Rayna Prohme (1894 - 1927) was a journalist who covered the communist movement in China in the late 1920s.

Biography

She was born Rayna Simons, the daughter of a successful Jewish businessman. She graduated from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

in 1917, where she befriended Dorothy Day. Day's book, ''

The Long Loneliness ''The Long Loneliness'' is the autobiography of Dorothy Day, published in 1952 by Harper & Brothers. In the book, Day chronicles her involvement in socialist groups along with her eventual conversion to Catholicism in 1927, and the beginning of he ...

'', describes their activities reading socialist novellas and joining the Socialist Party of America. From 1918 to 1922 she was married to

Samson Raphaelson Samson Raphaelson (March 30, 1894 – July 16, 1983) was a leading American playwright, screenwriter and fiction writer. While working as an advertising executive in New York, he wrote a short story based on the early life of Al Jolson, called ' ...

, a marriage that ended in divorce. She later met and married William "Bill" Prohme who worked for

William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...

San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst, and flagship of the Hearst Corporat ...

. They moved to China, where Prohme's sister,

Grace Simons Grace E. Simons was an activist who lived in Los Angeles and is known for her work in preserving Elysian Park as open space. Biography Simons was born in 1901 and grew up in Chicago. In 1925 she moved to China where she met her sister, the j ...

was a reporter in China. In 1926 she started working with Eugene Chen who was publishing the ''People's Tribune''. Prohme and the American journalist

Milly Bennett Milly Bennett (May 22, 1897 – November 7, 1960) (born Mildred Jacqueline Bremler, also known as Mildred Mitchell and Mildred Amlie) was an American journalist and writer who covered political conditions in China, social conditions in the Soviet ...

edited the ''People's Tribune'' in Hankou from 1926 until July 1927. While in China, Prohme was among the people admiring Mikhail Markowitsch Borodin, whom Lenin had sent to China in September 1923. Jointly Prohme and Bennett wrote a speech in which Soong Ching-ling,

Sun Yat-sen Sun Yat-sen (; also known by several other names; 12 November 1866 – 12 March 1925)Singtao daily. Saturday edition. 23 October 2010. section A18. Sun Yat-sen Xinhai revolution 100th anniversary edition . was a Chinese politician who serve ...

's wife, resigned from her government position, and then Prohme helped her leave Hankou and make her way to Russia. Prohme also met the American screen writer Vincent Sheean in 1926 and he would eventually dedicate his memoir, ''Personal History'', to Prohme whom he called "a marvelously pure flame". Within ''Personal History'', Sheean talks about Prohme's work in China. He also talks about his relationship to her in an article published in the ''Atlantic Monthly''.

Anna Louise Strong Anna Louise Strong (November 24, 1885 – March 29, 1970) was an American journalist and activist, best known for her reporting on and support for communist movements in the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.Archives West,Anna Loui ...

tried to help Prohme when she became ill; however, Prohme died on November 21, 1927, and was cremated in Russia. A book of Prohme's letters about her reporting during the Chinese Revolution was published after her death.
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Biography

Selected publications

References

Further reading