Mary Bettina Linn (1905 – April 7, 1962) was an American writer and college professor. She wrote three published novels, and was on the faculty at

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh language, Welsh: ) is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as a ...

. She worked with the

Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the first intelligence agency of the United States, formed during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines ...

(OSS) during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Early life

Linn was from Overbrook, Pennsylvania, the daughter of William Bomberger Linn and Josephine Stewart Wood Linn. Her father was a judge on Pennsylvania's State Supreme Court. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1926, and earned a master's degree there in 1929.

Career

Linn was a professor at Bryn Mawr College beginning in 1934, and held the Margaret Kingsland Haskell Chair as a professor of English from 1957 until her death in 1962. In the 1950s, she was active with the Three-College Russia Committee, and invited speakers to campus, including British theorist

Isaiah Berlin Sir Isaiah Berlin (6 June 1909 – 5 November 1997) was a Russian-British social and political theorist, philosopher, and historian of ideas. Although he became increasingly averse to writing for publication, his improvised lectures and talks ...

and Southern writer Eudora Welty. One of her students was Joanna Semel Rose. During World War II, Linn worked with the Office of Strategic Services in Washington, as a researcher and analyst in the Russia division.

Publications

Linn published two short stories with patriotic themes in '' St. Nicholas Magazine'' when she was a teenager.McKenzie, Andrea. "A 'Revolutionary' War?: Girls Writing Girls in America’s St. Nicholas Magazine" in Lissa Paul, Rosemary R. Johnston, Emma Short, eds., ''Children's Literature and Culture of the First World War'' (Routledge 2015). She also wrote articles and at least one book review for the '' Yale Review''. She published two novels in her lifetime. The second, ''A Letter to Elizabeth'' (1957), won the Philadelphia Athenaeum Fiction Award in 1958. A British reviewer said, "Miss Linn has created two beautifully three-dimensional characters who nearly steal the limelight." A third novel by Linn was published posthumously in 1965. * "For Freedom's Sake" (1918, short story) * "The Price of Liberty" (1918, short story) * ''Flea Circus'' (1936, novel) * "The Fortunate Generation" (1942, article) * "The Fiction of the Future" (1945, article) * ''A Letter to Elizabeth'' (1957, novel) * ''After the Wedding Anniversary'' (1965, novel)

Personal life

Linn died in 1962, at the age of 56, in Bryn Mawr.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Linn, Bettina 1905 births 1962 deaths Bryn Mawr College alumni Bryn Mawr College faculty 20th-century American women writers People of the Office of Strategic Services Writers from Philadelphia