'These letters are a treat ... as an example of what a woman can do once she has rid herself of, or at least decided to ignore, the expectations of others - family, men, society - Jessica Mitford will always take some beating' OBSERVER 'Captures history's most charming muckraker, from her friendships with Katharine Graham and Maya Angelou to her devotion to civil rights' VOGUE 'Jessica Mitford is a sister of mine. If I had to go into a room with a leopard, I wouldn't hesitate to ask for her' Maja Angelou Over her 78 years, Decca's letters reveal a remarkable life - from her childhood as the daughter of a British peer to her scandalous elopement to the Spanish Civil War with her cousin, to her life in the USA, where she married a radical lawyer. The Mitford girls included Diana (who married the British fascist leader Oswald Mosley), Unity (who was close to Adolf Hitler) and Debo (who became the Duchess of Devonshire). Decca shocked them all when she joined the American Communist Party. Her letters are the stories of a century: gossip and politics, war and mores, the wonders of rapid technological change, the poignancy of personal struggles. They are also a record of her never-ending quest for social justice. This is a fascinating collection that reveals to us intimately the most ebullient Mitford of them all.

First published in 1974, The American Prison Business studies the lunacies, the delusions, and the bizarre inner workings of the American prison business. From the first demonstration that the penitentiary is an American invention that was initiated by the late eighteenth-century reformers, to the startling revelations, in the chapter called 'Cheaper than Chimpanzees' of how pharmaceutical companies lease prisoners as human guinea-pigs, every page stimulates and surprises the reader as Jessica Mitford describes, inter alia the chemical, surgical and psychiatric techniques used to help 'violent' prisoners to be 'reborn'; why businessmen tend to be more enthusiastic than the prisoners they employ in the 'rent-a-con' plan; and the Special Isolation Diet which tastes like inferior dog food. Jessica Mitford's financial analysis of the prison business is a scoop. Her hard-eyed examination of how parole really works is a revelation. As the prison abolition movement continues to gain momentum, this book will provide food for thought for legislators, officials and students of sociology, law, criminology, penology, and history.

Jessica Mitford, the great muckraking journalist, was part of a legendary English aristocratic family. Her sisters included Nancy, doyenne of the 1920s London smart set and a noted novelist and biographer; Diana, wife to the English fascist chief Sir Oswald Mosley; Unity, who fell head over in heels in love with Hitler; and Deborah, later the Duchess of Devonshire. Jessica swung left and moved to America, where she took part in the civil rights movement and wrote her classic expose of the undertaking business, "The American Way of Death."
"Hons and Rebels" is the hugely entertaining tale of Mitford's upbringing, which was, as she dryly remarks, "not exactly conventional. . . Debo spent silent hours in the chicken house learning to do an exact imitation of the look of pained concentration that comes over a hen's face when it is laying an egg. . . . Unity and I made up a complete language called Boudledidge, unintelligible to any but ourselves, in which we translated various dirty songs (for safe singing in front of the grown-ups)." But Mitford found her family's world as smothering as it was singular and, determined to escape it, she eloped with Esmond Romilly, Churchill's nephew, to go fight in the Spanish Civil War. The ensuing scandal, in which a British destroyer was dispatched to recover the two truants, inspires some of Mitford's funniest, and most pointed, pages.
A family portrait, a tale of youthful folly and high-spirited adventure, a study in social history, a love story, "Hons and Rebels" is a delightful contribution to the autobiographer's art.

In the early 1960s, this classic work of investigative journalism was a number one bestseller. The savage and hilarious analysis of America's funeral practices rocked the industry and shocked the public. This up-dated edition (revised just before the author's death) shows that if anything the industry has become more pernicious than ever in its assault on our practices and wallets. And it's an industry that - alas - sooner or later affects us all.

First published in 1960, Jessica Mitford's autobiography is an account of the enclosed and eccentric childhood through which Nancy, Diana, Pam, Unity, Decca and Debo lived. In writing of their upbringing between the wars she also writes of her own commitment to communism and of her elopement to the Spanish Civil War with Esmond Romilly. Jessica Mitford is the author of "The American Way of Death" and has recently published a biography of Grace Darling entitled "Grace had an English Heart".

The journalistic profile is one of the most popular, widely read types of magazine feature writing. Helen Benedict, a master of the genre, has collected for "Portraits in Print" nine of her best pieces, and provided a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the art of portrait journalism.

Among the persons profiled here are Joseph Brodsky, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Susan Sontag, Paule Marshall, Bernard Malamud, and Beverly Sills. In a general introduction and in lively discussions after each profile, Helen Benedict describes how she selected the subjects, got them to agree to be interviewed, convinced the magazines' editor's to assign her the pieces, prepared for the interviews, and set about writing each one after the research and interviewing were complete. Benedict also discusses how much confidence to betray, how personal to get, what to leave out, and the writer's power over the profile subject. This is fascinating reading, especially for aspiring writers who hope to learn more about the skills and practices of this popular genre.

"Portraits in Print" concludes with an Afterward by the famous muckraker and author of "The American Way of Death," Jessica Mitford. Mitford takes the opposite tack, in an amusing essay about what it is like to be an interviewee.