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British Writers, American Readers: Women’s Voices in Wartime

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2017

Fred M. Leventhal
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Extract

For several years I have been exploring the projection of Britain in America during the late 1930s and the early 1940s. My focus has been on aspects of cultural propaganda initiated for the most part unofficially, although often with government complicity. Simply put, I have been concerned to discover what ordinary Americans were seeing and hearing and reading about England in the crucial years before the onset of the Second World War and, even more significantly, in the period from the summer of 1939 to American entry in December 1941.

Type
1999 Presidential Address of the North American Conference on British Studies
Information
Albion , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , Spring 2000 , pp. 1 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference on British Studies 2000

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Footnotes

1

This article is a slightly revised version of the presidential address delivered at the meeting of the North American Conference on British Studies in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on November 19, 1999. The author would like to express his thanks to Linda Levy Peck, Chris Waters, and Jean Leventhal for their encouragement and support.

References

2 See Leventhal, Fred M., “Public Face and Public Space: The Projection of Britain in America Before the Second World War,” in Leventhal, Fred M. and Quinault, Roland, eds., Anglo-American Attitudes: From Revolution to Partnership (Aldershot, 2000)Google Scholar; Leventhal, Fred M., “Essential Democracy: The 1939 Royal Visit to the United States,” in Behlmer, George K. and Leventhal, Fred M., eds., Singular Continuities: Tradition, Nostalgia, and Identity in Modern British Culture (Stanford, 2000)Google Scholar.

3 Cantril, Hadley and Strunk, Mildred, eds. Public Opinion 1935-1946 (Princeton, 1951), p. 202.Google Scholar

4 Lord Lothian to Lord Halifax, 22 Sept. 1939, PRO, FO 115/3418/299/89/39.

5 Short, K. R. M., ‘“The White Cliffs of Dover’: Promoting the Anglo-American Alliance in World War II,” Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 2, I (1982): 6; Angus Calder, The Myth of the Blitz (London, 1991), p. 210.Google Scholar

6 Grove, Valerie, Introduction to Jan Struther, Mrs Miniver, Virago edition (London, 1989), p. xiGoogle Scholar. K. R. M. Short recounts an alternative version of Churchill’s reaction. After the Prime Minister saw the film at the White House in 1942, he was reported to have said, “This picture is worth 4 divisions for what it did to influence American opinion.” Short, “The White Cliffs of Dover,’” p. 24.

7 Allingham, Margery, The Oaken Heart (London, 1941)Google Scholar. Jenny Hartley, who has written on women’s wartime writing, notes that although written for her American publisher, the book was more popular in Britain. Hartley, Jenny, ed., Hearts Undefeated: Women’s Writing of the Second World War (London, 1994), p. 281.Google Scholar

8 Kennedy, Margaret, Where Stands a Winged Sentry (New Haven, 1941)Google Scholar.

9 Bottome, Phyllis, Mansion House of Liberty (Boston, 1941), p. 114Google Scholar. The book was published in Britain under the title Formidable to Tyrants.

10 Jesse, F. Tennyson and Harwood, H. M., London Front: Letters Written to America 1939-1940 (New York, 1941)Google Scholar; Jesse, F. Tennyson and Harwood, H. M., While London Burns: Letters Written to America (July 1940-June 1941) (London, 1942)Google Scholar.

11 Brittain, Vera, England’s Hour (London, 1941), p. ix–xGoogle Scholar. According to Brittain’s biographers, the book was widely and favorably reviewed in the United States and earned a position on the New York Herald Tribune’s non-fiction bestseller list. See Berry, Paul and Bostridge, Mark, Vera Brittain: A Life (London, 1995), p. 410.Google Scholar

12 The New Yorker, 2 Aug. 1999.

13 An interesting comparison might be made between Allingham’s The Oaken Heart and H. G. Wells’ celebrated First World War novel, Mr Britling Sees It Through (1916), which also employs an Essex village as a microcosm of England.

14 Light, Alison, Forever England: Femininity, Literature and Conservatism Between the Wars (London, 1991), p. 149.Google Scholar

15 Mrs Miniver, p. 62.

16 Ibid., pp. 64-65.

17 Ibid., pp. 122-23.

18 Ibid., p. 50.

19 See John, Angela V., Elizabeth Robins: Staging a Life, 1862-1952 (London, 1995), esp. pp. 233–35.Google Scholar

20 Despite an extant script, it is not clear whether this talk was ever actually broadcast by the BBC, although Robins appears to have spoken on American radio. Elizabeth Robins Papers, Series 7, Box 82, Folder 79, Fales Library, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, New York University. I am grateful to Professor Angela John for making available a copy of the script.

21 Miller, Alice Duer, The White Cliffs (New York, 1940), p. 3.Google Scholar

22 Ibid., p. 28.

23 Ibid., pp. 65-70.

24 In the preface to the English edition Sir Walter Layton conceded that Miller did “not attempt to gloss over our social inequalities, our insularity, our conceit, our ‘stodginess,’” but added that it would help the English “see ourselves as a friendly American sees us.” Miller, The White Cliffs.

25 Priestley, J. B., “Britain Speaks, 9 March 1941,” quoted in Childs, Harwood L. and Whitton, John B., Propaganda by Short Wave (Princeton, 1942), p. 117.Google Scholar

26 The transplanted British child actor Roddy McDowall had already endeared himself to American audiences with his performances in How Green Was My Valley (1941), My Friend Flicka (1943), and Lassie Come Home (1943). The slightly older Peter Lawford’s first American success was Mrs Miniver. Young film stars, like McDowall and Elizabeth Taylor, were arguably more effective as cultural ambassadors than established actors, like Ronald Colman and Leslie Howard.

27 Miller objected to the appropriation of her title without permission, but decided against taking legal action. See Short, ‘“The White Cliffs of Dover,’” pp. 10-11.

28 Women of Britain: Letters from England (New York, 1941); Forbes-Robertson, Diana and Straus, Roger W. Jr., War Letters from Britain (New York, 1941)Google Scholar.

29 Gill, Brendan, Here at the New Yorker (New York, 1975), p. 339.Google Scholar

30 3 Sept. 1939, The New Yorker, 9 Sept. 1939. Panter-Downes, Mollie, Letter from England (Boston, 1940)Google Scholar contained the bulk of her articles from The New Yorker between September 1939 and September 1940. A later selection, excluding some of these segments, appeared as London War Notes 1939-1945, ed. William Shawn (New York, 1971).

31 10 Sept. 1939, The New Yorker, 16 Sept. 1939.

32 17 Sept. 1939, The New Yorker, 23 Sept. 1939.

33 8 Dec. 1939, The New Yorker, 16 Dec. 1939; 4 Jan. 1940, The New Yorker, 13 Jan. 1940.

34 12 Jan. 1940, The New Yorker, 20 Jan 1940.

35 12 May 1940, The New Yorker, 18 May 1940.

36 19 May 1940, The New Yorker, 25 May 1940.

37 24 May 1940, The New Yorker, 1 June 1940.

38 22 June 1940, The New Yorker, 29 June 1940.

39 28 July 1940, The New Yorker, 3 Aug. 1940.

40 14 Sept. 1940, The New Yorker, 21 Sept. 1940. This letter is the concluding piece in Letter from England.

41 20 Apr. 1941, The New Yorker, 26 Apr. 1941.

42 29 Sept. 1940, The New Yorker, 5 Oct. 1940.

43 27 Oct. 1940, The New Yorker, 2 Nov. 1940.

44 London Front, p. 285.

45 Where Stands a Winged Sentry, p. 6.

46 England’s Hour, p. 162.

47 Mansion House of Liberty, p. 4; London Front, p. 308.

48 The Oaken Heart, pp. 19, 156-57, 165

49 Women of Britain, p. 141.

50 Where Stands a Winged Sentry, p. 184.

51 Streatfeild, Noel, “From My Diary: The Beginning of London’s Blitz,” in Jameson, Storm, ed., London Calling (New York, 1942), p. 38.Google Scholar

52 The Oaken Heart, p. 169, 180, 198.

53 Where Stands a Winged Sentry, p. 58.

54 London Front, p. 273.

55 Where Stands a Winged Sentry, p. 181.

56 England’s Hour, pp. 65-68.

57 Women of Britain, p. 269.

58 Ibid., p. 271.

59 Ibid., p. 81.

60 The Oaken Heart, p. 163.

61 While London Burns, p. 68.

62 Mansion House of Liberty, p. 113.

63 Where Stands a Winged Sentry, p. 108.

64 Women of Britain, p. 112.

65 Ibid., p. 315.

66 England’s Hour, p. 240.

67 The Oaken Heart, pp. 164, 199.

68 See Calder, The Myth of the Blitz, esp. pp. 1-37.

69 Letter from England, pp. 60-76; Mansion House of Liberty, pp. 114-22, 145-49; England’s Hour, pp. 168-75, 233-34.

70 Women of Britain, p. 105.

71 Mansion House of Liberty, pp. 61, 137.

72 Cullis, Winifred C., What British Women Are Doing in the War, Helen Kenyon Lecture, Vassar College (1942)Google Scholar.

73 England’s Hour, p. 153.

74 The Oaken Heart, pp. 245, 264.

75 England’s Hour, pp. 264, 278-79.

76 See Walkowitz, Judith R., City of Dreadful Delight: Narratives of Sexual Danger in Late-Victorian London (Chicago, 1992), esp. pp. 15–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Nord, Deborah Epstein, Walking the Victorian Streets: Women, Representation, and the City (Ithaca, 1995)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

77 While London Burns, pp. 119-27.

78 Mansion House of Liberty, pp. 43-47.

79 Ibid., p. 21.

80 Where Stands a Winged Sentry, p. 220, 232.

81 While London Burns, p. 158.

82 London Front, pp. 25-26.

83 15 June 1940, Letter from England, p. 166.

84 Where Stands a Winged Sentry, p. 124.

85 Reynolds, David, Rich Relations: The American Occupation of Britain, 1942-1945 (London, 1995)Google Scholar.

86 See Leventhal, F. M., “Eric Knight’s War: The Campaign for Anglo-American Understanding,” in Hollowell, Jonathan, ed., Anglo-American Relations in the Twentieth Century (London, 2000)Google Scholar. Also see Culbert, David, ‘“Why We Fight:’ Social Engineering for a Democratic Society at War,” in Short, K. R. M., ed., Film and Radio Propaganda in World War II (London, 1983), pp. 173–91.Google Scholar