THIS IS THE DIARY JUNCTION - DATA AND LINKS FOR OVER 500 HISTORICAL AND LITERARY DIARISTS
PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT ALSO TO LOOK AT KIP FENN, A MAJOR NOVEL ABOUT THE 21st CENTURY
- freely available on this site
Mitchison, Naomi ___ 1897-1999 ___
British ___ writer
BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Naomi Haldane was born in Edinburgh,
into a wealthy family, and educated at Dragon School and St Anne's College,
Oxford. During the war, she married Dick Mitchison, and after the war, they
both became Fabian Labour campaigners. He was elected to Parliament, later
being elevated to the House of Lords. Naomi's first novel, 'The Conquered',
was published in 1923, and other novels, such as 'The Corn King' and 'The
Blood of the Martyrs', followed in the 1930s. During this time, the Mitchisons
lived in Hammersmith, London, entertaining, among others, a wide circle
of literary friends. They had five children, some of whom became distinguished
scientists, like her brother J B S Haldane. Towards the late 1930s, the
family moved to Carradale in Argyll. Between 1939 and 1945, Naomi kept a
diary at the request of the social research organisation, Mass Observation.
She travelled often and widely, both before and after the war, and, in the
1960s, was adopted as an honourary adviser by the Bakgatha tribe in Botswana.
She was also interested in gardening and archaeology, and was very much
committed to her local area. She wrote over 70 books, including biographies,
essays, fiction, poetry and some well-respected and entertaining memoirs.
Excerpts from her early diaries are contained in the biography 'The Nine
Lives of Naomi Mitchison'.
One
biography link
DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1934 1939-1945 ___ military social
travel family farming Austria
WEB TEXT LINKS
ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
Borthwick
Institute for Archives ___ relating
to Botswana
SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Naomi Mitchison's Vienna Diary
Among You Taking Notes: the Wartime Diary of Naomi Mitchison
The Nine Lives of Naomi Mitchison
May 2005
THIS IS THE DIARY JUNCTION - DATA AND LINKS FOR OVER 500 HISTORICAL AND LITERARY DIARISTS
Please
email if you have any corrections, additions or comments. |
IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS:
1) The first line of basic information
may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different
names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or
uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown,
or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British'
a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was
compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts
were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if
they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates
and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with
caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are
only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies.
4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges,
and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising.
I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some
variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited
myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their
original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the
titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries. |