Naomi Mitchison

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Standard Name: Mitchison, Naomi
Birth Name: Naomi Mary Margaret Haldane
Nickname: Nou
Nickname: Me
Married Name: Naomi Mary Margaret Mitchison
Titled: Lady Naomi Mary Margaret Mitchison
During her life of over a century (she narrowly missed living from the nineteenth into the twenty-first) NM averaged almost a book a year. She published novels, short stories, diaries, poetry, travel books, essays, and writing for children, all of them informed with the same vivid interest in the world around her and burning desire for its social betterment.
Black-and-white portrait of Naomi Mitchison. Her hair is pinned at the sides of her head in two buns and she is wearing a fuzzy sweater with two pom poms at the collar.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Anthologization Liz Lochhead
As well as reading her poetry at festivals and other venues, LL has selected and edited for Mslexia magazine in early 2004 a number of stories and poems on the theme of ice.
Lochhead, Liz. “Ice”. Mslexia, Vol.
20
, Jan. 2004, pp. 26-7.
26ff
Her...
Education William Empson
Sent to preparatory school at the age of seven, WE obtained the rest of his education on scholarships, first at Winchester School , where his schoolmates included future academics William Hayter and John Sparrow and...
Education Antonia Fraser
AF (like the future Naomi Mitchison before her) attended the Dragon School in Oxford (a boys' preparatory school, taking children from about eight to thirteen). In her day it had twenty girls out of a...
Family and Intimate relationships W. H. Auden
Nicholas Jenkins of Stanford University formerly maintained on his website at http://www.stanford.edu/~njenkins/ a section called W. H. Auden. Family Ghosts, designed to show how Auden's family, despite his claims to ordinariness, sprang from a...
Fictionalization Sappho
In the twentieth century Sappho continued full of potential for poets and prose-writers. Naomi Mitchison fictionalises her supposed school; Eavan Boland takes her as guide on an underworld journey (as Dante took Virgil); Jeanette Winterson
Friends, Associates Elizabeth Jenkins
EJ was mildly satirical about the left-wing and anti-monarchical tendencies of Naomi Mitchison (a well-known author of the times)
qtd. in
Jenkins, Elizabeth. The View from Downshire Hill. Michael Johnson, 2004.
105
and the allegedly somewhat self-important Vera Brittain (who, felt Jenkins, had let the...
Friends, Associates Phyllis Bentley
At a dinner party at Vera Brittain 's Chelsea house, PB met Naomi Mitchison , Cecil Roberts , and Ellen Wilkinson .
Brittain, Vera. Chronicle of Friendship. Editor Bishop, Alan, Gollancz, 1986.
39-40
Friends, Associates Ann Bridge
AB 's correspondents included Ka Arnold-Foster , John Betjeman , E. M. Forster , Margaret Haig Rhondda , Margaret Irwin , John Masefield , Naomi Mitchison , I. A. Richards , Vita Sackville-West , and...
Friends, Associates Doris Lessing
At this time Lessing's friends included a number of writers: Ruth Fainlight and Alan Sillitoe , Arnold Wesker and his wife Dusty, Naomi Mitchison , Ted Hughes , and R. D. Laing .
Diski, Jenny. “Doris and Me”. London Review of Books, Vol.
37
, No. 1, 8 Jan. 2015, pp. 21-3.
21
Friends, Associates Doris Lessing
Her old friends included Naomi Mitchison (who shared her love of Africa), the composer Philip Glass , and her biographer and executor Michael Holroyd .
Murphy, Kim. “Lessing will have the last word”. Edmonton Journal, 2 Dec. 2007, p. D3.
D3
Kennedy, Maev. “Doris Lessing dies aged 94”. theguardian.com, 17 Nov. 2013.
Sage, Lorna. “Doris Lessing obituary”. theguardian.com, 17 Nov. 2013.
Friends, Associates Amabel Williams-Ellis
Shortly before coming out into society, Amabel and her family were invited to visit the Haldane family in Scotland. Here, she began a friendship with future scientist J. B. S. Haldane to the envy...
Friends, Associates Ethel Mannin
EM entertained frequently at Oak Cottage, the house she bought after separating from her first husband. Visitors included Paul Tanqueray , Louis Marlow , Ralph Straus , Norman Haire , Fenner Brockway , and...
Friends, Associates Stella Benson
SB met many writers during this stay in England. Her old friend Margery Spring Rice brought her together with Naomi Mitchison , who had recently approached her by letter.
Mitchison, Naomi. You May Well Ask: A Memoir 1920-1940. Gollancz, 1979.
127-9
Friends, Associates Helen Waddell
Friends from HW 's time at Somerville included Maude Clarke , whom she had known as a child and whose Oxford position had been one of the incentives to go there, and archaelogist Helen Lorimer
Friends, Associates Bessie Head
In Francistown she again was able to draw on the generosity of friends who perceived her literary potential: Nini Ettlinger , who gave her, under the appearance of a loan, the money to buy a...

Timeline

1 September 1810-24 August 1811: James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, anonymously...

Writing climate item

1 September 1810-24 August 1811

James Hogg , the Ettrick Shepherd, anonymously published his Edinburgh journal, the Spy.
Crawford, Robert. “Bad Shepherd”. London Review of Books, 5 Apr. 2001, pp. 29-30.
29-30

14 May 1920: Time and Tide began publication, offering...

Building item

14 May 1920

Time and Tide began publication, offering a feminist approach to literature, politics, and the arts: Naomi Mitchison called it the first avowedly feminist literary journal with any class, in some ways ahead of its time...

14 May 1920: Time and Tide began publication, offering...

Building item

14 May 1920

Time and Tide began publication, offering a feminist approach to literature, politics, and the arts: Naomi Mitchison called it the first avowedly feminist literary journal with any class, in some ways ahead of its time...

1928: Members of the British Federation of University...

Building item

1928

Members of the British Federation of University Women (later known as the British Federation of Women Graduates ) established the Sybil Campbell Libraryfor the study of the expansion of the role of women in...

By early October 1930: London publisher Gerald Howe issued a composite...

Building item

By early October 1930

London publisher Gerald Howe issued a composite biography entitled Six Women of the World, which had previously made up six volumes in a Representative Women series, 1927-9.
Library of Congress Online Catalog. http://catalog.loc.gov/.
TLS Centenary Archive Centenary Archive [1902-2012]. http://www.gale.com/c/the-times-literary-supplement-historical-archive.
1497 (9 October 1930): 802

18 July 1936: The Spanish Civil War began between the Republicans...

National or international item

18 July 1936

The Spanish Civil War began between the Republicans (including Communists) and the Fascists led by Francisco Franco .
Bruno, Leonard. On the Move: A Chronology of Advances in Transportation. Gale Research, 1993.
228

12 September 1936: Charlotte Haldane edited the first issue...

Building item

12 September 1936

Charlotte Haldane edited the first issue of Woman Today for the Women's Committee for Peace and Democracy .
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
53
Harrison, Royden et al. The Warwick Guide to British Labour Periodicals, 1790-1970: A Check List. Harvester Press, 1977.
602

By May 1937: Mass-Observation, a social research organisation...

Building item

By May 1937

Mass-Observation , a social research organisation devoted to observing the habits, behaviour, and opinions of ordinary people, was launched: Surrealist in inspiration, it became documentary and socially inclusive in aim.
“Mass Observation Archive”. University of Sussex Library.
McAleer, Joseph. Popular Reading and Publishing in Britain 1914-1950. Clarendon Press, 1992.
6n7
Laity, Paul. “Damsons and Custard”. London Review of Books, 3 Mar. 2005, pp. 18-20.
18

3 September 1939: Britain and France officially declared war...

National or international item

3 September 1939

Britain and France officially declared war on Germany.
BBC Handbook: 1960. BBC, 1960, http://U of A HSS HE 8690 B86.
238
Briggs, Asa. The BBC: The First Fifty Years. Oxford University Press, 1985.
374
Mitchison, Naomi. Among You Taking Notes . . . The Wartime Diary of Naomi Mitchison 1939-1945. Editor Sheridan, Dorothy, Oxford University Press, 1986.
35-7
Keegan, John. The Second World War. Viking, 1990.
44-7, 54
Messenger, Charles. World War Two Chronological Atlas: When, Where, How and Why. Bloomsbury, 1989.
22-3
Beauman, Nicola. Cynthia Asquith. Hamish Hamilton, 1987.
311

6 March 1957: The Gold Coast became the first British colony...

National or international item

6 March 1957

The Gold Coast became the first British colony to achieve independent statehood, under the name of Ghana.
Steinberg, Sigfrid Henry. Historical Tables: 58 BC-AD 1985. 11th ed., Garland Publishing, 1986.
256, 258
Williams, Neville. Chronology of the Modern World: 1763 to the Present Time. David McKay, 1967.
654
Langer, William L., editor. An Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, Chronologically Arranged. 4th ed., Houghton Mifflin, 1968.
1235-6

By May 1968: James D. Watson published The Double Helix,...

Building item

By May 1968

James D. Watson published The Double Helix, an account of the discovery of the structure of DNA, the basis of human genetic material; he dedicated it to Naomi Mitchison .
Smith, John Maynard. Did Darwin Get It Right? Essays on Games, Sex and Evolution. Penguin, 1993.
4-5, 258

Texts

Mitchison, Naomi. A Life for Africa: The Story of Bram Fischer. Merlin Press, 1973.
Mitchison, Naomi, and William Stubbs. African Heroes. Bodley Head, 1968.
Mitchison, Naomi. All Change Here: Girlhood and Marriage. Bodley Head, 1975.
Mitchison, Naomi. Among You Taking Notes . . . The Wartime Diary of Naomi Mitchison 1939-1945. Editor Sheridan, Dorothy, Gollancz, 1985.
Mitchison, Naomi. Among You Taking Notes . . . The Wartime Diary of Naomi Mitchison 1939-1945. Editor Sheridan, Dorothy, Oxford University Press, 1986.
Mitchison, Naomi, editor. An Outline for Boys and Girls and their Parents. Victor Gollancz, 1932.
Mitchison, Naomi. As It Was: Small Talk . . . / All Change Here. Richard Drew, 1988.
Mitchison, Naomi. Barbarian Stories. Jonathan Cape, 1929.
Lewis, Wyndham, and Naomi Mitchison. Beyond This Limit. Jonathan Cape, 1935.
Mitchison, Naomi. Black Sparta: Greek Stories. Jonathan Cape, 1928.
Mitchison, Naomi. Black Sparta: Greek Stories. The Travellers’ Library, Jonathan Cape, 1931.
Mitchison, Naomi. Cleopatra’s People. Heinemann, 1972.
Mitchison, Naomi. Cloud Cuckoo Land. Jonathan Cape, 1925.
Mitchison, Naomi. Cloud Cuckoo Land. Hodder and Stoughton, 1967.
Mitchison, Naomi. Early in Orcadia. Richard Drew, 1987.
Mitchison, Naomi. Five Men and a Swan. Allen and Unwin, 1957.
Mitchison, Naomi. Images of Africa. Canongate, 1980.
Sutcliff, Rosemary, and Naomi Mitchison. “Introduction”. Cloud Cuckoo Land, The Hodder and Stoughton Library of Great Historical Novels, Hodder and Stoughton, 1967.
Sheridan, Dorothy, and Naomi Mitchison. “Introduction”. Among You Taking Notes . . . The Wartime Diary of Naomi Mitchison 1939-1945, Oxford University Press, 1986, pp. 15-24.
Mitchison, Naomi. Lobsters on the Agenda. Gollancz, 1952.
Mitchison, Naomi. Memoirs of a Spacewoman. Victor Gollancz, 1962.
Mitchison, Naomi. Mucking Around: Five Continents Over Fifty Years. Gollancz, 1981.
Mitchison, Naomi. Naomi Mitchison’s Vienna Diary. Victor Gollancz, 1934.
Squier, Susan M., and Naomi Mitchison. “Naomi Mitchison: The Feminist Art of Making Things Difficult”. Solution Three, Feminist Press at The City University of New York, 1995, pp. 161-83.
Mitchison, Naomi. Not By Bread Alone. M. Boyars, 1983.