Charlotte Haldane (1894–1969)

Charlotte Haldane, née Franken, was born to a German Jewish family in London, England. Her parents were Mathilde (Saarbach) and Joseph Franken, and she had a sister, Elizabeth. Joseph Franken was a fur trader, and the family moved to Antwerp, Belgium, in 1906 when he opened a branch of his business there. Charlotte described herself as a "feminist and suffragette" from the age of 16. She wanted to study languages at Bedford College, but after her father's business had financial problems, she took a shorthand and typing course in London. She began working as a secretary and also started writing. She published her first story in 1916 in Bystander Magazine under a pseudonym, Charlotte Franklyn, to avoid anti-German sentiment in World War I. In 1918, she married Jack Burghes, a war veteran, with whom she had a son. She became a freelance journalist and eventually joined the staff of the Daily Express. She also wrote for the political magazine Time and Tide. She was a champion of married women like herself who needed to work to support their families, as well as of divorce reform and easier access to contraception. In 1924, she interviewed scientist-author J.B.S. Haldane, and they soon fell in love. After a bitter divorce from her husband that received much negative national publicity, the couple married in 1926. That same year, Charlotte published her debut novel, the dystopia Man's World, which remains her best-known work and was an influence on Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World. She also wrote books about women's issues, such as Motherhood and Its Enemies (1928). The Haldanes both joined the Communist Party of Great Britain in the 1930s in response to the growth of fascism in Europe. Charlotte raised funds to support the Loyalists in the Spanish Civil War and helped recruit volunteers for the International Brigade. In 1941, after a trip to the Soviet Union as a war correspondent for the Daily Sketch in World War II, Charlotte became disillusioned with Stalinism and the Party and severed her ties with it, while her husband remained committed. The Haldanes separated in 1942 and divorced in 1945. Charlotte succeeded George Orwell as "talks producer" of BBC Radio's Eastern Service, and worked for the BBC into the 1950s. She published her autobiography, Truth Will Out, in 1949. She then wrote biographies of famous historical figures such as Marcel Proust (1951), Mozart (1960), The Last Great Empress of China (1965), and Queen of Hearts: Marguerite of Valois (1968).