Professor Carla Kaplan’s (WGSS, English, CSGS) new book, Troublemaker, explores the life of activist and journalist Jessica Mitford. As a member of the notorious Mitford Sister clan, she and her six sisters have stayed present in popular culture. However, Jessica’s story alone has often been overlooked. Having moved around from London to California and Miami, attending Martin Luther King’s Freedom Rider Protest, and singing duets with Maya Angelou, it is no question that Jessica lived a life of adventure.
Professor Kaplan wrote that “Pivots were her superpower”, and this is certainly true. Despite facing endless hardships in her life, including the loss of her husband, two children, and being a victim of sexual assault, Mitford’s focus never wavered from her activism or work. She volunteered, petitioned, worked as a reporter for the Office of Price Administration, at drugstores and even the Royal Air Force. As Kaplan wrote, Jessica had “the gift of complete indifference to domestic chaos”.
To learn more about this exciting book, read the New York Times Book Review here.
