”: NM to JM, 3 August 1972, in NM, Love from Nancy, 519.
204 “whirling away”: JM, “We Visited Socialism,” Peoples Daily World, 17 February 1956.
205 “How I dread their arrival”: NM to Diana, 8 September 1955, in TM-LBSS, ed. Mosley, 287.
205 “on Debo’s nickel”: JM, AFOC, 247.
206 “marvelously good company”: JM, AFOC, 248.
206 “still funny . . . & is not a fascist or an idiot”: JM to Pele deLappe, Steve Murdock, and Bob and Dorothy Neville, 29 October 1955, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 158.
206 “a combo of plummy tones and very down-to-earth vocabulary”: Dinky, telephone interview by author, March 2010.
CHAPTER 20
207 “I know it’s such a thrill”: JM to Muv, 13 May 1956, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 163.
207 “highly classified”: JM, AFOC, 265.
208 “Money, besides being the root of all evil”: Fursland, Jessica Mitford, 226.
208 “there remained a haunting suspicion”: JM, AFOC, 265.
208 “the blank, awful feeling”: Fursland, Jessica Mitford, 159.
209 According to Ross’s thesis: See NM, “The English Aristocracy,” in Noblesse Oblige, ed. NM, 27.
209 “The aristocrat can augment his”: Ibid.
210 “Any sign of undue haste”: JM, Noblesse Oblige, 41.
210 “a great send-up of the obscure, convoluted language of the Left”: Pele deLappe, interview by author, October 2008.
211 “What does one do with cadres?” JM, Lifeitselfmanship, reprinted in JM, AFOC, 326.
211 “welcomed as something”: Pele deLappe, interview by author, October 2006.
211 “a trifle apprehensive about its reception”: JM, AFOC, 269.
211 “Hoping to disarm . . . Anti-leadership . . . anti-theoretical”: JM, Lifeitselfmanship, reprinted in JM, AFOC, 333.
211 “The extraorder thing about”: JM to Muv, October 1956, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 163.
212 “I’ve been screaming over your pamphlet”: JM, AFOC, 270.
212 “originated by workers and”: JM to Aranka Treuhaft, 14 October 1956, OSU.
212 “One thing was dismally clear”: JM, AFOC, 272.
213 “something of the character of an ideological” JM, AFOC, 276.
214 “thrilled to the praise of comrades”: JM, AFOC, 277.
214 “good riddance”: Sayre, Previous Convictions, 373.
214 “stagnant, ineffective”: JM, AFOC, 279.
215 “Despite all evident drawbacks”: JM, AFOC, 117.
215 “wonderful moment”: Fursland, Jessica Mitford, 168.
CHAPTER 21
217 “If I were you I wouldn’t wear any jewelry,” “That won’t be difficult”: JM to Aranka Treuhaft, fall 1957, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 171.
218 “inordinately proud of it”: JM, PP, 40.
218 “thinks of literally nothing now”: NM to JM, 8 August 1950, in TM-LBSS, ed. Mosley, 270.
218 “I had known him so vigorous and violent”: NM, Don’t Tell Alfred, 14.
219 “I will gladly share my Fortune” JM to Muv, 19 March 1958, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 174.
219 “gay blade or roué”: JM to Aranka Treuhaft, 8 August, 1958, OSU.
219 “except Jessica”: JM, AFOC, 146.
219 “She hadn’t been expecting anything”: Fursland, Jessica Mitford, 170.
219 “It seems a hundred years ago”: This quote from Decca from a San Francisco Examiner article was one of many clippings that the FBI kept in its files on Decca. The FBI introduced this clipping with this report: “The ‘San Francisco Chronicle,’ San Francisco daily newspaper, and the ‘Oakland Tribune,’ Oakland daily newspaper, issues of July 10 and 9, 1958, respectively, carried an article which stated that JESSICA-FREEMAN-MITFORD TRUEHAFT, wife of Oakland attorney ROBERT TREUHAFT, had been disinherited by her father, Lord REDESDALE, and would not share in his estate. (U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Jessica Mitford File, FBI archives.)
220 “had never recovered”: Lovell, The Sisters, 456.
220 “I knew I was cut out” Fursland, Jessica Mitford, 170.
220 “Bob came in in his undershorts”: JM to Dinky, 21 November 1958, OSU.
221 “Off to meet with your fellow necrophilists?” Lovell, The Sisters, 478.
221 “a very lively group”: JM to Muv, 24 October, 1958, OSU.
222 “In keeping with our high standard”: JM, PP, 45.
222 “It should be borne in mind”: JM, PP, 47.
222 “Have declared war on ‘materialistic display’”: JM, PP, 44.
222 “at the crack of Bob”: JM to Dinky, 17 September 1958, OSU.
223 “I hope to be completely re-molded”: JM to Dinky, 3 March 1959, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 187.
223 “How much more interesting could I”: Ibid., 188.
223 “lift up”: Mark Lapin, interview by author, March 2008.
225 “to gently fire Fles”: JM to RT, 26 April, 1955, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 202.
225 “The book is sort of memoirs of my life”: JM to Muv, 4 May 1959, OSU.
225 “that editors are a completely new”: JM to RT, 11 August 1959 OSU.
225 “They just don’t work that way in England”: JM to RT and Dinky, 4 May 1959, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 208.
225 “there should be no bitterness in it”: Muv, quoted by JM to Barbara Kahn, 11 May 1959, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 208.
226 “Oh Hen, I do hope”: Debo, quoted in JM to Pele deLappe, 5 June 1959, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 217.
226 “Here is some exciting news”: JM to Dinky, May 1959, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 210-211.
227 “to be prepared to deal”: JM to Muv, 4 June 1958, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 175.
227 “Atom base I suppose—”: NM to Muv, 30, May 1959, Decca, ed. Sussman, 216.
227 “Can you believe it? . . . cigarettes along with us”: JM to Aranka, 1 June 1959 OSU.
228 “James MacGibbon was absolutely amazed”: JM to Pele deLappe, 5 June 1959, OSU.
228 “cashing in on her stuff”: JM to Pele deLappe, 5 June 1959, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 217.
228
“the knotty last chapter”: Ibid.
228 “Set the record straight”: Fursland, Jessica Mitford, 167.
229 “assiduously avoiding following Nancy’s advice”: JM to Marge Frantz, 26 June 1959, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 220.
229 “all mad about Benj”: JM to Aranka Treuhaft, 10 July 1959, OSU.
230 “gloomy about it”: JM to RT and Dinky, 9 July 1959, OSU.
230 “Life here is even-keelish”: JM to Barbara and Ephraim Kahn, 3 July 1959, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 221.
230 “I get up pretty early (7:30)”: 3 July 1959, OSU.
230 “THE BOOK IS FINISHED”: JM to RT and Dinky, 10 July 1959, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 222.
CHAPTER 22
231 “Don’t you think that is one hell of a nerve”: JM to Dinky, 17 September 1959, OSU.
231 “hard work . . . in contrast for”: JM to Dinky, 15 February 1960, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 232.
231 “Darling Dinkydonk, One is only really inwardly comfortable”: JM to Dinky, 29 January 1960, in Decca, ed. Sussman 231.
232 “treading water—waiting for something”: Dinky, interview by author, January 2007.
232 “in the good company”: Daniels, “The Mad Mitfords and their Incredible Children,” Peoples Daily World, January 11, 1960.
232 “I think it’s awfully good”: NM to JM, 11 March 1960, in TM-LBSS, ed. Mosley, 328.
233 “re written it or helped”: NM to Heywood Hill, 9 March 1960, in Love from Nancy, ed. Mosley, 378.
233 “Clever of you to see the two voices”: NM to Evelyn Waugh, 24 May 1960, in Love from Nancy, ed. Mosley, 382.
233 “theme song”: Debo to NM, 28 March 1960, in TM-LBSS, ed. Mosley, 331.
233 “shameless but most diverting book”: Earl of Birkenhead, review of Hons and Rebels, 25 March 1960, London Daily Telegraph, cited in TM-LBSS, ed. Mosley, 330n.
233 “much the best”: JM to Muv, 2 April 1960, OSU.
234 “I soon discovered that as a published author”: JM, AFOC, 295.
234 “all high-powered on the surface” JM to Pele deLappe, 13 June 1960, OSU.
235 “But my dear” JM to Dinky, 17 September 1960, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 238.
235 “wiggly nihilism”: Lawrence Ferlinghetti, quoted in Adams, San Francisco, 137.
235 “beatnik raids”: Tyler, “Why It Happened in San Francisco,” Frontier, June 1960, 6.
235 “beards, sandals”: Ibid.
236 “a meaningful alternative to the status quo”: JM, “The Indignant Generation,” part 1 of Rebels with a Cause Series, The Nation 192, 27 May 1961, 452 (italics in original).
237 “by no means uniform hostility”: Ibid., 453.
238 “Let us in! Open the doors! Open the doors!” Marge Frantz, interview by author. July 2007.
238 “Let them in to see this travesty! What are you afraid of?” Archie Brown, quoted in Elmont Waite, “12 Thrown Out,” San Francisco Chronicle, 13 June 1960.
238 “You gave all those people cards—why didn’t you give me some for my friends?” Archie Brown, quoted in Tyler, “Why It Happened in San Francisco,” 7.
239 “Jump!” Ibid., 5.
240 “Stop the Committee” . . . “so sue me!” Ibid., 5-7.
240 “The son of Aubrey can”: Kathy Kahn, e-mail to author, 19 November 2008.
241 “What was new—wildly, unforeseeably”: Tyler, “Why It Happened in San Francisco,” 5.
CHAPTER 23
243 “how the southern psyche”: Notes for “You-All and Non-You-All: A Southern Potpourri,” 1961, OSU.
243 “Stress the accent”: Durr to JM, May 1960, in Durr and Sullivan, Freedom Writer, 206.
243 “funny, the moral to emerge by inference”: JM to Dinky, 21 April 1960, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 236.
244 “The conversation turned, as they say”: JM to RT, 13 May 1961, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 248-249.
245 “Go get the niggers!” Barnard, ed., Outside the Magic Circle, 297.
245 “One of the last riders”: The description of Lucretia Collins is from Forman, The Making of Black Revolutionaries, 154.
246 “a hundred white men and women surged”: McWhorter, Carry Me Home, 228. In Diane McWhorter’s excellent book Carry Me Home, she describes the circumstances surrounding the officer’s deliberate delay.
246 “cool as a cucumber”: Zellner, with Curry, The Wrong Side of Murder Creek, 93.
247 “This is absurd—to be so scared”: Barnard, ed., Outside the Magic Circle, 300.
247 “Southern costume—a lovely sort of fluffy green hat”: Ibid.
249 “While the mob had been cleared”: JM, quoting general of Alabama National Guard, in JM, “The Longest Meeting,” 1961, OSU.
250 “All the funny ways she can write were muted”: Barnard, Outside the Magic Circle, 301.
250 “Author JESSICA MITFORD TREUHAFT”: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Jessica Mitford File, FBI archives.
CHAPTER 24
251 “those who feel that burials”: Roul Tunley, “Can You Afford to Die?” Saturday Evening Post, 17 June 1961, 24.
251 “the sharpest thorn in the morticians’ sides”: Ibid., 25.
251 “tireless recruiter”: Ibid., 80.
251 “over the teacups”: Ibid.
251 “widow’s weeds”: Ibid.
251 “more mail than they had ever received”: RT and Larsen, Robert E. Treuhaft, 59.
252 “were forbidden to watch funerals”: Devonshire, Counting My Chickens, 168.
252 “Children’s Funerals”: JM to Debo, 11 July 1962, OSU.
252 “New Bra-Form”: JM to Kathleen Kahn, 2 February 1962, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 274.
252 “They only cost $11”: Ibid.
252 “Thus making it worth one’s while”: JM to Muv, 20 February 1959, OSU.
253 “Funerals are becoming more and more”: Sussman, Decca, 266.
253 “‘It’s a racket,’ she exclaimed”: JM, quoted in Tunley, “Can You Afford to Die?”
253 “to go for the jugular and expose”: JM, AFOC, 302.
253 “I’m not concerned with what they do”: Tunley, “Can You Afford to Die?” 82.
253 “69-year old woman, was 40 hours”: JM to Kathleen Kahn, 2 February 1962, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 274.
254 “Bad and ghoulish . . . foolishness”: JM to Dinky, 3 March 1960, OSU.
254 “I’m more and more beginning”: JM to Candida Donadio, 2 March, 1962 in Decca, ed. Sussman, 276.
255 “like all the members”: JM, AFOC, 301.
255 “police dogs to sic on any freedom riders”: Branch, Parting the Waters, 571.
256 “She has all her”: Robert Gottlieb, interview, Portrait of a Muckraker: The Stories of Jessica Mitford, produced by Stephen Evans, Ida Landauer, and James Morgan, KQED, 1990 (DVD and VHS).
257 “were now or once had been”: Ibid.
257 “Essentially she did it”: Ibid.
257 “make the comparison”: Dinky, interview by author. January, 2007.
257 “besotted by money.” Marge Frantz, interview by author, November, 2005.
258 “no real booze”: JM to Barbara Kahn, 13 July 1939, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 290.
258 “I don’t think so . . . good stiff drink in the p.m.”: Ibid.
258 “Had tea with Hitler”: JM, quoting Muv, to Barbara Kahn, 13 July 1939, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 289.
258 “Delicious cakes. Bobo [Unity] gets quite different when she’s with him”: JM, quoting Debo, to Barbara Kahn, 13 July 1939, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 289.
258 “Tea with the Führer. Muv kept talking about home-made”: JM, quoting UM, to Barbara Kahn, 13 July 1939, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 289.
258 “freedom from fear of being boring”: JM to Barbara Kahn et al., 15 July 1939, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 290.
258 “In fact, should I ever be faced with this exact problem”: Ibid.
259 “Who is Constancia Romilly?” Dinky, interview by author, March, 2008.
260 “chucking her job and go
ing to work”: JM to Virginia Durr, 18 June 1963, OSU.
260 “feared the Klan would come around. He had nightmares about that”: Dinky, interview by author. January, 2007.
CHAPTER 25
261 “How to get the book attacked as subversive”: JM to RT, 26 April 1963, OSU.
261 “All these special letters and special approaches did so remind me of CRC”: JM to RT, 26 April 1963, OSU.
262 “marvelous editor”: Benedict, Portraits in Print, 110.
262 “Decca doesn’t like research”: Ibid., 107.
263 “to bury capitalist America’s funeral customs”: Decca, ed. Sussman, 267.
263 “the devil”: Steve Coates, interview by author, February 2009.
264 “While hiding behind the commercial aspects of”: James B. Utt, speech, 15 October 1963, Congressional Record, 15 October 1963, quoted in Decca, ed. Sussman, 267.
264 “Red herring”: “Author Mitford Tagged Foe of Religion by Utt,” Washington Post, 19 October 1963.
264 “lapsed into a steadfast condition of noncooperation”: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Jessica Mitford File, FBI archives.
264 “I think that only those who have been”: JM, PP, 104.
264 “make thousands of jokes in succession”: JM to Barbara Kahn, 13 November 1963, OSU.
264 “long-term viewing”: Leroy F. Aarons, “It’s Mitford vs. Undertakers,” Washington Post, 6 November 1963.
264 “We shall bury you” . . . “muscling in on their territory”: JM, AFOC, 311.
265 “I could put you away for $150” . . . “Sorry you’re too late”: JM, AFOC, 316.
265 “Unfortunately for the undertakers”: JM, AFOC, 316.
265 “Benj is angling for a $2 weekly”: JM to Aranka Treuhaft, 17 September 1963, in Decca, ed. Sussman, 306.
265 “I’ve already done a couple of daring things”: Ibid.
265 “total fleabags”…“It was thrilling”: Fursland, Jessica Mitford, 176.
265 “plainly stated attitude to death”: JM to Debo, 7 October 1963, in Decca, ed. Sussman, xiii.
265 “Tell him of course I’m against it”: Ibid.
266 “materialist denial of death”: Guinness with Guinness, The House of Mitford, 569.