Nora Waln (1895 – 27 September 1964) was a best-selling American writer and journalist in the 1930s–50s, writing books and articles on her time spent in Germany and China. She was among the first to report on the spread of Nazism from 1934 to 1938. She traveled widely in Europe and Asia, contributing articles to the Atlantic Monthly and other magazines. She was one of the few correspondents who reported from Communist China and Mongolia, reporting for the Saturday Evening Post for three and a half years, including reporting from the Korean War (1947-1951). She regularly contributed to the Atlantic Monthly from 1925 to 1962.
Early years She was the daughter of Thomas Lincoln and Lillian Quest Waln,Parents' names: Finding aid for the Nora Waln Literary Papers in Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College Ref RG5/625. from a Pennsylvanian Quaker family.Descendants of Richard Waln of Burholme, Lancashire
In 1918, she was Publicity Secretary of the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief (later the Near East Foundation) and contributed a foreword to the book Ravished Armenia."Ravished Armenia/Foreword", transcript of text. There is commentary on Ravished Armenia and Nora Waln's role in its production at Armenian News Network / Groong , a possibly biased source.
From childhood, she was interested in Chinese culture after learning of a family trading-connection with the Lin family of Hopei Province from the early 19th-century.
China Having made contact with the family, she left Swarthmore College before graduating, and in 1920, set out for China.According to Women of History Nora Waln was born 4 June 1895.
She ended up living for 12 years in the Lin household as a "daughter of affection" and developed this experience into her acclaimed memoir House of Exile, which was published in 1933. This gave readers an insider's look at Chinese culture and customs in a time of change following the overthrow of the Qing dynasty. The family was considered "exiles" because a Lin had been ordered by thirteenth-century Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan to help work with the Grand Canal in Hopei, and had moved North from the family's Canton homestead.
House of Exile sold well in England and America, as did French and German translations.
In 1930, Swedish traveller Frans August Larson published his book Larson, Duke of Mongolia about his adventures in Central Asia, which was ghostwritten by Waln.
Marriage While living in China, Waln met and married George Edward Osland-Hill, an English official in the Chinese Post Office,In 1916, G. E. Osland-Hill was Deputy Postal Commissioner in Kaifengfu, Honan, according to the London Gazette, 17-03-1916, p. 2933]. in 1922.Obituary of Nora Waln in The Times, 6 October 1964; p. 14; Issue 56135; col F.
Ted Osland-Hill had one daughter from a previous marriage. She was Marie Osland-Hill, later Marie Wade.Details of step-daughter: Nora Waln Research Papers, 1933-1990 in the Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College Ref RG 5/169.
Dialogue from Reaching for the Stars (Cresset Press, 1939) pp. 2–3
Germany From 30 June 1934 to April 1938, she and her husband lived in Germany. She was moved to write Reaching for the Stars, completing it on Christmas Day, 1938. It was published in London by the Cresset Press and in Boston, USA by Little, Brown and Co. in April 1939. It sold well in England and America.Sales of Reaching ...: Editor's copy is the 9th impression, published in July 1942.
The book recounts the spread of Hitler's Nazi movement against a backdrop of her despair for the changes in a people she loved. In spite of the horror which she saw and described, she felt that the German people would revolt against Nazism.Nora Waln, Reaching for the Stars (London: Cresset Press, 1938), book jacket.
Her damning exposé of Nazi Germany was a bestseller in the US in 1939 (ahead of Mein Kampf).UK sales 30,000 in 2.5 months - display advertisement in The Observer, 11 June 1939. The book was reissued in paperback by Soho Press in 1992 under a new title, The Approaching Storm: One Woman's Story of Germany, 1934-1938.
After the war, she returned to Germany and attended the Nuremberg TrialsNora Waln, "Crime and Punishment", Atlantic, January 1946, 43, cited by McMillan Houston Johnson in an MA thesis at The University of Tennessee Knoxville, May 2006.
After Germany In Britain, during the War, she served on the China Convoy Committee of Friends Ambulance UnitChina Convoy Committee membership - Who's Who, Swarthmore Phoenix, 9 January 1946, p. 1 column b, "Nora Waln is next lecturer". According to A. Tegla Davies (1947). Friends Ambulance Unit – The Story of the F.A.U. in the Second World War 1939–1945. London: George Allen & Unwin, pp. 234–297, the FAU China Convoy operated from 1941 to 1946. Davies makes no mention of Nora Waln. The Minutes of the China Convoy Committee are at Friends House, London (Temp Mss 876). Nora Waln is shown as a Member.
After the end of the War, she traveled the world, filing stories for several prominent magazines. She returned to America, several times, to speak on the Chautauqua-Redpath circuit. Fliers for her tours in 1946,Brochure for Nora Waln's 1946 lecture tour, available online from University of Iowa digital library. 1952 Brochure for Nora Waln's 1952 tour, available online from University of Iowa digital library. and 1955 Brochure of Nora Waln's 1955 lecture tour, available online from University of Iowa digital library. survive in the organisation's archives now held by the University of Iowa Library.University of Iowa Library: Chautauqua-Redpath collection.
A brochure for her 1952 speaking tour of the America states:
and continues:
The brochure for her 1946 tour says: "During the war, she spoke extensively to large audiences throughout England and Scotland". Presumably this was between 1938, when she moved from Germany to her home on Buckinghamshire Who's Who gives her English address as "Dobins, Fulmer, Bucks, England." It is near to Jordans Quaker Meeting House.Nora Waln is included in the Lists of Members of Buckinghamshire Quarterly Meeting, in the Jordans Local Meeting section, as a member of another Monthly Meeting, from 1945 to 1963. and the USA entering the war in 1942. Her Who's Who entry says her career included administering Kappa Kappa Gamma Fund for bombed mothers and children since 1940 and membership of the council, American Outpost in Britain. These activities presumably started during the 1939-1945 war.
The brochure for her 1955 tour gives more details of her travels:
In 1947, she was awarded the King Haakon VII Freedom Cross by the Government of Norway.List of those awarded the Haakon Cross (in Norwegian).
In 1956, she received the Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania Award.Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania Award in the Pennsylvania Manual.
Nora Waln died on 27 September 1964.Date of death given in table published under the Trustees Act in the LondonGazette 30-04-1965 p. 4321. Her husband had died on 5 January 1958.Death notice for G.E. Osland-Hill in The Times, 8 January 1958; p. 1; Issue 54043; col A. His age was stated as 73.
Publications
The Street of Precious Pearls; New York, The Woman's Press, 1921, 96 pp. Available online on the Internet Archive website. The House of Exile, with illustrations by C. Le Roy Baldridge.; Boston, Little, Brown, and Company, 1933.
La Maison d'exil. Mœurs et vie intime en Chine moderne. Traduction de Michel Epuy; Genève, 1934 Süsse frucht, bittre frucht, China [House of Exile]; translated by L. Günther and Josephine Ewers-Bumiller, Berlin : W. Krüger, 1935 Sommer in der Mongolei; Berlin : W. Krüger, 1936 "Aus dem englischen manuskript übersetzt von Josephine Ewers-Bumiller und L. Günther" Reaching for the stars Boston, Little, Brown and Company; 1939. Available online on the Internet Archive website. Reaching for the stars London, Cresset Press, 1939 Reaching for the stars Australia, Lothian/Penguin books 1942 Het huis van ballingschap; translated by Pauline Moody; Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 1982. The House of Exile; with illustrations by C. Leroy Baldridge. Supplemental ed., New York : Soho Press, c1992. Paperback 0939149788. Includes 5 chapters of Return to the House of Exile, written in 1947–1958; that book was never published separately. Review in Publishers weekly here. Available online on the Internet Archive website. The Approaching Storm: One Woman's Story of Germany, 1934-1938 London : Cresset Library, 1988. (paperback.) Series: Cresset women's voices [Reaching for the Stars retitled]. Available online on the Internet Archive website. The Approaching Storm: One Woman's Story of Germany, 1934-1938; New York : Soho, 1993. . Paperback 0939149818 [Reaching for the Stars retitled] Surrender the Heart ?1961 - publication details not available. Mentioned in Friends Historical Library's listing of Research Papers.Surrender the Heart mentioned in Nora Waln Research Papers, 1933-1990 in the Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College Ref RG 5/169Surrender the Heart listed as one of her publications with the date 1961 Sliding Doors appears to be another bibliographic ghost. The Speaking Tour brochure, cited above, states: "Her most recent book. Sliding Doors, which deals with her last 3 1/2 years in the Orient, will be published in the fall of 1952 by the Atlantic Monthly". No evidence of its publication has been traced.
Notes
External links
"Murmourous Germany", Time, 13 March 1939 - review of Waln's book Reaching for the Stars Pennsylvania Center for the Book: Biography of Nora Waln The Compiled Research on Nora Waln held at Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College The Nora Waln Literary Papers held at Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College BBC Video clip: Nora Waln's view of pre-war Germany.