Carla Grissmann (September 2, 1928 – February 15, 2011) was an American

humanitarian Humanitarianism is an ideology centered on the value of human life, whereby humans practice benevolent treatment and provide assistance to other humans to reduce suffering and improve the conditions of humanity for moral, altruistic, and emotiona ...

, who worked as a writer, an educational reformer in Sri Lanka, and a keeper of antiquaries in Afghanistan. She is best known for her memoir ''Dinner of Herbs''. She grew up in Geneva, Berlin and

Bronxville, New York Bronxville is a Administrative divisions of New York#Village, village in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County, New York (state), New York, United States, located approximately north of Midtown Manhattan. It is part of the Adminis ...

, then worked as an assistant editor on the magazine

Réalités ''Réalités'' (حقائق meaning ''Realities'' in English) is a weekly French-language Tunisian news magazine. History and profile An independent magazine, it is published by Maghreb Media each Thursday. It was founded in 1979 by Taïeb Zahar an ...

in Paris. Next she taught in

Tangier Tangier ( ; , , ) is a city in northwestern Morocco, on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The city is the capital city, capital of the Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region, as well as the Tangier-Assilah Prefecture of Moroc ...

, where she became friends with John Hopkins and

Paul Paul may refer to: People * Paul (given name), a given name, including a list of people * Paul (surname), a list of people * Paul the Apostle, an apostle who wrote many of the books of the New Testament * Ray Hildebrand, half of the singing duo ...

and

Jane Bowles Jane Bowles (; born Jane Sydney Auer; February 22, 1917 – May 4, 1973) was an American writer and playwright. Early life Born into a Jewish family in New York City on February 22, 1917, to Sydney Auer (father) and Claire Stajer (mother), Jan ...

; then she became a researcher in

Tunis Tunis (, ') is the capital city, capital and largest city of Tunisia. The greater metropolitan area of Tunis, often referred to as "Grand Tunis", has about 2,700,000 inhabitants. , it is the third-largest city in the Maghreb region (after Casabl ...

, and afterwards a journalist for ''

The Jerusalem Post ''The Jerusalem Post'' is an English language, English-language Israeli broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, Israel, founded in 1932 during the Mandate for Palestine, British Mandate of Mandatory Palestine, Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''Th ...

'' in Israel. She spent a year in a Turkish village, which was the material for her memoir ''Dinner of Herbs'' (2001; new edition by Eland 2016). In 1969, she moved to

Kabul Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...

, Afghanistan, and started working for the city zoo – ostensibly as an accountant, but her responsibilities included caring for Bobby the Chimp. She would live on and off in Afghanistan for the next thirty years, working for the

National Museum A national museum can be a museum maintained and funded by a national government. In many countries it denotes a museum run by the central government, while other museums are run by regional or local governments. In the United States, most nati ...

. In this capacity, she did important work archiving the museum's collection. Later, she had a crucial role in preserving various museum treasures from the ravages of the war with the Soviet Union and then the Taliban authorities, in the face of often considerable danger. In particular, the survival of remarkable Bactrian gold artefacts can be attributed to the dedication of Grissmann and her colleagues. She has been described as a "defender of the Kabul Museum", with its very survival attributed to her efforts. Grissmann also worked for the Asia Foundation, establishing English language centres in the science faculties of universities in Sri Lanka and Pakistan; she helped Afghan refugees in Pakistan and set up an unsuccessful hotel in

Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory and constitutes an eastern portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a Kashmir#Kashmir dispute, dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and India an ...

. Her articles featured in publications such as the Encyclopædia Iranica and Museum International.

External links

* Stephen Jones
blog post
about Grissman's ''Dinner of Herbs''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grissmann, Carla 1928 births 2011 deaths 20th-century American writers 21st-century American writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers