Helen Foster Snow: An American Woman in Revolutionary China

302 Pages·2006·26.087 MB·English

by  Kelly Ann Long

Helen Foster Snow: An American Woman in
n I
Revolutionary China tells the story of a
remarkable woman born in rural Utah in
1907, who lived in China during the
1930s and became an important author, a
lifelong humanitarian, and a bridge-
builder between the United States and
China.
As Kelly Ann Long recounts in this
engaging biography, Helen Foster Snow
immersed herself in the social and
political currents of a nation in turmoil.
After marrying renowned journalist
Edgar Snow, she developed her own
writing talents. Her writing provided an
important perspective on emerging
events in China as that nation was
wracked by Japanese invasion, the
outbreak of World War II, and a con¬
tinuing civil war. She supported the
December Ninth Movement of 1935,
broke boundaries to enter communist
Yenan in 1937, and helped initiate the
"gung ho" Chinese Industrial Coopera¬
tive movement.
Helen Foster Snow wrote about the
people and events in China's remote
communist territories during an impor¬
tant era. She relayed detailed portraits of
female communist leaders and famous
figures such as Mao Zedong and Zhu
De, as well as common people struggling
to survive in a period of increasing
turmoil. Her informed, compassionate
depictions built a bridge linking Ameri¬
can interest to the welfare of the Chinese.
Long's account recovers the story of
a controversial and important commenta¬
tor on a critical period in U.S.-China
relations and in Chinese history.
■

Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2019 with funding from
The Arcadia Fund
https://archive.org/details/hellenfostersnowOOkell
HELEN FOSTER SNOW

AN AMERICAN WOMAN
IN REVOLUTIONARY CHINA
KELLY ANN LONG
University Press of Colorado

To my family
and
in memory of my parents,
Ike and Ginny Long
© 2006 by the University Press of Colorado
Published by the University Press of Colorado
5589 Arapahoe Avenue, Suite 206C
Boulder, Colorado 80303
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
The University Press of Colorado is a proud member of
the Association of American University Presses.
The University Press of Colorado is a cooperative publishing enterprise supported, in part, by
Adams State College, Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College, Mesa State College,
Metropolitan State College of Denver, University of Colorado, University of Northern Colo¬
rado, and Western State College of Colorado.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Ma¬
terials. ANSI Z39.48-1992
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Long, Kelly Ann, 1957-
Helen Foster Snow : an American woman in revolutionary China / Kelly Ann Long,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-87081-847-9 (alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-87081-847-3 (alk. paper)
1. Snow, Flelen Foster, 1907-1997.2. Journalists—United States—Biography. 3. Ameri¬
cans—China—Biography. I. Title.
PN4874.S5717L66 2006
070292—dc22
[B]
2006017538
Design by Daniel Pratt
15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Maps provided by permission of Square One Publishing.
All photographs included in this book are provided courtesy of the L. Tom Perry Special
Collections, Flarold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.