Shelley Smith Mydans (born Shelley Smith; May 20, 1915 – March 7, 2002) was an American novelist, journalist and prisoner of war.

Life

Mydans was born in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, where she grew up thinking of being a dancer, although her father was a university professor of journalism. As a child, she was one of the first participants in

Lewis Terman Lewis Madison Terman (January 15, 1877 – December 21, 1956) was an American psychologist and author. He was noted as a pioneer in educational psychology in the early 20th century at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. He is best known f ...

's landmark Genetic Studies of Genius longitudinal study. She moved to New York to work for the

Literary Digest ''The Literary Digest'' was an influential American general interest weekly magazine published by Funk & Wagnalls. Founded by Isaac Kaufmann Funk in 1890, it eventually merged with two similar weekly magazines, ''Public Opinion'' and '' Current ...

, and became a journalist for ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

'' magazine, where she met

Carl Mydans Carl Mydans (May 20, 1907 – August 16, 2004) was an American photographer who worked for the Farm Security Administration and ''Life'' magazine. Life Mydans grew up playing on the Mystic River near Medford, near Boston, Massachusetts. His fat ...

in 1938. They married the following year and they were the first husband-and-wife team to be employed by the magazine.

World War II

They were sent initially to the United Kingdom to cover the war but they left for China when France was defeated. They eventually traveled over 45,000 miles visiting Scandinavia, Portugal, Italy,

Chongqing Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Romanization, alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a Direct-administered municipalities of China, municipality in Southwes ...

in China and the British colony of Hong Kong. Mydans described her job as writer and researcher only occasionally getting attribution when a writer was not available. They were both caught by the Japanese in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

and they were interred firstly in Manila and later in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

at the Chapei Internment Center. They were lucky to be exchanged in a prisoner swap in December 1943, and they both then returned to the war. Mydans was to write her first novel called "Open City" based on her time as a prisoner of the Japanese and this was published in 1945. In 1945 her husband went to

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

where he was to record the iconic moment of MacArthur's return but this was denied to Mydans and she was sent to

Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...

to work on a restricted basis. "I was accredited to the navy, but I was not - because I was a woman - allowed to cover action on naval ships or planes and my articles had to be confined to such things as the navy flight nurses and marine base camps."

Post war

Mydans wrote for radio for the American ABC network after the war including for the news program ''

The March of Time ''The March of Time'' is an American newsreel series sponsored by Time Inc. and shown in movie theaters from 1935 to 1951. It was based on a radio news series broadcast from 1931 to 1945. The "voice" of both series was Westbrook Van Voorhis. Pr ...

''. She resigned when the first of her children were born. She wrote two more novels — the first was based around the life of

Thomas Becket Thomas Becket (), also known as Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Thomas of London and later Thomas à Becket (21 December 1119 or 1120 – 29 December 1170), was an English nobleman who served as Lord Chancellor from 1155 to 1162, and then ...

and the other was based in 8th-century Japan. She and her husband also wrote a non-fiction book about post war terrorism. Mydans died in

Larchmont, New York Larchmont is a village located within the Town of Mamaroneck in Westchester County, New York, approximately northeast of Midtown Manhattan. The population of the village was 5,864 at the 2010 census. In February 2019, Bloomberg ranked Lar ...

in 2002.

References

External links

* Carl and Shelley Smith Mydans Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mydans, Shelley 1915 births 2002 deaths Writers from California American women novelists 20th-century American novelists American magazine journalists American radio journalists 20th-century American women writers Writers of historical fiction set in the Middle Ages Life (magazine) photojournalists Women historical novelists 20th-century American non-fiction writers American women radio journalists