Jessica Smith (editor)

Jessica Smith (November 29, 1895–October 17, 1983) was an American editor and activist and was the wife of Harold Ware and subsequently John Abt, both members of the Ware Group run by Whittaker Chambers and whose members also included Alger Hiss.[1][2]

Jessica Smith
Jessica Smith ca. 1913-1918
BornNovember 29, 1895
Madison, New Jersey, United States
DiedOctober 17, 1983(1983-10-17) (aged 87)
United States
OccupationEditor, activist
Spouse(s)Harold Ware
John Abt

Background

Jessica Granville-Smith was born on November 29, 1895, in Madison, New Jersey, the daughter of painter Walter Granville-Smith of New York City, Jessica Granville-Smith (as she was known in her early life), graduated from Swarthmore College.

Career

In 1922, she traveled to the Soviet Union with a Quaker Mission on behalf of a Quaker famine relief effort, the American Friends Service Committee. She was a relief worker there herself.[2]

In Moscow she met Harold Ware, an agricultural expert and socialist. They tried to establish a model collective farm in the Ural Mountains using American tractors. They returned New York by January 1925.[3]

Ware returned to Moscow for a time, while Smith remained in the United States to become editor of Soviet Russia Today, a publication of the organization Friends of Soviet Russia. She held the position for more than twenty years. Her editorial board included American communist writer Myra Page.[4]

In 1943, she became a co-founder of National Council of American-Soviet Friendship, where she also served as vice president and a member of its national advisory council.

Later, she served as editor of the New World Review for some years.[5]

Ware Group

Hal Ware founded the Ware Group in the early 1930s and held the first meeting late in 1933.

In September 1939, Whittaker Chambers mentioned Smith in connection with Abt to Adolf Berle.[6]

Personal and death

While in Moscow in the early 1920s, Smith met Harold Ware, an agricultural expert and socialist. In 1925, they were married in New York by Norman Thomas. They had one child, David Ware. In 1935, Ware died in an automobile accident.

In 1937, Smith married John Abt, a member of the Ware Group.[1]

Smith died in 1983; Abt died in 1991.[1]

She had a "deep commitment to American-Soviet friendship... continuously demonstrated by staunch support of the program of the National Council." She "dedicated her long life to US-USSR friendship and peace."

She also championed women's suffrage.

Works

Smith worked on many books and article in her life.

Books written or co-written:

Books edited or co-edited:

See also

References
  1. Cook, Joan (13 August 1991). "John J. Abt, Lawyer, Dies at 87; Communist Party Counsel in U.S." The New York Times. Retrieved 26 March 2017.
  2. "Smith, Jessica, 1895-1983". Social Networks and Archival Context. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
  3. Harris, Lement (1978). Harold M. Ware (1890-1935): Agricultural Pioneer, U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. (Occasional Paper No. 30. American Institute for Marxist Studies. pp. 37. Retrieved 6 August 2018.
  4. Page, Myra; Baker, Christina Looper (1996). In a Generous Spirit: A First-Person Biography of Myra Page. University of Illinois Press. p. 141. ISBN 9780252065439. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  5. Laibman, David (15 October 2010). "Editor, author, musician". DavidLaibman.org. Archived from the original on 15 September 2014. Retrieved 7 August 2013.
  6. Chambers, Whittaker (1952). Witness. Random House. p. 467. ISBN 0-89526-571-0.
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