Mannin, Ethel, 1900-1984

The oldest of three children, Ethel Edith Mannin was born on October 11, 1900 in Clapham, a suburb of London, to Robert Mannin and Edith Gray Mannin. She was author of almost one hundred books (her goal was to publish one novel and one work of nonfiction each year). She published novels, travelogues, autobiographies, children's books, collections of short stories, books on child-rearing, and articles on pacifism and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Her journalistic career began at age seventeen, when she became the associate editor of The Pelican, a theatrical and sporting periodical, and held that position until 1919, when the magazine ceased publication. That same year, Mannin married John Alexander Porteous. Together, they had one child, Jean. Mannin spent very little time with her husband, preferring the company and lifestyle of her literary and left-leaning political friends, and they later divorced. In 1938, Mannin married Reginald Reynolds, a Quaker peace activist and friend of Mahatma Gandhi.

Mannin's first novel, Martha, was a runner-up in a competition for first novels, and was published by the contest's sponsors in 1923. Her first commercially and critically successful novel was Sounding Brass (1925). Mannin's satirical look at life in the twenties was based on her experience in the London advertising world. Critics often compared it to Sinclair Lewis's Main Street and Babbitt. One of her most popular novels was Late Have I Loved Thee (1948) which depicted a man's conversion to Catholicism and vocation to the priesthood. Mannin was often praised for her superior character development. She wanted to portray characters whom she described as "real people" who "eluded class distinctions." Critics often faulted her writing for being too concerned with her own personal political and social views, making her novels propagandistic. Her novels often dealt with contemporary events, such as The Road to Beersheba, which was a response to Leon Uris's popular and pro-Israeli novel Exodus. She was fervently anti-Zionist and very concerned over the plight of Palestinian refugees.

Even Mannin's nonfiction became controversial. E.F. Allen of the New York Times described her book Forever Wandering as a "travel notebook of a British novelist, who takes for granted that the world is interested in her observations and reaction...Although [she] is opinionated to point of irritation, she is honest in her attitudes and exuberant in her style or writing." Her first autobiographical work, Confessions and Impressions, was considered shocking at the time of its publication in 1930. The work, which included detailed accounts of extramarital affairs, caused an immediate scandal and earned her a reputation as an "angry woman." The book was written in part to scandalize the older generation and upset their conservative social values. Her profession of modernist sexual mores and advocacy of leftist causes gave Mannin a reputation as being both bohemian and risqué.

Though Mannin's permanent residence was England (for much of her life in Wimbledon and later in Devon), Mannin also maintained a cottage in Connemara, Ireland. One of her more well-known works was Connemara Journal (1947), an account of Mannin's pleasure in her isolated existence in Ireland. Her father was of Irish descent and she had a lifelong fondness for Ireland and all things Irish.

Mannin died in 1984 after a decline subsequent to fracturing her pelvis.