Mitchison, Naomi (1897-1999), a British writer, won fame for her novels and stories set in ancient Greece and Rome. The books are noted for the vivid style she used to bring these civilizations to life. The best of her novels and short stories were written during the 1920’s and 1930’s. They include the novels The Conquered (1923), Cloud Cuckoo Land (1925), The Corn King and the Spring Queen (1931), and The Blood of the Martyrs (1939), and the short-story collections When the Bough Breaks (1924), Barbarian Stories (1929), and Delicate Fire (1933).
Mitchison was born on Nov. 1, 1897, in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her name was Naomi Margaret Haldane. Her father was the famous British scientist J. B. S. Haldane. In 1916, she married the British politician G. Richard Mitchison. Naomi Mitchison was educated at Oxford University. She aroused controversy throughout her life for her strong feminist views and her books that treated such topics as rape, incest, and abortion. During the 1930’s, she helped establish the first birth control clinics in London. She discussed her involvement in social and political causes in three volumes of autobiography, Small Talk (1973), All Change Here (1975), and You May Well Ask (1979). Mitchison died on Jan. 11, 1999.
