Louise Cripps Samoiloff (13 December 1904 – 21 September 2001) was a British-born writer, journalist, historian and editor who became an American citizen and wrote several books advocating the case for the independence of

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

Biography

Louise Cripps studied journalism at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

during the mid-1920s and aimed to become a literary writer, though found work in London as a journalist and editor working for various publications including

Nursery World ''Nursery World'' is a fortnightly magazine for early years education and childcare professionals in the United Kingdom. It was first published in 1925 by Faber and Gwyer and sold to Benn Brothers in 1927 in exchange for ten years' royalty paym ...

and

British Vogue British ''Vogue'' is a British fashion magazine published based in London since autumn 1916. It is the British edition of the American magazine ''Vogue'' and is owned and distributed by Condé Montrose Nast. British ''Vogue'' editor in 2012 c ...

. Politically radicalising during the Great Depression and the rise of fascism in Europe, she became a Marxist in the early 1930s, joining the tiny British

Trotskyist Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...

movement and working in the Marxist Group. During the Second World War, she moved to New York and worked for the

British War Relief Society The British War Relief Society (BWRS) was a US-based humanitarian umbrella organisation dealing with the supply of non-military aid such as food, clothes, medical supplies and financial aid to people in Great Britain during the early years of th ...

, editing a publication ''Salute: a tribute to courage for British War Relief'', and published her first book ''Your first baby!'' (1943). After the war she continued to work as a journalist and publisher, editing an American publication ''Baby Post''. In the 1960s she moved to

for her retirement where she wrote many books about the island and putting the case for independence, as well as other works of history and a novel, ''Lirazel''. Over the course of her life, Louise Cripps knew many key intellectual figures of the twentieth century including

C.L.R. James Cyril Lionel Robert James (4 January 1901 – 31 May 1989),Fraser, C. Gerald, ''The New York Times'', 2 June 1989. who sometimes wrote under the pen-name J. R. Johnson, was a Trinidadian historian, journalist and Marxist. His works are in ...

(with whom she had a relationship during the 1930s),

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...

John Dewey John Dewey (; October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the f ...

George Grosz George Grosz (; born Georg Ehrenfried Groß; July 26, 1893 – July 6, 1959) was a German artist known especially for his caricatural drawings and paintings of Berlin life in the 1920s. He was a prominent member of the Berlin Dada and New Objec ...

Dr. Benjamin Spock Benjamin McLane Spock (May 2, 1903 – March 15, 1998) was an American pediatrician and left-wing political activist whose book '' Baby and Child Care'' (1946) is one of the best-selling books of the twentieth century, selling 500,000 copie ...

Harold Laski Harold Joseph Laski (30 June 1893 – 24 March 1950) was an English political theorist and economist. He was active in politics and served as the chairman of the British Labour Party from 1945 to 1946 and was a professor at the London School of ...

, Gordon K. Lewis,

Norman Thomas Norman Mattoon Thomas (November 20, 1884 – December 19, 1968) was an American Presbyterian minister who achieved fame as a socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America. Early years Thomas was the ...

G.K. Chesterton Gilbert Keith Chesterton (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936) was an English writer, philosopher, Christian apologist, and literary and art critic. He has been referred to as the "prince of paradox". Of his writing style, ''Time'' observed: "Wh ...

Havelock Ellis Henry Havelock Ellis (2 February 1859 – 8 July 1939) was an English physician, eugenicist, writer, progressive intellectual and social reformer who studied human sexuality. He co-wrote the first medical textbook in English on homosexuality in ...

Izrael Hieger Izrael Hieger DSc (London) (13 June 1901 – 14 October 1986) was a biochemist whose work focused on carcinogenesis. He discovered the first known organic carcinogenic compound. In 1937 Hieger, with colleagues Ernest Kennaway and J. W. Cook, wa ...

and

Earle Birney Earle Alfred Birney (13 May 1904 – 3 September 1995) was a Canadian poet and novelist, who twice won the Governor General's Award, Canada's top literary honour, for his poetry. Life Born in Calgary, Alberta, and raised on a farm in Eri ...

. Her first marriage was to the writer

Bernard Glemser Bernard Glemser (May 20, 1908–April 3, 1990), also known under pen-names Robert Crane and Geraline Napier, was a writer of fiction, non-fiction, and children's books. He served in the Royal Air Force as an intelligence officer during World War II ...

, whom she married in early 1932 and with whom she had one son, Martin, before marrying Leon A. Samoiloff, a Russian-born Harvard-educated man in 1946.Louise Cripps Samoilof
"C.L.R. James: Memories and Commentaries"
Associated University Presses, 1997

Publications

;Books * * * * * * * * * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cripps Samoiloff, Louise 1904 births 2001 deaths 20th-century British women writers 20th-century British non-fiction writers

Biography

Publications

Further reading

References