Mildred Adams
Encyclopedia
Mildred Adams was the name used by Mildred Adams Kenyon, an American
journalist, writer, translator, and critic of Spanish literature
.
. She soon became a feature writer and book reviewer for the New York Times and various magazines, including the London Economist. She interviewed Calvin Coolidge
, Huey Long
, and Henry Wallace
.
Often in Europe on assignment, she reported on the early days of the League of Nations
and the drafting of Spain's 1931 constitution. Her acquaintance with Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca in New York in 1929-30, intensified her interest in Spain, and she reported from that country in 1935, a year before the beginning of the Spanish Civil War
.This work led to her involvement in helping refugees from that conflict. She was on the board of American Friends of Spanish Democracy and of the Spanish Refugee Relief Campaign, and advised the New World Re-Settlement Fund for Spanish Relief. Later she also helped German intellectuals, liberals, and Jews in exile from Nazi Germany, serving as secretary for the Emergency Rescue Committee, the predecessor of the International Rescue Committee
.
With her marriage in 1935 to William Houston Kenyon Jr., a prominent patent attorney and graduate of Harvard College
and Harvard Law School
and author of The First Half-Century of the Kenyon Firm, 1879-1933, she can be said to have become a full-fledged member of the Eastern Establishment. But she continued to use the name Mildred Adams as an author. Her sister-in-law, Dorothy Kenyon, was also a prominent politically active New York attorney who in 1950 ws the first person to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee investigating charges by Sen. Joseph McCarthy
concerning membership in Communist-front organizations. Mildred Adams once contemplated writing her biography.
During World War II, she worked in the educational division of the Columbia Broadcasting System.
Mildred Adams translated six volumes of the works of Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset
. In 1966, she published The Right to Be People, on women's suffrage
. One of her favorite books - a decades-long project - was a biography of Garcia Lorca, which brought to light new information about the poet's stay in the United States.
Several months after her death, Mildred Adams's papers were deposited in the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at Radcliffe College
. Other papers are in the archives of the University of Minnesota
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
journalist, writer, translator, and critic of Spanish literature
Spanish literature
Spanish literature generally refers to literature written in the Spanish language within the territory that presently constitutes the state of Spain...
.
Biography
Mildred Adams graduated from the University of California with a degree in economics. She moved to New York City, where she wrote articles for her aunt, Gertrude Foster Brown (1868-1956), an early woman's suffrage leader who was then managing editor of Woman's JournalWoman's Journal
Woman's Journal was a women's rights periodical published from 1870-1931.Woman's Journal was founded in 1870 in Boston, Massachusetts by Lucy Stone and her husband Henry Browne Blackwell as a weekly newspaper. The new paper incorporated Mary A...
. She soon became a feature writer and book reviewer for the New York Times and various magazines, including the London Economist. She interviewed Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge
John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was the 30th President of the United States . A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state...
, Huey Long
Huey Long
Huey Pierce Long, Jr. , nicknamed The Kingfish, served as the 40th Governor of Louisiana from 1928–1932 and as a U.S. Senator from 1932 to 1935. A Democrat, he was noted for his radical populist policies. Though a backer of Franklin D...
, and Henry Wallace
Henry Wallace
Henry or Harry Wallace may refer to:*Henry A. Wallace , U.S. Vice President 1941-1945, presidential candidate for the Progressive Party 1948**Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center...
.
Often in Europe on assignment, she reported on the early days of the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
and the drafting of Spain's 1931 constitution. Her acquaintance with Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca in New York in 1929-30, intensified her interest in Spain, and she reported from that country in 1935, a year before the beginning of the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
.This work led to her involvement in helping refugees from that conflict. She was on the board of American Friends of Spanish Democracy and of the Spanish Refugee Relief Campaign, and advised the New World Re-Settlement Fund for Spanish Relief. Later she also helped German intellectuals, liberals, and Jews in exile from Nazi Germany, serving as secretary for the Emergency Rescue Committee, the predecessor of the International Rescue Committee
International Rescue Committee
The International Rescue Committee is a leading nonsectarian, nongovernmental international relief and development organization based in the United States, with operations in over 40 countries...
.
With her marriage in 1935 to William Houston Kenyon Jr., a prominent patent attorney and graduate of Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
and Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
and author of The First Half-Century of the Kenyon Firm, 1879-1933, she can be said to have become a full-fledged member of the Eastern Establishment. But she continued to use the name Mildred Adams as an author. Her sister-in-law, Dorothy Kenyon, was also a prominent politically active New York attorney who in 1950 ws the first person to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee investigating charges by Sen. Joseph McCarthy
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957...
concerning membership in Communist-front organizations. Mildred Adams once contemplated writing her biography.
During World War II, she worked in the educational division of the Columbia Broadcasting System.
Mildred Adams translated six volumes of the works of Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset
José Ortega y Gasset
José Ortega y Gasset was a Spanish liberal philosopher and essayist working during the first half of the 20th century while Spain oscillated between monarchy, republicanism and dictatorship. He was, along with Nietzsche, a proponent of the idea of perspectivism.-Biography:José Ortega y Gasset was...
. In 1966, she published The Right to Be People, on women's suffrage
Women's suffrage
Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
. One of her favorite books - a decades-long project - was a biography of Garcia Lorca, which brought to light new information about the poet's stay in the United States.
Several months after her death, Mildred Adams's papers were deposited in the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was the coordinate college for Harvard University. It was also one of the Seven Sisters colleges. Radcliffe College conferred joint Harvard-Radcliffe diplomas beginning in 1963 and a formal merger agreement with...
. Other papers are in the archives of the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
.
Books
- A Review of Arbitration, with Special Reference to the Western Hemisphere. New York: National League of Women Voters, Department of International Cooperation to Prevent War, 1927.
- Margaret Sanger: Woman of the Future Crusader. London: Birth Control International Information Centre, 1934. From an article by Mildred Adams in Delineator (September 1933).
- (editor) Memoirs of Malwida von Meysenbug: Rebel in Crinoline. Trans. Elsa von Meysenbug Lyons. New York: W.W. Norton, 1936, and London: G. Allen & Unwin, 1937.
- Getting and Spending: The ABC of Economics. New York: Macmillan, 1939.
- The American Legion Auxiliary: A History, 1934-1944. Indianapolis, IN: The Auxiliary, 1945.
- Britain's Road to Recovery. New York: Foreign Policy Association, 1949. (coauthor: Willliam W. Wade). Reprinted by Kraus Reprint Co. in 1973.
- (editor) Latin America: Evolution or Explosion? New York: Dodd, Mead, 1963. Proceedings of the Conference on Tensions in Development in the Western Hemisphere, held in Salvador, Brazil, in 1962 by the Council on World Tensions. Published in Spanish as America latina: ?evolucion o explosion? México: Libreros Mexicanos Unidos, 1964.
- The Right to Be People. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1966.
- García Lorca: Playwright and Poet. New York: G. Braziller, 1977.
Translations
- Ortega y Gasset, Jose. Invertebrate Spain. New York: W.W. Norton, 1937 (with preface by Mildred Adams).
- Arciniegas, Germán. The Knight of El Dorado: The Tale of Don Gonzago Jiménez de Quesada and His Conquest of New Granada, Now Called Colombia. New York: Viking Press, 1942. Reprinted by the Greenwood Press in 1968.
- Ortega y Gasset, Jose. Man and Crisis. New York: W.W. Norton, 1958.
- Ortega y Gasset, Jose. What Is Philosophy?. New York: W.W. Norton, 1961.
- Ortega y Gasset, Jose. Some Lessons in Metaphysics. New York: W.W. Norton, 1969.
- Ortega y Gasset, Jose. The Idea of Principle in Leibniz and the Evolution of Deductive Theory. New York: W.W. Norton, 1971.
- Ortega y Gasset, Jose. An Interpretation of Universal History. New York: W.W. Norton, 1973.