'To find out things'

 

“I write books to find out about things.” – Rebecca West 

 

Born Cicely Isabel Fairfield in London on this date in 1892, Fairfield turned herself into the world-renowned author and reporter Rebecca West – a name she adopted from a “stage” name used while studying to become an actress in her late teens.  By the time of her death in 1983 she had published hundreds if not thousands of stimulating works in a wide range of genres, becoming a leading spokesperson on feminist issues and social justice.   

 

Her first novel – The Return of the Soldier – came out at age 26.  The bestselling tale of a shell-shocked, amnesiastic soldier returning from World War I instantly established her non-journalistic writing credentials.  Her last, The Birds Fall Down, a spy thriller set in pre-revolution Russia, cemented those credentials in writing history.  She ultimately produced 15 novels and 15 nonfiction books and also was feted as a leading reviewer and travel writer for many of the world’s top newspapers and magazines.

 

Among her other bestsellers were Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, on the history and culture of Yugoslavia; A Train of Powder – based on her magazine coverage of the Nuremberg trials; and the "Aubrey trilogy" of autobiographical novels, The Fountain Overflows, This Real Night, and Cousin Rosamund.   And she championed other writers, particularly those who were blacklisted during the McCarthy Era.

 

“God forbid that any book should be banned,” she wrote.  “The practice is as indefensible as infanticide.”