Jessica Mitford

Jessica Lucy Freeman-Mitford, known to friends and family as Decca (September 11, 1917 - July 22, 1996), self-described "muckraker" and political radical, was one of the noted Mitford sisters, daughters of the second Baron Redesdale.

Related Topics:
September 11 - 1917 - July 22 - 1996 - Mitford sisters - Second Baron Redesdale

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Though her sisters Unity and Diana were well-known British Hitler supporters, and her parents were described as being "nature's fascists," Jessica from an early age renounced her privileged background and became an adherent of communism. She emigrated to the United States of America from England after having run away with her second cousin, Esmond Romilly, a nephew of Clementine Churchill, to join the Republican forces in Spain. Her first husband was killed in World War II and she later married the American lawyer Robert Edward Treuhaft and settled in Oakland, California. Mitford and Treuhaft resigned from the Communist Party in the late 1950s, feeling that in the current political climate they could do more for social justice outside the party.

Related Topics:
Unity - Diana - Hitler - Fascists - Communism - United States of America - England - Second cousin - Esmond Romilly - Clementine Churchill - Republican forces - Spain - World War II - Robert Edward Treuhaft - Oakland, California - Communist Party

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Mitford combined a hatred of injustice with an impish wit. In the 1950s she concocted the fund-raising technique of charging guests $5.00 to come to an event, then charging them much more to leave. She channeled her wit into professional writing, beginning with an autobiography of her childhood and continuing with investigative journalism which in later years she taught on the college level. She became nationally famous for an investigative book on the funeral industry, The American Way of Death.

Related Topics:
Investigative journalism - Funeral

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Author J. K. Rowling has indicated that Jessica Mitford is a heroine of hers, and that her daughter Jessica Rowling Arantes is named after Mitford.

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