Helene Scheu-Riesz (18 September 1880 – 8 January 1970) was an Austrian

women's rights activist Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ''a ...

children's writer Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

and publisher. In addition to supporting the Austrian women's movement, in November 1900 together with

Yella Hertzka Yella Hertzka (née Fuchs; 4 February 1873 – 13 November 1948) was an Austrian women's rights and peace activist, school director, and music business executive. She began working in women's humanitarian and social improvement projects in 1900. ...

and three others she founded the Viennese Women's Club (Erster Wiener Frauenklub). She later became active in the

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is a non-profit non-governmental organization working "to bring together women of different political views and philosophical and religious backgrounds determined to study and make kno ...

, representing Austria at the organization's 1919 international congress in

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

, the 1921 congress in Vienna and the 1924 congress in Washington, D.C. Scheu-Riesz took a special interest in children's literature, translating and writing books herself and founding the publishing house in 1923. After the death of her husband, the Austrian intellectual and social democrat politician , as she was of Jewish heritage, in 1937 she moved to the United States. There she created the publishing house Island Press on the remote

Ocracoke Island Ocracoke ( )
, from the North Carolina Collection website at the

. She founded Open Sesame Inc. New York in 1949 to continue her philanthropic work of distributing world literature as a means of promoting internationalism and peace. In 1954, she returned to her house in the

Hietzing Hietzing () is the 13th Districts of Vienna, district of Vienna (). It is located west of the central districts, west of Meidling. Hietzing is a heavily populated urban area with many residential buildings, but also contains large areas of the Vi ...

district of Vienna where she spent the remainder of her life.

Early life and family

Born on 18 September 1880 in

Olomouc Olomouc (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 103,000 inhabitants, making it the Statutory city (Czech Republic), sixth largest city in the country. It is the administrative centre of the Olomouc Region. Located on the Morava (rive ...

Moravia Moravia ( ; ) is a historical region in the eastern Czech Republic, roughly encompassing its territory within the Danube River's drainage basin. It is one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The medieval and early ...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

(now in the Czech Republic), Helene Riesz was the only child of Susanne (née Beer) and the Jewish wine merchant Adolf Riesz. During her infancy, the family settled in

Klosterneuburg Klosterneuburg () is a town in the Tulln District of the Austrian state of Lower Austria. Frequently abbreviated to Kloburg by locals, it has a population of about 27,500. The Stift Klosterneuburg ( Klosterneuburg Monastery), which was establish ...

, just north of Vienna. She attended the , a private high school established to allow girls to take the

matura or its translated terms (''mature'', ''matur'', , , , , ', ) is a Latin name for the secondary school exit exam or "maturity diploma" in various European countries, including Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech ...

examination which was required for university entrance. She took law courses at

Vienna University The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

but did not graduate. Around the age of eighteen, she traveled to England and studied literature. She became fascinated with penny booklets which published literature for children in an inexpensive format that was accessible to even the poorest families. She also became interested in the

settlement movement The settlement movement was a reformist social movement that began in the 1880s and peaked around the 1920s in the United Kingdom and the United States. Its goal was to bring the rich and the poor of society together in both physical proximity an ...

, which focused on providing housing, employment assistance, language instruction, and medical care for urban poor and immigrant residents. Returning to Austria, Riesz became active in the women's movement, publishing articles in support of women's rights and taking a special interest in opportunities for children. As early as 1900, together with

, Margarethe Jodl, Marie Lang and Dora von Stockert-Meynert she founded the Viennese Women's Club (). In 1904, she left the Jewish faith and married the lawyer (1875–1935) with whom she had two children: (1905) and Elisabeth (1912). She joined the Religious Society of Friends, becoming one of Austria's first

Quakers Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestantism, Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally ...

. Scheu-Riesz and her husband gained a central position in Viennese society thanks to their

salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon A beauty salon or beauty parlor is an establishment that provides Cosmetics, cosmetic treatments for people. Other variations of this type of business include hair salons, spas, day spas, ...

, to which they invited local and international celebrities, including the composers

Alban Berg Alban Maria Johannes Berg ( ; ; 9 February 1885 – 24 December 1935) was an Austrian composer of the Second Viennese School. His compositional style combined Romantic lyricism with the twelve-tone technique. Although he left a relatively sma ...

Anton Webern Anton Webern (; 3 December 1883 – 15 September 1945) was an Austrian composer, conductor, and musicologist. His music was among the most radical of its milieu in its lyric poetry, lyrical, poetic concision and use of then novel atonality, aton ...

and

Arnold Schönberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian and American composer, music theorist, teacher and writer. He was among the first Modernism (music), modernists who transformed the practice of harmony in 20th-centu ...

, the painter

Oskar Kokoschka Oskar Kokoschka (1 March 1886 – 22 February 1980) was an Austrian artist, poet, playwright and teacher, best known for his intense expressionistic portraits and landscapes, as well as his theories on vision that influenced the Viennese Expre ...

, the actresses

Elisabeth Neumann-Viertel Elisabeth Neumann-Viertel (5 April 1900 – 24 December 1994) was an Austrian actress who started her career in Germany during the 1920s. Under the Nazi regime she emigrated to the United States, where she appeared on the Broadway and in a few H ...

and

Helene Weigel Helene Weigel (; 12 May 19006 May 1971) was an Austrian actress and artistic director. She was the second and last wife of Bertolt Brecht until his death in 1956; together they had two children. Personal life Weigel was born in Vienna, Austria ...

, the architect

Adolf Loos Adolf Franz Karl Viktor Maria Loos (; 10 December 1870 – 23 August 1933) was an Austrian and Czechoslovak architect, influential European theorist, and a polemicist of modern architecture. He was inspired by modernism and a widely-known c ...

, who designed her house in

, and the educational innovator

Eugenie Schwarzwald Eugenie Schwarzwald,(née Nußbaum) (4 July 1872 - 7 August 1940) was a progressive Polish philanthropist, writer and pedagogue, who founded the innovative Schwarzwald school and developed education for girls in Austria and was one of the most ...

Career

Activism

Inspired by the cheap yet attractive booklets with short stories for children which had become popular in England, in 1905 Scheu-Riesz established a committee, along with Eugenie Hottmann and another activist, to organize the publication in German of similar little books for children at affordable prices in Austria. The beautifully illustrated collection focused on fairy tales and children's stories in German which cost far less than the poorly presented editions which were appearing in the shops for Christmas at horrendous prices. Most of the stories were rewritten by women with attractive new titles. Families were invited to purchase books for children, instead of or along with toys. Subscriptions were also available, allowing the committee to print large volumes of the stories for children's hospitals and humanitarian associations. Scheu-Riesz saw books as a means of creating better understanding between peoples and improving international relationships. Over the years, frequently traveling to England, she collected children's stories from various countries and assembled a collection of over 300 volumes, which also included French stories. Under the influence of her friend

, Scheu-Riesz became active in educational reform. From the time of her teenage visit to London, she had tried to find a publisher interested in producing inexpensive, high-quality literature for children and young people. She was able to realize these plans in 1923 when she founded her own publishing house, . The name was a play on the phrase " open sesame" from the tale "

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" () is a folk tale in Arabic added to the ''One Thousand and One Nights'' in the 18th century by its French translator Antoine Galland, who heard it from Syrian storyteller Hanna Diyab. As one of the most popul ...

" which magically opened the door (to knowledge), and its philanthropic mission took prevalence over earning a profit. At the time, the two leading children's publishers were (Gerlach's Youth Library) and (Konegen's Children's Books) and she took over the market share of Konegen. Scheu-Riesz campaigned for

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...

and worked in the international settlement movement. She wrote articles which appeared in the October 1913 issue of on both issues. She urged women to join the Austrian Voting Rights Committee to fight for their rights as citizens. After attending the 10th International Housing Congress in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

, she encouraged women to get involved in housing reforms. In the Netherlands, she reported she had met a woman housing inspector who focused on improving housing legislation and actively encouraged women and girls to participate in elevating the lives of apartment dwellers through social and artistic programs. Scheu-Riesz linked housing initiatives and education as meeting points for new ideas and after

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, was involved in a government housing program which constructed homes for 50,000 people. She also pressed authorities to eliminate nationalist curricula from schools and focus on more practical learning. In addition to updating the materials used in schools, she wrote articles urging that teaching staff and teaching methods should be modernized and professionalized, moving away from the military model, which had been in use prior to the war. WILPF Congress Geneva 1921 group photo crop

WILPF Congress Geneva 1921 group photo crop

After writing several poems about peace, Scheu-Riesz was invited to attend the 1915

Women at the Hague Women at the Hague was an International Congress of Women conference held at The Hague, Netherlands in April 1915. It had over 1,100 delegates and it established an International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace (ICWPP) with Jane Addams as pr ...

congress, which resulted in the founding of the Committee of Women for Permanent Peace, subsequently known as the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). She represented Austria at the organization's 1919 international congress in Zurich, at the 1921 congress in Vienna, and the 1924 congress in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

Although not an official delegate, she also participated in the

International Congress of Women The International Congress of Women was created so that groups of existing women's suffrage movements could come together with other women's groups around the world. It served as a way for women organizations across the nation to establish formal ...

, held in Vienna in July 1921. In 1931, Scheu-Riesz became a vice-president of the Austrian chapter of the WILPF. After moving to the United States, she continued to work with WILPF, through the North Carolina branch, giving lectures to women's groups.

Writing

Scheu-Riesz began working as a journalist at an early age. In 1910, she became editor at (Konegens Children's Books). While there, she implemented a series of world literature books for children. Initially the publications were made twice a year, but for the duration of World War I publication was sporadic. Among her many translations were poems by

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Elizabeth Barrett Browning (née Moulton-Barrett; 6 March 1806 – 29 June 1861) was an English poet of the Victorian era, popular in Britain and the United States during her lifetime and frequently anthologised after her death. Her work receiv ...

and numerous children's stories and fairy tales from China, Estonia, Great Britain, Japan, Spain, Sweden, and the United States, among other places. Included in her over 200 works for children were "" ("Japanese Folk Tales", 1912), "" ("The Adventures of Odysseus", 1919), "" ("Nordic Sagas", 1920), "" ("The Devil and His Apprentice Boy and other Serbian Folk Tales", 1922), "" ("Bulgarian Folk Tales", 1922), and "" ("Chinese Folk Tales", 1923), as well as translations of ''

Alice in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (also known as ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English Children's literature, children's novel by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics university don, don at the University of Oxford. It details the story of a ...

'', ''

The Canterbury Tales ''The Canterbury Tales'' () is a collection of 24 stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. The book presents the tales, which are mostly written in verse, as part of a fictional storytelling contest held ...

'', ''

Don Quixote , the full title being ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'', is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a founding work of Western literature and is of ...

'', ''

Gulliver's Travels ''Gulliver's Travels'', originally titled ''Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships'', is a 1726 prose satire by the Anglo-Irish writer and clerg ...

'', and ''

Pilgrim's Progress ''The Pilgrim's Progress from This World, to That Which Is to Come'' is a 1678 Christian allegory written by John Bunyan. It is commonly regarded as one of the most significant works of Protestant devotional literature and of wider early moder ...

''. She translated several contemporary English plays in the 1920s, such as "At Mrs. Beam's" and "The Battle of Tindersley Down" into German. Her first novel in English, ''Gretchen Discovers America'' (1934) was a romance about a German girl who came to the United States and found love in the interwar period. Among her influential

translations Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

was her version of ''

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (also known as ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English Children's literature, children's novel by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics university don, don at the University of Oxford. It details the story of a ...

'' by

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...

. Published in 1912, it was the second translation of the book into German and remained the dominant translation into the 1960s. Despite a large number of reprints of her version, the genre of deliberate

literary nonsense Literary nonsense (or nonsense literature) is a broad categorization of literature that balances elements that make sense with some that do not, with the effect of subverting language conventions or logical reasoning. Even though the most well-k ...

was virtually unknown in Germany and faced criticism as to whether it was appropriate for children. In an effort to make the book more palatable for German readers, until the 1960s, translations attempted to make the book more akin to the more familiary genre of

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful bei ...

s. In 1923, she produced the first translation of the sequel, ''

Through the Looking-Glass ''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'' is a novel published in December 1871 by Lewis Carroll, the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a mathematics lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford, Christ Church, University of Oxford. I ...

''. Her version attempted a faithful rendering of the text, however, the nonsensical text proved difficult to translate, as words such as "brillig", "chortle", and "slithy" were invented by Carroll. Her translation, , was republished by Ulan Press in 2012, and also in 2017 by .

Relocation to the United States

Scheu-Riesz's husband Gustav, who had become a social democratic politician, died in 1935. As a widow, despite becoming a member of the Protestant church, she was concerned that her Jewish heritage would present problems with the Nazis who were gaining popularity in Austria. She made a trip to England and the United States in 1936 to organize her emigration. In 1937, she decided to move to the United States where her daughter had already settled. She became a well-known figure in the artists community on

Ocracoke Island Ocracoke ( )
, from the North Carolina Collection website at the

off the Atlantic coast of North Carolina. There she created the Island Press, a publishing house which operated from 1941 to 1954. She also hosted classes and workshops for artists and writers interested in learning creative writing and radio

scriptwriting Screenwriting or scriptwriting is the art and craft of writing scripts for mass media such as feature films, television productions or video games. It is often a freelance profession. Screenwriters are responsible for researching the story, deve ...

. She also took graduate courses at the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the Public university, public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referre ...

and continued to publish books. Among her publications in the US were ''Will You Marry Me?'' (1940), a collection of proposal letters from historical figures, and ''Those Funny Grownups'' (1943), a satirical examination of adult behavior from a child's perspective. In 1949, Scheu-Riesz founded Open Sesame Inc. New York, as a vehicle to provide funds for United World Books. In order to establish the firm, which intended to reproduce classic literature at low cost and distribute those volumes through United World Books, she solicited contributions from contemporary authors and sold high-priced, limited editions of their autographed and illustrated works. United World Books was able to begin distributing books the following year. The first books printed in the United States were intended to be distributed to students in Austria to help them learn English and develop

pen-pal Pen pals (or penfriends, penpals, pen-pals) are people who regularly write to each other, particularly via postal mail. Pen pals are usually strangers whose relationship is based primarily, or even solely, on their exchange of letters. Occasiona ...

relations with American students. By 1953, she was working with the

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

and the

Indian government The Government of India (ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of 36 states and union territor ...

to develop materials for adult education courses, also hoping to include books for children. Unlike many who emigrated during the war, she enjoyed life in America.

Later life, death, and legacy

In 1954, Scheu-Riesz returned to Vienna where she retrieved the house in Hietzing specially designed by her friend Adolf Loos. She remained active in the publishing business while also providing support for young people interested in drama or music. Scheu-Riesz died in Vienna on 8 January 1970. She was buried next to her husband in the

Vienna Central Cemetery The Vienna Central Cemetery () is one of the largest Cemetery, cemeteries in the world by number of interred, and is the most well-known among Vienna's nearly 50 cemeteries. The cemetery's name is descriptive of its significance as Vienna's big ...

. She has been remembered for her writing and her goals of spreading internationalism and world peace by publishing cultural works. In 2008, her book ''Will You Marry Me?'' was reissued by

Touchstone Books Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCol ...

. Reviewers noted that the book gave insight into marriage proposals in different periods of society and the way that language has been used to either charm a beloved, or make a business arrangement.

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Scheu-Riesz, Helene 1880 births 1970 deaths People from Olomouc Emigrants from Austria after the Anschluss to the United States 20th-century Austrian writers Austrian women writers Publishers (people) from Austria-Hungary Austrian publishers (people) 20th-century publishers (people) Austrian pacifists Pacifist feminists Austrian women activists Austrian women's rights activists Women's International League for Peace and Freedom people 20th-century Austrian women writers