Annalee Whitmore Fadiman (May 27, 1916 – February 5, 2002)
was a scriptwriter for
MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...
, and World War II
foreign correspondent
A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locati ...
for ''
Life
Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...
'' and ''
Time
Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'' magazines.
Under the name Annalee Jacoby she was the co-author with
Theodore H. White of ''
Thunder Out of China
Thunder is the sound caused by lightning. Depending upon the distance from and nature of the lightning, it can range from a long, low rumble to a sudden, loud crack. The sudden increase in temperature and hence pressure caused by the lightning pr ...
,'' a book of reportage on
World War Two in China.
Early life
Fadiman was born in Price, Utah, the daughter of bank president Leland Whitmore and Anne Sharp Whitmore, who later became a librarian at
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...
. Fadiman graduated from
Stanford University
Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
in 1937. She was the first woman to be managing editor of the ''
Stanford Daily
''The Stanford Daily'' is the student-run, independent daily newspaper serving Stanford University. ''The Daily'' is distributed throughout campus and the surrounding community of Palo Alto, California, United States. It has published since the ...
'' student newspaper.
She moved from San Francisco, where she briefly worked at the
Agricultural Adjustment Administration
The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) was a United States federal law of the New Deal era designed to boost agricultural prices by reducing surpluses. The government bought livestock for slaughter and paid farmers subsidies not to plant on part ...
, then to Los Angeles taking a secretarial pool job at MGM. She wrote several screen treatments including ''
Andy Hardy Meets Debutante'' (1940) and a screen adaptation for ''
Tish
Tish is a feminine given name and a nickname.
People
Given name Arts and entertainment
* Tish Bellomo, former backing vocalist of rock group Blondie
* Tish Ciravolo, bass player and guitar maker
* Tish Cohen (born 1963), Canadian writer
* ...
.''
Career
MGM offered her a contract but once the war began, Fadiman found "the prospect of seven years of Hollywood fluff when the real world was falling apart unendurable," and she applied to become a war correspondent but the War Department didn't allow female correspondents.
She became a publicity manager for
United China Relief Bettis Alston Garside 葛思德 (November 22, 1894 – August 1, 1989), better known as B.A. Garside, was an educator, author, and executive administrator for several U.S. charities related to China.
Early life
B.A. Garside was born in Stringtown, ...
, an aid organization, and wrote speeches for
Madame Chiang Kai-shek
Soong Mei-ling (also spelled Soong May-ling; March 4, 1898 – October 23, 2003), also known as Madame Chiang (), was a Chinese political figure and socialite. The youngest of the Soong sisters, she married Chiang Kai-shek and played a prom ...
.
During her marriage to correspondent Melville Jacoby, Fadiman survived a month-long escape from the Philippines, and did six weeks of reporting from the front lines of
Bataan
Bataan (, , , ; ) , officially the Province of Bataan, is a province in the Central Luzon region of the Philippines. Its capital is the city of Balanga while Mariveles is the largest town in the province. Occupying the entire Bataan Peninsula ...
and
Corregidor
Corregidor (, , ) is an island located at the entrance of Manila Bay in the southwestern part of Luzon in the Philippines, and is considered part of Cavite City and thus the province of Cavite. It is located west of Manila, the nation's capi ...
.
Their writings were used nearly unedited, by
John Hersey
John Richard Hersey (June 17, 1914 – March 24, 1993) was an American writer and journalist. He is considered one of the earliest practitioners of the so-called New Journalism, in which storytelling techniques of fiction are adapted to no ...
, in his best-seller ''Men on Bataan.''
After the death of her husband, she continued to work as a journalist.
Theodore H. White persuaded ''Time Magazines
Henry Luce
Henry Robinson Luce (April 3, 1898 – February 28, 1967) was an American magazine magnate who founded ''Time'', ''Life'', '' Fortune'', and ''Sports Illustrated'' magazines. He has been called "the most influential private citizen in the Amer ...
to petition the War Department for credentials for Fadiman. She became the only female correspondent reporting from
Chongqing
ChongqingPostal Romanization, Previously romanized as Chungking ();. is a direct-administered municipality in Southwestern China. Chongqing is one of the four direct-administered municipalities under the State Council of the People's Republi ...
, China's wartime capital.
After the war, she collaborated with White on the best-selling book ''Thunder Out of China,'' about China's role in the war which contained portions of their published dispatches from ''Time''.
In the following years, she wrote, lectured, and participated in the radio quiz show ''
Information Please
''Information Please'' is an American radio quiz show, created by Dan Golenpaul, which aired on NBC from May 17, 1938, to April 22, 1951. The title was the contemporary phrase used to request from telephone operators what was then called "inf ...
.''
Personal life
She married Melville Jacoby on November 24, 1941 in Manila, Philippines. He was killed in an airfield accident in Darwin in 1942 after the couple had moved to Brisbane.
She married
Clifton Fadiman
Clifton Paul "Kip" Fadiman (May 15, 1904 – June 20, 1999) was an American intellectual, author, editor, and radio and television personality. He began his work in radio, and switched to television later in his career.
Background
Born in Brook ...
in 1950.
The couple had two children, Kim Fadiman and
Anne Fadiman
Anne Fadiman (born August 7, 1953) is an American essayist and reporter. Her interests include literary journalism, essays, memoir, and autobiography. She has received the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for ...
. Fadiman lived on
Captiva Island, Florida
Captiva is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Lee County, Florida, United States. It is located on Captiva Island. As of the 2020 census, the population was 318, down from 583 at the 2010 census. It is part of the C ...
and was a member of the
Hemlock Society
The Hemlock Society (sometimes called Hemlock Society USA) was an American right-to-die and assisted suicide advocacy organization which existed from 1980 to 2003, and took its name from the hemlock plant ''Conium maculatum'', a highly poisonous h ...
. She took her own life in 2002 after living with
breast cancer
Breast cancer is a cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a Breast lump, lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, Milk-rejection sign, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipp ...
and
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor system, motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually and non-motor issues become ...
.
References
*
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fadiman, Annalee Whitmore
1916 births
2002 deaths
American women journalists
Women in World War II
20th-century American women
20th-century American writers
Stanford University alumni
Suicides in Florida