Edith Bone (1889–1975)
Author of 7 Years' Solitary
About the Author
Works by Edith Bone
Seven Years Solitude 3 copies
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Other names
- Hajós, Edit Olga
- Birthdate
- 1889-01-28
- Date of death
- 1975-02-14
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- Hungary
UK - Birthplace
- Budapest, Hungary
- Place of death
- London, England, UK
- Places of residence
- London, England, UK
- Occupations
- journalist
translator
autobiographer
physician - Short biography
- Edith Bone was born Edit Olga Hajós in Budapest, Hungary. She studied medicine there and in Berlin, Montpellier, Paris, and Bern. She returned home to help care for the wounded in World War I and obtained her medical degree. In 1919, she went with a Red Cross delegation to Moscow and later to St. Petersburg, where she edited the English-language newspaper of the Comintern for a while. She later lived in Vienna, Italy, and Berlin. After her first marriage to Béla Balázs ended, she remarried in 1934 to Gerald Martin and became a British subject. During the Spanish Civil War, Dr. Bone offered her medical services to the Loyalists and was involved in the establishment of the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC) in Barcelona. In 1947, she went back to Budapest as a freelance correspondent for The Daily Worker of London. As she was about to return home in 1949, she was arrested and unjustly accused of spying for the British government. She was held in solitary confinement without trial for 14 months and then sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. During her seven-year ordeal, she developed a series of mental exercises, including reviews of geometry, the several languages she knew, and the books she had read to help keep her sane. She was freed during the Hungarian Uprising of 1956 when a group of students seized control of the prison where she was held. She wrote a book describing her experiences, Seven Years' Solitary, which was published in 1957, and then devoted herself to her translation work. Among the works she translated into English were The Road to Calvary by Leo Tolstoy and a biography of Maxim Gorky.
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- Works
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- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 13
- Popularity
- #774,335
- Rating
- 4.2
- Reviews
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- ISBNs
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Michael Harris used her as a prime example of his case in Solitude: A Singular Life in a Crowded World He wrote earlier this year in Discover Magazine http://discovermagazine.com/2017/june/let-your-mind-wander
I have a friend who's a rellie of Edith Bone and as a consequence discovered her story which is truly astonishing, every bit of it that we know and no doubt the parts that will continue to unfold as classified documents from MI5 and Soviet counterparts are made more available.
But for now, looking at only her period of isolated imprisonment, I offer this from wiki. She was sixty-one and arthritic at the time.
I'm sure it's true that the Hungarians intended her to die as a result of her privations. Apparently they couldn't actually kill her directly as it was known she had disappeared, though the British did precious little to get her out. Why doesn't that surprise me.
There will be more of her incredible life to come. I will end by noting that Aung San Suu Kyi gained her inspiration to survive from reading her book as a teenager.
Edith Bone wrote her own epitaph:
Edith Bone (1889-1975)
On Myself
Here lies the body of Edith Bone.
All her life she lived alone,
Until Death added the final S
And put an end to her loneliness.… (more)