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Ivy Teresa Low Litvinov ( Russian: Айви Вальтеровна Литвинова) (4 June 1889 – 16 April 1977) was an English-Russian writer and translator, and wife of Soviet diplomat and foreign minister Maxim Litvinov. She was also known as Ivy Low, Ivy Litvinova or Ivy Litvinoff.

Biography

She was born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

into an

Anglo-Jewish British Jews (often referred to collectively as British Jewry or Anglo-Jewry) are British citizens who identify as Jewish. The number of people who identified as Jews in the United Kingdom rose by just under 4% between 2001 and 2021. History ...

family. Her father Walter was a friend of

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

Maxim Litvinov, who at the time was a revolutionary exile living in London. They had two children, Mikhail (Misha) and Tatiana (Tanya). Following the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...

Maxim returned home in 1918, and she followed him two years later. Maxim Litvinov became a prominent diplomat and served as

People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs The Ministry of External Relations (MER) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) (russian: Министерство иностранных дел СССР) was founded on 6 July 1923. It had three names during its existence: People's Co ...

(foreign minister) from 1930 to 1939, and Soviet ambassador to the United States from 1941 to 1943. He died in 1951, having survived the purges of nearly all of his closest colleagues despite having fallen out of favour with Stalin on more than one occasion. Apart from brief stays abroad as part of her husband's diplomatic service, she lived in the Soviet Union for most of her adult life before moving permanently to

Hove Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th cen ...

, England in 1972, where she died in 1977. Looking back on the precarious situation that Maxim and Ivy had faced in the Stalin era,

George Kennan George Frost Kennan (February 16, 1904 – March 17, 2005) was an American diplomat and historian. He was best known as an advocate of a policy of containment of Soviet expansion during the Cold War. He lectured widely and wrote scholarly histo ...

wrote "It is one of the wonders of the age that Ivy survived to die a natural death."

Family

Low's grandfather Maximilian Loewe emigrated from Hungary to England after the unsuccessful

revolution of 1848 The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Springtime of the Peoples or the Springtime of Nations, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe starting in 1848. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in Europea ...

. Through her father Walter, she was the niece of author Sir

Sidney Low Sir Sidney James Mark Low (22 January 1857 – 14 January 1932) was a British journalist, historian, and essayist. Biography Low was born to Jewish parents Therese ( née Schacherl; 1835–1887) and Maximillian Loewe (1830–1900), who emigrated ...

. Another uncle, Sir Maurice Low, was a journalist and Washington correspondent for British newspapers. One of her aunts was Barbara Low, psychoanalyst, and another aunt, Edith, married

David Eder (Montague) David Eder (1 August 1865 – 30 March 1936) was a British psychoanalyst, physician, Zionist and writer of Lithuanian Jewish descent. He was best known for advancing psychoanalytic studies in Great Britain. Education and medical train ...

. Through her son Misha, she was grandmother of

Pavel Litvinov Pavel Mikhailovich Litvinov (russian: Па́вел Миха́йлович Литви́нов; born 6 July 1940) is a Russian-born U.S. physicist, writer, teacher, human rights activist and former Soviet-era dissident. Biography The grandson of ...

. Through her daughter Tatiana, she was grandmother of the journalist (aka Maria Phillimore-Slonim), who married Robert Godfrey Phillimore, 3rd

Baron Phillimore Baron Phillimore, of Shiplake in the County of Oxford, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1918 for the former Judge of the High Court of Justice and Lord Justice of Appeal, Sir Walter Phillimore, 2nd Baronet. The ...

Writing career

Low wrote the novels ''Growing Pains'' in 1913 and ''The Questing Beast'' in 1914, as well as ''His Master’s Voice: a Detective Story'' in 1930. She also wrote about a dozen short stories published in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' magazine beginning in the 1960s. A collection of short stories was published in book form as ''She Knew She Was Right''. In 1946 she wrote the article "A visit to

D.H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...

" in ''

Harper's Bazaar ''Harper's Bazaar'' is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. It was first published in New York City on November 2, 1867, as the weekly ''Harper's Bazar''. ''Harper's Bazaar'' is published by Hearst and considers itself to be the st ...

'', about a six-week visit she had made in 1914 to the author and his soon-to-be wife Frieda in

Tuscany Tuscany ( ; it, Toscana ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence (''Firenze''). Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, art ...

. She produced numerous translations of Russian literature into English, and also wrote or edited reference books for Russian-speaking learners of English. In the 1930s she supported the teaching of Basic English.

References

Sources

External links

Works by Ivy Low Litvinov

Ivy Litvinov papers
(Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University) {{DEFAULTSORT:Litvinov, Ivy Low 1889 births 1977 deaths British Jewish writers 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English women writers Russian–English translators English women novelists 20th-century translators British emigrants to the Soviet Union