Sally Belfrage (October 4, 1936 – March 14, 1994) was a

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

-born

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

-based 20th century

non-fiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with be ...

writer and international journalist. Her writing covered turmoils in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, the American

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

and her own memoirs about her life. According to her obituary in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', she was 'an intelligent and humorous journalist and critic who ardently searched for the truth'.

Life

Sally Mary Caroline Belfrage was born in

Hollywood, California Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Columbia Pictures, ...

, on 4 October 1936. Her parents, Cedric Belfrage and Molly Castle, later moved to

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

where Sally studied at the

Bronx High School of Science The Bronx High School of Science, commonly called Bronx Science, is a public specialized high school in The Bronx in New York City. It is operated by the New York City Department of Education. Admission to Bronx Science involves passing the Spec ...

and

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

, before her parents were deported to

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 ...

as alleged Communists. After her return to England, Sally Belfrage matriculated at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

, and after graduation she attended

6th World Festival of Youth and Students The 6th World Festival of Youth and Students was held from 28 July to 5 August 1957 in Moscow, capital city of the then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The festival attracted 34,000 people from 130 countries. This became possible after the po ...

in Moscow, went to Communist China and worked for the Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, in 1957. Belfrage became a social activist and world traveller. Her books include ''The Crack: A Belfast Year'' (retitled ''Living with War: A Belfast Year'' for United States distribution), ''Un-American Activities: A Memoir of the Fifties'', ''Freedom Summer'', ''A Room in Moscow'', and ''Flowers of Emptiness: Reflections on an Ashram''. In 1969, Belfrage signed a war tax resistance vow, along with 447 other American writers and editors. It was published in the January 30, 1969 edition of the ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

''. In 1965, she married

Bernard Pomerance Bernard Pomerance (September 23, 1940 – August 26, 2017) was an American playwright and poet whose best known work is the play ''The Elephant Man (play), The Elephant Man''. Biography Pomerance was born in Brooklyn, New York City in 1940. He s ...

who was best known for his play, ''

The Elephant Man Joseph Carey Merrick (5 August 1862 – 11 April 1890), often erroneously called John Merrick, was an English man known for having severe deformities. He was first exhibited at a freak show under the stage name "the Elephant Man" and then we ...

''. They had two children: Eve Pomerance, a casting director in Hollywood, and Moby Pomerance, a playwright. Sally Belfrage lived most of her life in London, where she died at

Middlesex Hospital Middlesex Hospital was a teaching hospital located in the Fitzrovia area of London, England. First opened as the Middlesex Infirmary in 1745 on Windmill Street, it was moved in 1757 to Mortimer Street where it remained until it was finally clos ...

from lung cancer (adenocarcinoma) in 1994 at age 57. Her brother was

Nicolas Belfrage Nicolas Belfrage MW (19 July 1940 – 17 September 2022) was a British Master of Wine, a wine writer and considered one of the foremost experts on Italian wine. Life and career Belfrage was born in Los Angeles in 1940, the son of British socia ...

, the wine critic. Her father's brother was

Bruce Belfrage Bruce Belfrage (30 October 1900 – August 1974) was an English actor and BBC radio newsreader.Obituary in ''The Times'', ''Mr Bruce Belfrage'', 17 August 1974, p.14 He was casting director at the BBC between 1936 and 1939, and founded th ...

, the BBC Newsreader during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and her great uncle was

Bryan Powley Bryan Gilbert Powley (16 September 1871 – 18 December 1962) was a British stage and film actor. He began his career in the era of silent film. Life Powley was born on 16 September 1871 in Reading, the son of the Rev. Matthew Powley and Louis ...

, the actor.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Belfrage, Sally 1936 births 1994 deaths 20th-century American memoirists American women memoirists American tax resisters English journalists English memoirists Alumni of the London School of Economics Deaths from breast cancer Deaths from cancer in England American women journalists American emigrants to England 20th-century American women writers People from Hollywood, Los Angeles 20th-century American journalists British expatriates in the Soviet Union