Jean Iris Ross Cockburn (; 7 May 1911 – 27 April 1973) was a
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies.
* British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...
journalist
A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism.
Roles
Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...
, political activist, and
film critic
Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: Academic criticism by film scholars, who study the composition of film theory and publish their findin ...
. During the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
(1936–39), she was a
war correspondent
A war correspondent is a journalist who covers stories first-hand from a war, war zone.
War correspondence stands as one of journalism's most important and impactful forms. War correspondents operate in the most conflict-ridden parts of the wor ...
for the ''
Daily Express
The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first ...
'' and is alleged to have been a
press agent
In marketing, publicity is the public visibility or awareness for any product, service, person or organization. It may also refer to the movement of information from its source to the general public, often (but not always) via the media. The subj ...
for
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
's
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internatio ...
. A skilled writer, Ross worked as a film critic for the ''
Daily Worker
The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in Chicago founded by communists, socialists, union members, and other activists. Publication began in 1924. It generally reflected the prevailing views of members of the Communist Party USA (CPU ...
''. Throughout her life, she wrote political criticism,
anti-fascist
Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were op ...
polemics
Polemic ( , ) is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called polemics, which are seen in arguments on controversial to ...
, and
socialist
Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
manifestos
A manifesto is a written declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party, or government. A manifesto can accept a previously published opinion or public consensus, but many prominent ...
for a number of disparate organisations such as the British Workers' Film and Photo League. She was a devout
Stalinist
Stalinism (, ) is the totalitarian means of governing and Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1927 to 1953 by dictator Joseph Stalin and in Soviet satellite states between 1944 and 1953. Stalinism in ...
and a lifelong member of the
Communist Party of Great Britain
The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPGB ...
.
During her itinerant youth in the
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...
, Ross was a cabaret singer and aspiring film actress in Berlin. Her escapades inspired the heroine in
Christopher Isherwood
Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood (26 August 1904 – 4 January 1986) was an Anglo-American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, autobiographer, and diarist. His best-known works include '' Goodbye to Berlin'' (1939), a semi-autobiographical ...
's 1937
novella
A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most novelettes and short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) ...
''
Sally Bowles
Sally Bowles () is a fictional character created by English-American novelist Christopher Isherwood and based upon 19-year-old cabaret singer Jean Ross. The character debuted in Isherwood's 1937 novella ''Sally Bowles'' published by Hogarth Pre ...
'' which was later collected in ''
Goodbye to Berlin'', a work cited by literary critics as deftly capturing the
hedonistic
Hedonism is a family of philosophical views that prioritize pleasure. Psychological hedonism is the theory that all human behavior is motivated by the desire to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. As a form of egoism, it suggests that peopl ...
nihilism
Nihilism () encompasses various views that reject certain aspects of existence. There have been different nihilist positions, including the views that Existential nihilism, life is meaningless, that Moral nihilism, moral values are baseless, and ...
of the
Weimar era and later adapted into the stage musical ''
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, casino, hotel, restaurant, or nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or drinking, ...
''.
[: '' The Berlin Stories'' "form one coherent snapshot of a lost world, the antic, cosmopolitan Berlin of the 1930s, where jolly expatriates dance faster and faster, as if that would save them from the creeping rise of Nazism".] In the 1937 novella, Sally is a British
flapper
Flappers were a subculture of young Western women prominent after the First World War and through the 1920s who wore short skirts (knee length was considered short during that period), bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their ...
who moonlights as a chanteuse during the twilight of the
Jazz Age
The Jazz Age was a period from 1920 to the early 1930s in which jazz music and dance styles gained worldwide popularity. The Jazz Age's cultural repercussions were primarily felt in the United States, the birthplace of jazz. Originating in New O ...
. After a series of failed romances, she becomes pregnant and has an
abortion
Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...
facilitated by the novella's narrator.
[: "The abortion is a turning point in the narrator's relationship with Sally and also in his relationship to Berlin and to his writing".] Isherwood based many of the novella's details upon actual events in Ross' life, including her abortion. Fearing a
libel suit
Defamation is a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury. The precise legal definition of defamation varies from country to country. It is not necessarily restricted to making assertions ...
, Isherwood delayed publication of the work until given Ross' explicit permission.
For the remainder of her life, Ross believed the public association of herself with the naïve and apolitical character of Sally Bowles occluded her lifelong work as a professional writer and political activist. Her daughter
Sarah Caudwell, who shared this belief, later wrote a newspaper article in an attempt to correct the historical record and to dispel misconceptions about Ross. According to Caudwell, "in the transformations of the novel for stage and cinema the characterisation of Sally has become progressively cruder and less subtle and the stories about 'the original' correspondingly more high-coloured".
In addition to inspiring the character Sally Bowles, Ross is credited by the ''
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') ...
'' and other sources as the muse for lyricist
Eric Maschwitz
Albert Eric Maschwitz Order of the British Empire, OBE (10 June 1901 – 27 October 1969), sometimes credited as Holt Marvell, was an English entertainer, writer, editor, broadcaster and broadcasting executive.
Life and work
Born in Edgbaston, ...
's jazz standard "
These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You)", one of the 20th century's most enduring love songs. Although Maschwitz's estranged wife
Hermione Gingold later claimed the song was written for herself or actor
Anna May Wong
Wong Liu Tsong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961), known professionally as Anna May Wong, was an American actress, considered the first Chinese American film star in Hollywood, as well as the first Chinese American actress to gain internat ...
, Maschwitz contradicted these claims. Instead, Maschwitz cited memories of a "young love", and most scholars and biographers posit Maschwitz's youthful affair with Ross inspired the song.
Early life and education
Jean Ross was raised in luxury at Maison Ballassiano in the
British protectorate
British protectorates were protectorates under the jurisdiction of the British government. Many territories which became British protectorates already had local rulers with whom the Crown negotiated through treaty, acknowledging their status wh ...
of
Alexandria, Egypt
Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...
. She was the eldest daughter of Charles Ross (1880–1938), a Scottish cotton classifier for the
Bank of Egypt and brought up with her four siblings in a staunchly liberal, anti-
Tory
A Tory () is an individual who supports a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalist conservatism which upholds the established social order as it has evolved through the history of Great Britain. The To ...
household.
Ross was educated in England at
Leatherhead Court,
Surrey
Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...
. As an unusually intelligent pupil who had completed the
sixth form
In the education systems of Barbados, England, Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Trinidad and Tobago, Wales, and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepa ...
curricula by the age of 16, she was bored and loathed school. She became openly rebellious when informed she must remain at school for another year to repeat her already completed coursework. To gain her freedom, she feigned a teenage pregnancy and was summoned to appear before the school's headmistress:
She falsely insisted to the headmistress that she was pregnant and the Leatherhead Court schoolmasters sequestered the teenager in a nearby
insane asylum
The lunatic asylum, insane asylum or mental asylum was an institution where people with mental illness were confined. It was an early precursor of the modern psychiatric hospital.
Modern psychiatric hospitals evolved from and eventually replace ...
until a relative arrived and retrieved her. When they discovered the pregnancy was feigned, Ross was formally expelled. Exasperated by her defiant behaviour, her parents sent her abroad to Pensionnat Mistral, an elite Swiss
finishing school
A finishing school focuses on teaching young women social graces and upper-class cultural rites as a preparation for entry into society. The name reflects the fact that it follows ordinary school and is intended to complete a young woman's ...
in
Neuchâtel
Neuchâtel (, ; ; ) is a list of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the capital (political), capital of the cantons of Switzerland, Swiss canton of Neuchâtel (canton), Neuchâtel on Lake Neuchâtel ...
. Ross, however, was either expelled or fled the school.
Using a trust stipend provided by her grandfather Charles Caudwell, who was an affluent industrialist and landowner, the teenage Ross returned to England and enrolled in the
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, also known by its abbreviation RADA (), is a drama school in London, England, which provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in Bloomsbury, Central London ...
(RADA), London. After diligently applying herself in her first year, she won a coveted acting prize that gave her the opportunity to play the lead role in any production of her choice. When she selected the difficult role of
Phaedra
Phaedra may refer to:
Mythology
* Phaedra (mythology), Cretan princess, daughter of Minos and Pasiphaë, wife of Theseus
Arts and entertainment
* Phaedra (Cabanel), ''Phaedra'' (Cabanel), an 1880 painting by Alexandre Cabanel
*House of Phaedra ...
, she was informed her youth precluded such a tragic role because she lacked the requisite life experience. Hurt by this refusal, Ross left the academy after one year to pursue a film career.
In 1930, at nineteen years of age, Ross and fellow Egyptian-born Hungarian actor
Marika Rökk obtained cinematic roles portraying a harem ''
houri
In Islam, a houri (; ), or houris or hoor al ayn in plural form, is a maiden woman with beautiful eyes who lives alongside the Muslim faithful in Jannah, paradise.
They are described as the same age as the men in paradise. Since hadith states ...
'' in director
Monty Banks
Montague (Monty) Banks (born Mario Bianchi; 18 July 1897 – 7 January 1950) was a 20th century Italian-born American comedian, film actor, director and producer who achieved success in the United States and United Kingdom.
Career
Banks was bor ...
' ''
Why Sailors Leave Home'', an
early sound comedy that was filmed in London. Ross's dark complexion and partial fluency in Arabic were deemed suitable for the role. Disappointed with their small roles, she and Rökk heard rumours about ample job opportunities for aspiring actors in the
Weimar Republic of Germany and set off with great expectations for Berlin.
Weimar Berlin
Ross's excursion to Weimar Germany proved less successful than she had hoped. Unable to find acting work, she worked as a nightclub singer in Berlin's
lesbian bars and second-rate cabarets. When not singing or modelling, she visited the offices of the
UFA GmbH
UFA GmbH, shortened to UFA (), is a film and television production company that unites all production activities of the media conglomerate Bertelsmann in Germany. The original UFA was established as on December 18, 1917, as a direct response t ...
, a German motion picture production company, in the hopes of gaining small film roles. By late 1931, she obtained a job as a dancer in theatre director
Max Reinhardt
Max Reinhardt (; born Maximilian Goldmann; 9 September 1873 – 30 October 1943) was an Austrian-born Theatre director, theatre and film director, theater manager, intendant, and theatrical producer. With his radically innovative and avant-gard ...
's production of
Offenbach's ' ''
Tales of Hoffmann'' and played Anitra in Reinhardt's production of ''
Peer Gynt
''Peer Gynt'' (, ) is a five-Act (drama), act play in verse written in 1867 by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen. It is one of Ibsen's best known and most widely performed plays.
''Peer Gynt'' chronicles the journey of its title character fr ...
''.
Reinhardt's much-anticipated production of ''Tales of Hoffmann'' premiered on 28 November 1931. The production was reputedly one of the last great triumphs of the Berlin theatre scene prior to the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...
's gradual ascent. Ross and a male dancer appeared together as an amorous couple in the stage background, and were visible only in silhouette during the Venetian palace sequence of the second act. Later, Ross said she and the male performer had capitalised on this opportunity for sexual intimacy in full view of the unsuspecting audience.
Meeting Isherwood
By late 1931, Ross had moved to
Schöneberg, Berlin, where she shared modest lodgings in Fräulein Meta Thurau's flat at
Nollendorfstraße 17 with English writer
Christopher Isherwood
Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood (26 August 1904 – 4 January 1986) was an Anglo-American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, autobiographer, and diarist. His best-known works include '' Goodbye to Berlin'' (1939), a semi-autobiographical ...
, whom she had met in October 1930 or early 1931. Isherwood, who was an apprentice novelist, was politically ambivalent about the rise of fascism and had moved to Berlin in order to avail himself of boy prostitutes and to enjoy the city's orgiastic
Jazz Age
The Jazz Age was a period from 1920 to the early 1930s in which jazz music and dance styles gained worldwide popularity. The Jazz Age's cultural repercussions were primarily felt in the United States, the birthplace of jazz. Originating in New O ...
cabarets. At their first meeting, Ross monopolised the conversation and recounted her latest sexual conquests. At one point, she reached into her handbag and produced a
diaphragm, which she waved in the face of a startled Isherwood. The two soon became intimate friends.
Although Ross' relations with Isherwood were not always amicable, she soon joined
Isherwood's social circle alongside more politically-aware poets
W.H. Auden and
Stephen Spender
Sir Stephen Harold Spender (28 February 1909 – 16 July 1995) was an English poet, novelist and essayist whose work concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle. He was appointed U.S. Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry ...
. Subsequently, Ross was the only woman in this circle of gay male writers, who mythologised her in their respective memoirs. Among Isherwood's acquaintances, Ross was regarded as a sexual
libertine
A libertine is a person questioning and challenging most moral principles, such as responsibility or Human sexual activity, sexual restraints, and will often declare these traits as unnecessary, undesirable or evil. A libertine is especially som ...
who was devoid of inhibitions and had no qualms about entertaining visitors to their flat while nude or about discussing her sexual relations. A contemporary portrait of the 19-year-old Ross appears in Isherwood's ''
Goodbye to Berlin'' when the narrator first encounters the "divinely decadent" Sally Bowles:
[: "Sally seems satisfied to be divinely decadent..."][: "The Sally character herself is this century's darling of divine decadence, an odd measure of how dear to us is this fiction of the 'shocking' British/American vamp in Weimar Berlin."]
Isherwood further described the youthful Ross as having a physical resemblance to
Merle Oberon but said her face naturally had a sardonic humour akin to that of comedian
Beatrice Lillie
Beatrice Gladys Lillie, Lady Peel (29 May 1894 – 20 January 1989) was a Canadian-born British actress, singer and comedy performer.
She began to perform as a child with her mother and sister. She made her West End debut in 1914 and soon gain ...
. Their ramshackle flat at Nollendorfstraße 17 was in a working-class district near the centre of Weimar Berlin's radical enclaves, subversive activity, and gay nightlife.
By day, Ross was a fashion model for popular magazines, and by night, she was a
bohemian
Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to:
*Anything of or relating to Bohemia
Culture and arts
* Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, originally practised by 19th–20th century European and American artists and writers.
* Bohemian style, a ...
chanteuse singing in the nearby cabarets located along the
Kurfürstendamm avenue, an
entertainment-vice district that was selected for future destruction by Nazi politician
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and philologist who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief Propaganda in Nazi Germany, propagandist for the Nazi Party, and ...
in his 1928 journal. When the
Nazi Party later seized power in early 1933,
Brownshirts forcibly closed these venues. Isherwood visited these nightclubs to hear Ross sing, and he described her voice as poor but nonetheless effective:
Due to her acquaintance with Isherwood, Ross later became immortalised as "a bittersweet English
hoyden" named
Sally Bowles
Sally Bowles () is a fictional character created by English-American novelist Christopher Isherwood and based upon 19-year-old cabaret singer Jean Ross. The character debuted in Isherwood's 1937 novella ''Sally Bowles'' published by Hogarth Pre ...
in Isherwood's 1937 eponymous
novella
A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most novelettes and short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) ...
and his 1939 book ''
Goodbye to Berlin''. Isherwood introduced Ross to the visiting
Paul Bowles
Paul Frederic Bowles (; December 30, 1910November 18, 1999) was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator. He became associated with the Moroccan city of Tangier, where he settled in 1947 and lived for 52 years to the end of his ...
, a bisexual American writer who would later gain acclaim for his
post-colonial novel ''
The Sheltering Sky''. This meeting between Ross and Paul Bowles made an impression upon Isherwood, who later used Bowles' surname for the character Sally Bowles, whom he based upon Ross. Isherwood said Ross was "more essentially British than Sally; she grumbled like a true Englishwoman, with her 'grin-and-bear-it' grin. And she was tougher".
Botched abortion
Although Isherwood sometimes had sex with women, Ross—unlike the fictional character Sally—never tried to seduce Isherwood, although they did share a bed whenever their flat became overcrowded with visiting revelers. Instead, a 27-year-old Isherwood settled into a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old German boy named Heinz Neddermeyer.
Meanwhile, Ross entered into a variety of heterosexual liaisons, including one with musician Götz von Eick, who later became an actor under the stage name
Peter van Eyck and starred in
Henri-Georges Clouzot
Henri-Georges Clouzot (; 20 November 1907 – 12 January 1977) was a French film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best remembered for his work in the thriller film genre, having directed '' The Wages of Fear'' (1953) and '' Les Diabo ...
's ''
The Wages of Fear
''The Wages of Fear'' () is a 1953 thriller film directed and co-written by Henri-Georges Clouzot, and starring Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Peter van Eyck and Véra Clouzot. The film centres on a group of four down-on-their-luck European men w ...
''. Although some biographers identified van Eyck as Jewish, others posit van Eyck was the wealthy scion of
Prussia
Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
n landowners in
Pomerania
Pomerania ( ; ; ; ) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The central and eastern part belongs to the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, West Pomeranian, Pomeranian Voivod ...
. As an aristocrat, his family expected him to embark upon a military career but he became interested in jazz and pursued musical studies in Berlin.
When the 19-year-old van Eyck met Ross, he often moonlighted as a jazz pianist in Berlin cabarets. Either during their brief relationship or soon after their separation, Ross realised she was pregnant. As a personal favour to Ross, Isherwood pretended to be her heterosexual impregnator in order to facilitate an
abortion
Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...
, of which Ross nearly died due to the doctor's incompetence. Visiting the ailing Ross in a Berlin hospital, Isherwood felt the resentment by the hospital staff for, as they assumed, forcing Ross to undergo an abortion. These events later inspired Isherwood to write his 1937
novella
A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most novelettes and short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) ...
''Sally Bowles'' and serves as its narrative climax.
Leaving Germany
While Ross recovered from the botched abortion, the political situation
rapidly deteriorated in Weimar Germany as the incipient
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...
continued to grow stronger day by day. By 1932, Weimar Germany was in the trough of an economic depression, with millions of persons unemployed. Nearly every German they encountered "was poor, living from hand to mouth on little money". Berliners experienced "poverty, unemployment, political demonstrations and street fighting between the forces of the extreme left and the extreme right".
As the political climate deteriorated, Ross, Isherwood, Spender, and others realised they must leave Germany. "There was a sensation of doom to be felt in the Berlin streets", Spender recalled. In the
July 1932 elections, the Nazis became the largest party in the
Reichstag, though not a majority. By August that year, Ross departed Germany and returned to southern England. Despite Ross leaving Germany, Isherwood chose to remain due to his attachment to Heinz Neddermeyer.
After
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
's ascension as
Chancellor of Germany
The chancellor of Germany, officially the federal chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, is the head of the federal Cabinet of Germany, government of Germany. The chancellor is the chief executive of the Federal Government of Germany, ...
on 30 January 1933, however, Isherwood realised that staying any longer in Germany would be perilous. He commented to a friend: "Adolf, with his rectangular black moustache, has come to stay and brought all his friends.... Nazis are to be enrolled as 'auxiliary police,' which means that one must now not only be murdered but that it is illegal to offer any resistance." Two weeks after the
Enabling Act
An enabling act is a piece of legislation by which a legislative body grants an entity which depends on it (for authorization or legitimacy) for the delegation of the legislative body's power to take certain actions. For example, enabling act ...
cemented Hitler's power, Isherwood fled Germany and returned to England on 5 April 1933.
Ultimately, the increasing prevalence of xenophobic Nazism in the country precluded Ross and Isherwood from returning to their beloved Berlin. Many of the Berlin cabaret denizens whom Ross and Isherwood befriended later fled abroad or died in
labour camps
A labor camp (or labour camp, see spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (especi ...
.
Activism in London
Joining the Communist Party
After her return to southern England, Ross resided at
Cheyne Walk in
Chelsea, London
Chelsea is an area in West London, England, due south-west of Kilometre zero#Great Britain, Charing Cross by approximately . It lies on the north bank of the River Thames and for postal purposes is part of the SW postcode area, south-western p ...
, and continued to fraternise with Isherwood and his circle of friends. She also began to associate with left-wing political activists "who were humorous but dedicated, sexually permissive but politically dogmatic". During this period, she met
Claud Cockburn, an Anglo-Scots journalist and the second cousin, once removed, of novelists
Alec Waugh and
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires ''Decli ...
.
Ross and Cockburn met at the
Café Royal. One evening, Cockburn handed Ross a cheque but, having second thoughts, he telephoned the next morning to warn her the cheque would bounce. Despite this "portent of unreliability" and "the fact that Cockburn had already been married to
an American woman whom he left when she became pregnant", Ross began an affair with Cockburn. On a subsequent evening, Cockburn expounded
Marxist economic theory to Ross all night until the early morning hours. Cockburn later said he persuaded Ross to become a left-wing journalist and secured her employment at the ''
Daily Worker
The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in Chicago founded by communists, socialists, union members, and other activists. Publication began in 1924. It generally reflected the prevailing views of members of the Communist Party USA (CPU ...
''.
Due to Cockburn's influence, Ross joined the
Communist Party of Great Britain
The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPGB ...
(CPGB) during the tenure of General Secretary
Harry Pollitt. She became an active and devoted Party member for the remainder of her life. Meanwhile, she continued her career as an aspiring thespian, appearing in theatrical productions at the
Gate Theatre Studio that were directed by
Peter Godfrey and, in need of money, she modelled the latest Paris fashions by French designer
Jean Patou in ''
Tatler
''Tatler'' (stylised in all caps) is a British magazine published by Condé Nast Publications. It focuses on fashion and lifestyle, as well as coverage of high society and politics. It is targeted towards the British upper and upper-middle c ...
'' magazine. It is possible, although unlikely, she obtained a bit role as a chorus girl in
Paramount Studios
Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production and distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount Global. It is the sixth-oldest film studio i ...
' musical drama film ''
Rumba''.
Isherwood and Viertel
While in England, Ross' connections to the British film industry proved crucial to Isherwood's future career. Ross had spent only around eighteen months in Berlin between 1932 and 1933 but became fluent enough in German to allow her to obtain work as a bilingual scenarist with Austro-German directors
who had fled the Nazi regime. One of these Austrian directors was
Berthold Viertel, who became Ross' friend.
At the time, translators were sorely needed in the film industry to facilitate productions headed by Austro-German directors who were now working in the United Kingdom. Ross, who was aware Isherwood was living in poverty, persuaded Viertel to hire him as a translator. As repayment for this favour, Ross asked Isherwood to promise to give half of his first week's salary from the job to her. After obtaining the job, Isherwood either reneged upon or forgot this agreement with Ross, and this incident may have contributed to the souring of their friendship. Viertel and Isherwood soon collaborated upon a film that would become ''
Little Friend'' (1934); this collaboration launched Isherwood's long career as a screenwriter in Hollywood.
During 1933, Isherwood composed the nucleus of a story about Ross' abortion in Berlin that would later become his 1937 novella ''Sally Bowles''. Dissatisfied with its structure and quality, Isherwood rewrote the manuscript during subsequent years, and he eventually sent the manuscript to editor
John Lehmann to be published in ''
New Writing'', a new literary periodical. When Isherwood informed Lehmann his story was based on factual events, the editor became worried about the story's climax because it draws upon Ross' abortion. Lehmann feared Ross would file a libel suit against Isherwood and himself if the story was published.
[: "Isherwood's publisher was nervous about the abortion episode and encouraged him to drop it".]
Anxious to avoid a libel suit, Isherwood implored Ross to give him permission to publish the story. Ross' reluctance delayed the publication of the manuscript. Because abortion was a controversial topic in 1930s England and carried the penalty of life imprisonment, Ross feared Isherwood's thinly-disguised story recounting her lifestyle and abortion in Berlin would further strain her difficult relationship with her status-conscious family.
To prevail upon Ross to give consent for the novella's publication, Isherwood said he was in the direst financial circumstances. Ross, who herself was often impoverished, sympathised with any friend in a similar situation. As a personal favour to Isherwood, she yielded her objections to the publication of ''Sally Bowles'', which was then published by
Hogarth Press
The Hogarth Press is a book publishing Imprint (trade name), imprint of Penguin Random House that was founded as an independent company in 1917 by British authors Leonard Woolf and Virginia Woolf. It was named after their house in London Boro ...
. Following the tremendous success of the novella, Ross regretted this decision and believed it permanently harmed her reputation. Now deeply committed to the socialist cause, Ross noticed Isherwood's story undermined her standing "among those comrades who realised she was the model for Sally Bowles".
Workers' League
Around 1934 and 1935, Ross wrote a manifesto for the short-lived British Workers' Film and Photo League (BWFPL) and served as its General Secretary. Much like its communist-backed
US counterpart, the BWFPL's main objective was to launch a
cultural counter-offensive to the "
bourgeois
The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and Aristocracy (class), aristocracy. They are tradition ...
" and "nauseating" films produced in capitalist societies such as the United States and the United Kingdom. The organisation sought to take anti-capitalist "revolutionary films to workers organisations throughout the country".
Despite its limited personnel and modest funds, the League produced
newsreel
A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news, news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a Movie theater, cinema, newsreels were a source of cu ...
s, taught seminars on working-class film criticism, organised protests against "reactionary pictures", and screened the latest blockbusters of
Soviet Russia
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...
to cadres of like-minded
cineastes. The BWFPL frequently screened such motion pictures as ''
Storm over Asia'' (1928), ''
Ten Days That Shook the World'' (1928), ''
Road to Life'' (1931), and ''
China Express'' (1929).
During Ross' tenure as General Secretary, the BWFLP was closely tied to the
Friends of the Soviet Union, to which it often sublet its office space. After her resignation as the League's Secretary, Ross continued to serve as a League member and helped produce the short film ''Defence of Britain'' in March 1936. Drawing upon her family's resources, Ross personally donated a considerable sum to the fledgling organisation in February 1936. Another League member named Ivan Seruya, however, embezzled the majority of Ross' donation to finance his own private venture International Sound Films. This incident and the subsequent dearth of organisational funds reportedly contributed to the League's lack of progress and to its demise in 1938.
Film criticism for the ''Daily Worker''
Between 1935 and 1936, Ross worked as a film critic for the Communist newspaper ''
Daily Worker
The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in Chicago founded by communists, socialists, union members, and other activists. Publication began in 1924. It generally reflected the prevailing views of members of the Communist Party USA (CPU ...
'' using the alias Peter Porcupine, which she presumably adopted as a homage to radical English
pamphleteer
A pamphleteer is a historical term used to describe someone who creates or distributes pamphlets, unbound (therefore inexpensive) booklets intended for wide circulation.
Context
Pamphlets were used to broadcast the writer's opinions: to articu ...
William Cobbett
William Cobbett (9 March 1763 – 18 June 1835) was an English pamphleteer, journalist, politician, and farmer born in Farnham, Surrey. He was one of an Agrarianism, agrarian faction seeking to reform Parliament, abolish "rotten boroughs", restr ...
, who had used the same pseudonym. Ross' interest in film criticism began in Berlin where she attended the cinema with Isherwood, Auden, and Spender.
According to Spender, their quartet of friends viewed such films as
Robert Wiene
Robert Wiene (; 27 April 1873 – 17 July 1938) was a German film director, screenwriter and Film producer, producer, active during the Silent film, silent era. He is widely-known for directing the landmark 1920 film ''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari ...
's ''
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari'' () is a 1920 German silent horror film directed by Robert Wiene and written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer. The quintessential work of early German Expressionist cinema, it tells the story of an insane hypno ...
'',
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), better known as Fritz Lang (), was an Austrian-born film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety Obituari ...
's ''
Metropolis
A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural area for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications.
A big city b ...
'', and
Josef von Sternberg
Josef von Sternberg (; born Jonas Sternberg; May 29, 1894 – December 22, 1969) was an American filmmaker whose career successfully spanned the transition from the Silent film, silent to the Sound film, sound era, during which he worked with mos ...
's ''
The Blue Angel
''The Blue Angel'' () is a 1930 German musical comedy-drama film directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring Marlene Dietrich, Emil Jannings and Kurt Gerron.
Written by Carl Zuckmayer, Karl Vollmöller and Robert Liebmann, with uncredite ...
''. They were particularly fond of "heroic proletarian films" such as
G.W. Pabst's ''
Comradeship'' as well as "Russian films in which photography created poetic images of labour and industry", which is exemplified in ''
Ten Days That Shook the World'' and ''
The Battleship Potemkin''. Fellow critic
Dwight Macdonald
Dwight Macdonald (March 24, 1906 – December 19, 1982) was an American writer, critic, philosopher, and activist. Macdonald was a member of the New York Intellectuals and editor of their leftist magazine '' Partisan Review'' for six years. He ...
described this period as spanning the Golden Age and Iron Age of Soviet cinema:
In her film criticism, Ross stated that "the workers in the Soviet Union
adintroduced to the world" new variations of this art form with "the electrifying strength and vitality and freedom of a victorious working class". One of her reviews of early Soviet cinema was described by a scholar as an "ingenious piece
of dialectical sophistry".
Eve of the Spanish Civil War
In mid-September 1936, while the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
was in its first year, Ross met English poet and anti-fascist
John Cornford
Rupert John Cornford (27 December 1915 – 28 December 1936) was an English poet and communist. During the first year of the Spanish Civil War, he was a member of the POUM militia and later the International Brigades. He died while fighting aga ...
at the Horseshoes pub in England while in the company of his friend
John Sommerfield. As the first English volunteer to enlist against
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco Bahamonde (born Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general and dictator who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces i ...
's forces, Cornford had just returned from the
Aragon front, where he had served with the
POUM
The Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (, POUM; , POUM) was a Spanish communist party formed during the Second Spanish Republic, Second Republic and mainly active around the Spanish Civil War. It was formed by the fusion of the Trotskyism, Tro ...
militia near
Saragossa
Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...
, and fought in the early battles near
Perdiguera and
Huesca
Huesca (; ) is a city in north-eastern Spain, within the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Aragon between 1096 and 1118. It is also the capital of the Spanish Huesca (province), ...
. Cornford then returned to England from
Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
to recruit volunteers to combat the fascists in Spain.
Following the initial meeting between Ross and Cornford, a near brawl occurred at the pub when an
ex-fascist volunteer who had been in the
Irish Brigade was present and almost came to blows with Cornford over the subject of the war. After leaving the pub, Cornford and Ross went for dinner to
Bertorelli's on
Charlotte Street
Charlotte Street is a street in Fitzrovia, historically part of the parish and borough of St Pancras, in central London. It has been described, together with its northern and southern extensions (Fitzroy Street and Rathbone Place), as the ' ...
in
Fitzrovia
Fitzrovia ( ) is a district of central London, England, near the West End. Its eastern part is in the London Borough of Camden, and the western in the City of Westminster. It has its roots in the Manor of Tottenham Court, and was urbanised in ...
, central London, where Ross impressed Cornford with her knowledge of ongoing political matters in Spain, as well as between England and Germany. By the end of the evening, Cornford and Ross began a romance.
Cornford possibly moved into Ross' apartment in the ensuing weeks while he recruited volunteers to return ''en masse'' with him to Spain. While living with Ross, Cornford published his first book of poems and worked on a translation of ''
Lysistrata
''Lysistrata'' ( or ; Attic Greek: , ''Lysistrátē'', ) is an ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes, originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC. It is a comic account of a woman's mission to end the Peloponnesian War between Greek city ...
''. If such a relationship occurred, this brief union was not to last due to their mutual commitment to fighting
Franco in Spain.
War correspondent
Arrival in Republican Spain
In September 1936, Ross travelled to war-torn Spain either in the company of Claud Cockburn or separately. Meanwhile, Cornford returned to Spain with 21 British volunteers to fight the fascists and had become the ''de facto'' representative of the British contingent in the
International Brigades
The International Brigades () were soldiers recruited and organized by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front (Spain), Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The International Bri ...
. He served with a
mitrailleuse unit, and fought in the
Battle of Madrid in November and December 1936. During the subsequent battle for
University City of Madrid
The University City of Madrid (), also called the Campus de Moncloa, is a complex in the Moncloa-Aravaca district of Madrid, Spain, that holds buildings of two universities and several related organizations. The campus was built between 1929 and 1 ...
, he was wounded by a stray anti-aircraft shell. Despite his injuries, he then served with the English-speaking volunteers of the
Marseillaise Brigade and was killed in action at
Lopera near
Córdoba on 27 or 28 December.
Upon hearing of Cornford's death, Ross was devastated and may have attempted to kill herself with an overdose of sleeping pills. Decades later, she would confide to her acquaintance John Sommerfield during a personal conversation that Cornford "was the only man I ever loved". The death of Cornford and other friends in the service of the doomed Republican cause likely solidified Ross' anti-fascist sentiments, and she remained in
Republican Spain
The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of democratic government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931 after the deposition of King Alfonso XIII. It was dissol ...
throughout the prolonged conflict as a
war correspondent
A war correspondent is a journalist who covers stories first-hand from a war, war zone.
War correspondence stands as one of journalism's most important and impactful forms. War correspondents operate in the most conflict-ridden parts of the wor ...
for the ''
Daily Express
The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first ...
''.
Journalist and propagandist
Throughout the Spanish Civil War, Ross worked for the London branch office of the ''Espagne News-Agency'' ("Spanish News Agency"). During Ross' tenure in the organisation, the ''Espagne News-Agency'' was accused by journalist
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to a ...
of being a
Stalinist
Stalinism (, ) is the totalitarian means of governing and Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1927 to 1953 by dictator Joseph Stalin and in Soviet satellite states between 1944 and 1953. Stalinism in ...
apparatus that disseminated
false propaganda to undermine anti-Stalinist factions on the
Republican side of the Spanish Civil War.
According to Orwell, during the
Barcelona May Days, when
anarchist factions on the Republican side were annihilated by Stalinist-backed troops, the ''Espagne News-Agency'' and the ''Daily Worker'' published false claims saying the anarchists had been planning a coup and were secretly allied with the fascists and thus justified their extermination.
All of the agency's staff—including Ross—were loyal operatives of the
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internatio ...
apparatus, the international Communist organization that sought to create a worldwide Soviet republic. Ross' fellow Comintern propagandists included Hungarian journalist
Arthur Koestler
Arthur Koestler (, ; ; ; 5 September 1905 – 1 March 1983) was an Austria-Hungary, Austro-Hungarian-born author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest, and was educated in Austria, apart from his early school years. In 1931, Koestler j ...
, Willy Forrest, Mildred Bennett of the ''Moscow Daily News'', and Claud Cockburn.
Ross and Cockburn became closer as the civil war progressed. By this time, Cockburn was a prominent member of the British Communist Party. Within five years, he would become a leader of the Comintern in Western Europe. While covering the Spanish Civil War for the ''Daily Worker'' in 1936, Cockburn had joined the elite
Fifth Regiment of the left-wing ''Republicanos'' battling the right-wing ''Nacionales'' and, when not fighting, he gave sympathetic coverage to the Communist Party.

While Cockburn fought with the Fifth Regiment, Ross served as a war correspondent for the ''
Daily Express
The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first ...
''. When Cockburn was at the front lines, Ross ghost-wrote his columns for him, "imitating his style and filing it at the ''Daily Worker'' under his name while continuing to send her own reports to the ''Express''". Ross was embedded with Republican defenders in Madrid.
Among the other foreign correspondents in besieged Madrid were
Herbert Matthews
Herbert Lionel Matthews (January 10, 1900 – July 30, 1977) was a reporter and editorialist for ''The New York Times'' who, at the age of 57, won widespread attention after revealing that the 30-year-old Fidel Castro was still alive and living in ...
of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'',
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...
of the
North American Newspaper Alliance,
Henry Tilton Gorrell of
United Press International
United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ce ...
, and
Martha Gellhorn
Martha Ellis Gellhorn (8 November 1908 – 15 February 1998) was an American novelist, travel writer and journalist who is considered one of the great war correspondents of the 20th century. She reported on virtually every major world confli ...
of ''Collier's'', as well as
Josephine Herbst.
Ross and other foreign correspondents often dined together in the ruined basement of Gran Via, the sole restaurant open in besieged Madrid during its relentless bombardment by fascist troops. Armed loyal sentries heavily guarded the basement restaurant and no-one was permitted entry without a press pass.
Reporting on the Southern Front
In early 1937, as the civil war progressed, Ross, her friend Richard Mowrer of ''
The Chicago Daily News''—the step-son of Ernest Hemingway's first wife
Hadley Richardson—and their guide Constancia de la Mora travelled to
Andalusia
Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...
to report on the southern front. Ross and Mowrer investigated and reported upon war-time conditions in
Alicante
Alicante (, , ; ; ; officially: ''/'' ) is a city and municipalities of Spain, municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean port. The population ...
,
Málaga
Málaga (; ) is a Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 591,637 in 2024, it is the second-most populo ...
, and
Jaén.
Shortly before her arrival, a squadron of German
Junkers Ju 52
The Junkers Ju 52/3m (nicknamed ''Tante Ju'' ("Aunt Ju") and ''Iron Annie'') is a transport aircraft that was designed and manufactured by German aviation company Junkers. First introduced during 1930 as a civilian airliner, it was adapted int ...
aircraft
bombed Jaén. Amid the rubble, Ross reported on the death toll and interviewed survivors including mothers whose children had died in the bombardment. She proceeded to
Andújar
Andújar () is a Spanish municipality of 35,619 people (2024) in the province of Jaén, in Andalusia. The municipality is divided by the Guadalquivir River. The northern part of the municipality is where the Natural Park of the Sierra de And� ...
where, amid the ongoing battle and machine-gun fire, she interviewed Colonel José Morales, a commander of the southern armies.
Following her interview with Colonel José Morales, the convoy in which Ross was travelling faced recurrent enemy fire and later, during the evening, was bombed by a fascist air patrol. De la Mora recalled this bombing as one of the daily perils Ross and other pro-Republican journalists endured to report news from the front lines:
During her time in Andújar, Ross endured nine aerial bombardments by German Junkers and survived each despite the lack of
air raid shelter
Air raid shelters are structures for the protection of non-combatants as well as combatants against enemy attacks from the air. They are similar to bunkers in many regards, although they are not designed to defend against ground attack (but ...
s. Recalling these events, Mora described Ross as a fearless reporter who had seemingly resigned herself to death and looked "as natural as possible" when the bombs fell. Her friends noted Ross "had a comforting air of calmness about her". Following her reporting in Andújar, Ross continued to report from the fronts at
Córdoba and
Extremadura
Extremadura ( ; ; ; ; Fala language, Fala: ''Extremaúra'') is a landlocked autonomous communities in Spain, autonomous community of Spain. Its capital city is Mérida, Spain, Mérida, and its largest city is Badajoz. Located in the central- ...
. She continued reporting on the progress of the war, often from the front lines of the Republican forces, for the next year.
Fall of Madrid and return to England
In late 1938, while pregnant with Claud Cockburn's child, Ross witnessed the final months of the
Siege of Madrid
The siege of Madrid was a two-and-a-half-year siege of the Second Spanish Republic, Republican-controlled Spain, Spanish capital city of Madrid by the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist armies, under General Francisco Franco, ...
and endured aerial bombardment by Francoist forces. By the time the besieged city fell to the
Nationalist armies on 28 March 1939, Ross had escaped to England. Her wartime experiences, especially the atrocities she witnessed and the friends she lost in combat, solidified her lifelong commitment to
anti-fascist resistance.
Sixty days after the fall of Madrid, Ross gave birth to a daughter by Cockburn. The child,
Sarah Caudwell, who was born on 27 May 1939, was the only offspring of their union. Some sources say Ross did not marry Cockburn due to her political beliefs about
women's emancipation, but under British law, Cockburn still was married to his first wife
Hope Hale Davis; he could not marry Ross at that time without committing bigamy. Whether Ross knew Cockburn was still legally married to Davis is unknown. Several months before her daughter's birth, Ross filed a
deed poll
A deed poll (plural: deeds poll) is a legal document binding on a single person or several persons acting jointly to express an intention or create an obligation. It is a deed, and not a contract, because it binds only one party.
Etymology
Th ...
in which she changed her surname to Cockburn.
In 1938 or 1939, Cockburn entered into a clandestine sexual relationship with
Patricia Arbuthnot. In August 1939, Cockburn "walked out" on Ross and their newly-born child to live with Arbuthnot. Cockburn later omitted all mention of Ross from his memoirs. Following her abandonment by Cockburn, Ross did not have another recorded male partner. She later told an acquaintance "having a man around was like having a crocodile in the bath".
Later life and death
Second World War and post-war years

Shortly before the outbreak of the
Second World War
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 ...
, Ross, her daughter Sarah, and her widowed mother Clara Caudwell moved to
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...
. Ross became friends with Isherwood's old acquaintance
Edward Upward
Edward Falaise Upward, FRSL (9 September 1903 – 13 February 2009) was a British novelist and short story writer who, prior to his death, was believed to be the UK's oldest living author. Initially gaining recognition amongst the Auden Group a ...
and his wife Hilda Percival, both of whom were socialist in outlook. Upward later met Olive Mangeot through their attendance of
Communist Party meetings and the two began an extramarital affair. Olive, whom Isherwood depicted as Marvey Scriven in ''
The Memorial'' and as Madame Cheuret in ''Lions and Shadows'', eventually separated from her husband Andre Mangeot and lived in the London suburbs at Gunter Grove,
Barnet, where she invited Ross and her daughter Sarah to live with her.
For many years, Ross and Sarah lived as Olive's boarders in modest circumstances in Gunter Grove. Much like Ross, Mangeot had been an apolitical bohemian in her youth and transformed with age into a devout
Stalinist
Stalinism (, ) is the totalitarian means of governing and Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1927 to 1953 by dictator Joseph Stalin and in Soviet satellite states between 1944 and 1953. Stalinism in ...
who sold the ''Daily Worker'' and was an active member of various left-wing circles. According to Isherwood, Mangeot, Ross, and their social circle refused to consort with
Trotskyist
Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...
s or other communist schismatics who had strayed from the Stalinist party line.
Parenthood, and socialist activities
For the remainder of her life, Ross devoted herself to advancing the ideology of socialism and raising her daughter Sarah. To obtain the most advantageous education available for Sarah, Ross moved to Scotland. In 1960, they moved to
Barnes, London, for Sarah to attend Oxford University. They lived with Jean's invalid sister Margaret "Peggy" Ross, a sculptor and painter who trained at the
Liverpool School of Art.
At this point, Ross acted as a caretaker for both Peggy—who had severe arthritis affecting her mobility—and her ailing mother Clara, who had suffered a debilitating stroke. Under Ross' tutelage, Sarah became one of the first women to join the
Oxford Union
The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford, England, whose membership is drawn primarily from the University of Oxford. Founded in 1823, it is one of Britain's oldest unive ...
as a student and to speak in the Oxford Union's Debating Chamber. She went on to teach law at Oxford and became a senior executive at
Lloyds Bank
Lloyds Bank plc is a major British retail banking, retail and commercial bank with a significant presence across England and Wales. It has traditionally been regarded one of the "Big Four (banking)#England and Wales, Big Four" clearing house ...
, and later a celebrated author of detective novels.
While Sarah was at Oxford, Ross continued to engage in political activities including
protesting nuclear weapons,
boycotting apartheid South Africa, and opposing the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
. Even in later life, she continued to sell copies of the ''Daily Worker'' to neighbouring houses and to raise awareness of ongoing political campaigns. Acquaintances who met Ross during the later decades of her life noted various hardships and impoverished economic circumstances had taken their toll on her. By this time, she had few clothes and very little money. Sommerfield recalled:
Ross and writer Isherwood met a final time shortly before her death. In a diary entry for 24 April 1970, Isherwood recounted their final reunion in London:
On 27 April 1973, Ross died at her home in
Richmond, Surrey, aged 61, from cervical cancer. She was cremated at East Sheen.
Dislike of ''Sally Bowles'' and ''Cabaret''

According to Jean Ross' daughter
Sarah Caudwell, her mother detested her popular identification with the vacuous character
Sally Bowles
Sally Bowles () is a fictional character created by English-American novelist Christopher Isherwood and based upon 19-year-old cabaret singer Jean Ross. The character debuted in Isherwood's 1937 novella ''Sally Bowles'' published by Hogarth Pre ...
. Ross believed the character's political indifference more closely resembled Isherwood or his gay friends, many of whom "fluttered around town exclaiming how sexy the
storm troopers looked in their uniforms". This claim is confirmed by biographer
Peter Parker
Spider-Man is a superhero in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in the anthology comic book ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in the Silver Age of ...
who described Isherwood as "the least political" of
W. H. Auden's social circle in Weimar Berlin, and W. H. Auden lamented the young Isherwood "held no
oliticalopinions whatever about anything".
Caudwell claimed that Isherwood's fictionalised depiction of her mother uses a
literary convention that necessitated "a woman must be either virtuous (in the sexual sense) or a tart. So Sally, who is plainly not virtuous, must be a tart to depend for a living on providing sexual pleasure". Such a submissive gender role would have "seemed to
ossthe ultimate denial of freedom and emancipation." Although Caudwell posited that Isherwood depicted Sally Bowles as a
tart
A tart is a baked dish consisting of a filling over a pastry base with an open top not covered with pastry. The pastry is usually shortcrust pastry; the filling may be sweet or savoury, though modern tarts are usually fruit-based, sometimes with ...
, Isherwood emphatically denied this interpretation. In a letter to
John Van Druten
John William Van Druten (1 June 190119 December 1957) was an English playwright and theatre director. He began his career in London, and later moved to America, becoming a U.S. citizen. He was known for his plays of witty and urbane observations ...
, Isherwood wrote that Sally "is a little girl who has listened to what the grown-ups had said about tarts, and who was trying to copy those things".
Above all, Ross resented Isherwood's depiction of Ross expressing
antisemitic
Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
bigotry in his 1937 novella ''Sally Bowles''. In the novella, Bowles laments having sex with an "awful old Jew" to obtain money. Caudwell said such racial bigotry "would have been as alien to my mother's vocabulary as a sentence in Swahili; she had no more deeply rooted passion than a loathing of racialism and so, from the outset, of fascism." Due to her unyielding dislike of fascism, Ross was incensed Isherwood had depicted her as thoughtlessly allied in her beliefs "with the
acistattitudes which led to Dachau and Auschwitz". In the early 21st century, some writers have argued the antisemitic remarks in ''Sally Bowles'' are a reflection of Isherwood's own much-documented prejudices. In Peter Parker's biography, he states: "Isherwood is revealed as being fairly anti-Semitic to a degree that required some emendations of the Berlin novels when they were republished after the war".
Isherwood never publicly identified Ross as his model for Sally Bowles until after her death. Others proved less discreet. Ross said her vindictive former partner Claud Cockburn leaked to the press that she had inspired the character. In 1951, poet
Stephen Spender
Sir Stephen Harold Spender (28 February 1909 – 16 July 1995) was an English poet, novelist and essayist whose work concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle. He was appointed U.S. Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry ...
in his autobiography ''World Within World'' publicly confirmed Ross as the basis of the character, and he also confirmed the novella's abortion incident to be factual. Later,
Gerald Hamilton, the inspiration for Isherwood's character Mr Norris, identified Ross as Sally Bowles due to a public feud with Cockburn. Consequently, when ''
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, casino, hotel, restaurant, or nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or drinking, ...
'' garnered acclaim in the late 1960s, journalists—particularly those from the ''
Daily Mail
The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...
''—tracked down Ross and hounded her with intrusive questions.
Ross refused to discuss her sexual relationships in Weimar Berlin with tabloid journalists. Caudwell said their relentless questions "were invariably a disappointment on both sides: the journalists always wanted to talk about sex" while Ross "wanted to talk about politics". Ross noted reporters often claimed to seek knowledge "about Berlin in the Thirties" but they did not wish "to know about the unemployment or the poverty or the Nazis marching through the streets—all they want to know is how many men I went to bed with". Ross became angered when the reporters ascribed her many sexual affairs to her feminist beliefs: "They asked if I was a feminist. Well, of course I am, darling. But they don't think that feminism is about sex, do they? It's about economics".
Ross steadfastly declined invitations to watch ''Cabaret'' or any related adaptations. Her ambivalence towards the popular success of ''Cabaret'' was not unique among Isherwood's acquaintances: Stephen Spender said ''Cabaret'' glossed over Weimar Berlin's crushing poverty, and he later noted there was "not a single meal or club in the movie ''Cabaret'' that Christopher and I could have afforded". Both Spender and Ross often said Isherwood's stories glamourised and distorted the harsh realities of life in 1930s Berlin. According to Ross, Isherwood's "story was quite, quite different from what really happened". She nonetheless conceded the accuracy of the depiction of their social group of British expatriates as pleasure-seeking libertines: "We were all utterly against the bourgeois standards of our parents' generation. That's what took us to
eimar-eraBerlin. The climate was freer there".
Portrayals and legacy
Isherwood canon
Sally Bowles, the fictional character inspired by Jean Ross, has been portrayed by a number of actors;
Julie Harris in ''
I Am a Camera'', the 1951 adaptation of ''Goodbye to Berlin'' and the 1955
film adaptation of the same name;
Jill Haworth in the original 1966 Broadway production of ''
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, casino, hotel, restaurant, or nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or drinking, ...
'';
Judi Dench
Dame Judith Olivia Dench (born 9 December 1934) is an English actress. Widely considered one of Britain's greatest actors, she is noted for her versatility, having appeared in films and television, as well as for her numerous roles on the stage ...
in the original 1968 West-End stage version of ''Cabaret'';
Liza Minnelli
Liza May Minnelli ( ; born March 12, 1946) is an American actress, singer, and dancer. Known for her commanding stage presence and powerful alto singing voice, Minnelli has received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, ...
in
Bob Fosse
Robert Louis Fosse (; June 23, 1927 – September 23, 1987) was an American choreographer, dancer, filmmaker, and stage director. Known for his work on stage and screen, he is arguably the most influential figure in the field of jazz dance in th ...
's
1972 film adaptation of the musical, and
Natasha Richardson in the 1998 Broadway revival of ''Cabaret''.
In 1979, critic
Howard Moss noted the resilience of the Sally Bowles character: "It is almost fifty years since Sally Bowles shared the recipe for a Prairie oyster with Herr Issyvoo in a vain attempt to cure a hangover" and yet the character in subsequent permutations lives on "from story to play to movie to musical to movie-musical". Moss ascribed the character's continuing appeal to the aura of sophisticated innocence that pervades the character and of Weimar Berlin in which "the unseemly and the ugly" are either de-emphasised or made to appear genial to the spectator.
According to critic Ingrid Norton, Sally Bowles later inspired Holly Golightly in
Truman Capote
Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics ...
's novella ''
Breakfast at Tiffany's''.
[: "Truman Capote's Holly Golightly ... the latter of whom is a tribute to Isherwood and his Sally Bowles ... "] Norton has said Isherwood's Bowles was the key model for Capote's Golightly character, and that both scenes and dialogue in Capote's 1958 novella have direct equivalencies in Isherwood's 1937 work. Capote, who admired Isherwood's novels, had befriended Isherwood in New York in the late 1940s.
''Christopher and His Kind'' (2011)

In 2011, British actor
Imogen Poots
Imogen Gay Poots (born 3 June 1989) is an English actress. She played Tammy in the post-apocalyptic horror film ''28 Weeks Later'' (2007), Linda Keith in the Jimi Hendrix biopic ''Jimi: All Is by My Side'' (2013), Debbie Raymond in the Paul Ray ...
portrayed Jean Ross in ''
Christopher and His Kind'', in which she starred opposite
Matt Smith
Matthew Robert Smith (born 28 October 1982) is an English actor. He is known for playing the Eleventh Doctor in the BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' (2010–2013), Prince Philip in Netflix's historical series ''The Crown ( ...
as Christopher Isherwood. For her performance, Poots attempted to show Ross' personality as "convincingly fragile beneath layers of attitude" but did not wish to depict Ross as a talented singer. Poots said if "Jean had been that good, she wouldn't have been wasting her time hanging around with Isherwood in the cabarets of the Weimar Republic, she would have been on her way, perhaps, to the life she dreamed of in Hollywood".
These Foolish Things
As well as inspiring Sally Bowles, Ross has been credited as the inspiration for one of the 20th century's most-enduring popular songs, "
These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You)". Although its composer
Eric Maschwitz
Albert Eric Maschwitz Order of the British Empire, OBE (10 June 1901 – 27 October 1969), sometimes credited as Holt Marvell, was an English entertainer, writer, editor, broadcaster and broadcasting executive.
Life and work
Born in Edgbaston, ...
's wife
Hermione Gingold said her autobiography the song was written for either herself or actor
Anna May Wong
Wong Liu Tsong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961), known professionally as Anna May Wong, was an American actress, considered the first Chinese American film star in Hollywood, as well as the first Chinese American actress to gain internat ...
, Maschwitz's own autobiography contradicts that of Gingold. Maschwitz cites "fleeting memories of
young love" as the inspiration for the song, and most sources—including the ''
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') ...
''—say cabaret singer Ross, with whom Maschwitz had a youthful romantic liaison, was the muse for the song.
References
Notes
Citations
Works cited
Print sources
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* Although an autobiographical work disguised as a novel, John Sommerfield's ''The Imprinted'' draws upon factual relationships and events that occurred among British socialist enclaves in the 1930s. As such, Sommerfield's friendship with Ross and Cornford is likely factual, although any relationship between Ross and Cornford is unconfirmed.
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* Frost's article is more or less a summary of the Oxford National Biography article by
Peter Parker
Spider-Man is a superhero in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in the anthology comic book ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in the Silver Age of ...
.
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External links
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Jean Ross – CounterPunch Profilecounterpunch.org; accessed 8 July 2014.
Jean Ross – Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Profile oxforddnb.com; accessed 8 July 2014.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ross, Jean
1911 births
1973 deaths
English people of Scottish descent
People from Alexandria
British communists
British expatriates in Germany
British women singers
British writers
British film critics
British women film critics
Deaths from cervical cancer in the United Kingdom
Nightclub performers
20th-century English singers
20th-century English women singers
People associated with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
British socialist feminists
Deaths from cancer in England
British expatriates in Egypt