Odette Keun

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Odette Keun (c.1923)

Odette Zoé Keun (10 September 1888 in

socialist, journalist and writer, who traveled extensively in Europe, including the Caucasus and the early Soviet Union
.

Early years

Keun was the daughter of Gustave Henri Keun, at the time first

Cathars, and, last but not least, celibacy
. There was also the more practical reason; after her mother's death, she was the source of support for her sisters. She published her first book "Les Maisons sur le Sable" (1914) in which she described her farewell to the faith, her views on social problems, and her amorous wishes.

Love and secret services

The first World War brought her to Paris. She worked for the Red Cross in

Charkov. She wrote about her arrest and experiences in Russia in Sous Lénine. Notes d’Une Femme Déporté en Russie par les Anglais (Paris 1922).[2]

Wells and the search for a third way

She wanted to return to Istanbul but because of the turbulent events this city was no longer an option, so she returned to Paris. Between 1924 and 1933 Keun was the partner of

H.G. Wells, with whom she lived in Lou Pidou, a house they built together in Grasse, France. Wells, who was 22 years her elder, dedicated his books The World of William Clissold [3] (his longest) and The Bulpington of Blup to her. Later she worked as secretary at the consul-general in the United States. In her 1937 book A Foreigner Looks at the TVA, she describes the organization of George W. Norris's Tennessee Valley Authority as "the way in which a participatory liberal democracy could embrace modernization, to parry the influence of Fascist and Communist models of development, while avoiding the perils of statism."[4] After 1939 Keun lived in England, first in London, from 1941 in Torquay, and eventually in Worthing, West Sussex.[2]

Publications

In her time, Odette was an established and recognized author, with a long list of publications,[5] including:

  • Les Maisons sur le Sable (Sansot), 1914
  • Mesdemoiselles Daisne de Constantinople (Sansot), 1917
  • Les Oasis dans la Montagne (Calmann-Lévy), 1920
  • Une Femme Moderne (Flammarion), 1921
  • Sous Lénine; notes d'une femme déportée en Russie par les Anglais (Flammarion), 1922
    • My Adventures in Bolshevik Russia (Bodley Head), 1923 (English translation by the author)
  • Au Pays de la Toison d’Or (Flammarion)
    • In the Land of the Golden Fleece, through independent menchevist Georgia (Bodley Head) 1924 (English translation by Jessiman)
  • The Man Who Never Understood (Bodley Head) (published anonymously)
  • Prince Tariel: a story of Georgia (Cape), 1925[6]
    • Prins Tariel (Dutch translation by V.d.Horst) (Arbeiderspers), 1926
    • Le Prince Tariel (French translation by. Fouret) (Malfère), 1927
  • La Capitulation (Malfère), 1929
  • Dans l'Aurès inconnu: soleil, pierres et guelâas (Malfère), 1930
  • A Foreigner Looks at the British Sudan (Faber & Faber), 1930
  • I Discover the English (Bodley Head), 1934
  • Darkness from the North (Brinton), 1935
  • A Foreigner Looks at the TVA (Longmans & Co), 1937
  • I Think Aloud in America (Longmans & Co), 1939
  • And Hell Followed ... A European ally interprets the war for ordinary people like herself (Constable & Co), 1942
  • Trumpets Bray (Constable & Co), 1943
  • Continental Stakes; Marshes of Invasion, Valley of Conquest and Peninsula of Chaos (Br. Cont. Syndicate), 1944
  • Soliloquy on some Matters of Interest to the Author (Keun), 1960

A biography of Odette Keun was written by Monique Reintjes, and first published in Amsterdam in 2000.[7][5]

References

  1. ^ a b Ruud Beeldsnijder, Odette keun. Een Nederlands socialiste in het revolutionaire Rusland (in Dutch)
  2. ^ Kevin Dixon, Odette Keun, HG Wells and the Third Way, The PRSD, July 20, 2104.
  3. ^ David Ekbladh, Meeting the Challenge from Totalitarianism: The Tennessee Valley Authority as a Global Model for Liberal Development, 1933–1945, International History Review, v. 32, pp 47-67, 2010
  4. ^ a b Reintjes, Monique (2004). Odette Keun (1888 -1978). Tbilisi, Georgia.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. ^ Google Books (1925). Prince Tariel. Retrieved 2 September 2014. {{cite book}}: |last1= has generic name (help)
  6. ^ Partington, John S. (2001). "Book Review: Odette Keun (1888–1978) (Amsterdam: Monique Reintjes, 2000)". The Wellsian. 24: 60–63.