Tag: reviews

Mother Knows Best—Jennie Churchill and Her Son 

Adele Fasick1 Comment

Mother’s Day is a good day to celebrate a woman who lived a full, exciting life but always had time to care for and help her famous son—Winston Churchill.  

Jennie Churchill was born Jeanette Jerome in Brooklyn, New York on January 6, 1854 into a prosperous New York family.  Her father was not outstandingly wealthy, but he and his wife had deep roots in New York society.  

Jennie’s father, however, made a number of reckless investments during the prosperous years following the end of America’s Civil War. He was also a devotee of the opera and embarrassed his wife by having affairs with several entertainers. Finally, when Jennie was 13, her mother decided to take all of her daughters abroad and raise them in Europe where they would be able to get good educations and meet aristocratic men. Her plan worked out well. 

Jennie and her sisters became fluent in French and were well-trained and talented musicians. They lived in Paris for several years before the revolution of 1870 forced them to resettle in London. One of the first eligible men that Jennie met there was Sir Randolph Churchill, whose family was close to the top of the social ladder. His ancestors had been part of British nobility for hundreds of years.  

Jennie and Randolph married rather quickly—timing that raised questions for many years about whether or not Jennie was pregnant when she got married. The question never seemed to bother Jennie, however, and certainly caused no trouble for Winston who was born eight months after the wedding. 

As was traditional in aristocratic families at the time, Winston was raised mostly by servants and was sent to boarding school at a young age. Being away at school was difficult for Winston and he wrote frequently to his mother begging for a visit or a letter. She seldom replied. Nonetheless, the relationship between the two was strong and lasting.  In later years Winston wrote that he and his mother were “on even terms more like brother and sister than like mother and son”.

Although Jennie was not a wealthy woman, and she had a bad habit of reckless spending that led to debts, her many friends and relationships were helpful in furthering Winston’s political career. She was active in many good causes. During World War I, she was Chair of the hospital committee for American Women’s War Relief Find which set up two hospitals in France to serve men wounded in the war. 

Jennie Jerome was not the only devoted mother who strongly influenced herson’s political career. A fascinating book published last year tells the story ofJennie Jerome and another successful political mother. It is “Passionate Mothers,Powerful Sons: The Lives of Jennie Jerome Churchill and Sara Delano Roosevelt” byCharlotte Gray (NY S&S 2023). Anyone interested in how politics at the highest level can work will find much to think about in this book.

Best sellers that never appear on the best seller lists

Adele Fasick3 Comments

February is the shortest month on our calendar and this year it somehow slipped away from me entirely. Computer problems caused me to lose several files and some pesky health problems slowed me down. But now March has come. The days are getting longer and I hope my blog will get back on schedule.  

One of the best-kept secrets of most best seller lists is that sometimes the real bestsellers never appear on the lists. While critics choose the bestselling books of the week or the year, readers may be spending their time reading books written centuries ago. The New York Times has a careful set of criteria for its bestseller lists. The details of their criteria are not public, but the Times does not include all the books that appear in a given year. They do not include books published by religious publishers even though these attract large audiences. The Bible, for example, is a perennial best seller that never makes best seller lists. 

Ann Radcliffe

Ann Radcliffe was born on July 9, 1764 in London. She moved to Bath with her family a few years later. She might have attended school in Bath, although there are no records of this. She certainly grew up to be a reader. In 1787, she married William Radcliffe. Her husband was a newspaperman who encouraged his wife to read and to write. The couple had no children and Ann devoted most of her time to those activities and to travelling. Her first book was a series of travel letters.

Radcliffe’s first novel, The Castles of Athlin and Dubnayne was published anonymously in 1789. The following year she wrote another book, A Sicilian Romance. Each book increased her audience and by the time she wrote her third, she began to publish under her own name. 

For her most famous book, The Mysteries of Udolpho, Radcliffe received 500 pounds, while the average author in England at that time received only 10 pounds for a novel. She was soon earning far more than her husband did for his newspaper work, but the difference did not seem to interfere with their relationship. They remained a devoted couple.  

Even though Radcliffe was a successful writer, she did not publish a great many books. While her books continued to be read and discussed by readers and other authors, she herself stopped writing quite early in her career. Her audience, however did not stop reading. 

Radcliffe was the most popular writer in England during the early nineteenth century. She was admired by both Jane Austen and Sir Walter Scott. And her influence did not end at England’s shore. Even the great Russian novelist, Dostoyevsky, read and admired her books. 

You might want to try reading a few of Ann Radcliffe’s books too. They are easily available online and in libraries and bookstores. Although they are not on our best seller lists these days, they are a refreshing reminder that we can still enjoy books written long before we became readers. Not all books lose their charm as time goes by. Why not try one of them and find out what Jane Austen read before she started writing books of her own?