Kathleen Cannell
Kathleen Cannell was an American writer and journalist born in New York City in 1891. She pursued her education at the University of Toronto and the University of Paris at Sorbonne, where she began her writing career. Following her divorce from poet Skipwith Cannell in 1921, she became involved in the vibrant American literary scene in Paris, where her experiences inspired Ernest Hemingway's depiction of relationships in his novel, *The Sun Also Rises*. Cannell wrote short novels focused on societal challenges faced by women, with works such as "Fantocci" exploring themes of manipulation and jealousy. A significant part of her career was spent as a journalist, serving as fashion editor for *The New York Times* and later covering important press events during the rise of Nazi Germany. After fleeing France during World War II, she returned to the United States, where she continued her work as a writer and critic. Cannell also made contributions to the arts as a fashion consultant and ballet critic for the *Christian Science Monitor*, a role she maintained until her passing in 1974. Her diverse experiences and writings reflect the complexities of women's lives during a transformative period in history.
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Subject Terms
Kathleen Cannell
Writer
- Born: March 6, 1891
- Birthplace: New York, New York
- Died: May 23, 1974
Biography
Born in New York City in 1891, Kathleen Biggar (Eaton) Cannell married the poet Skipwith Cannell early on in her life but later divorced him in 1921. Not much is known about the first thirty years of Cannell’s life other than the fact that she studied at the University of Toronto and later at the University of Paris at Sorbonne. While in Paris, awaiting the completion of her divorce, Cannell met an author, Harold Loeb, who got her a job as a translator. Later, Cannell’s romantic entanglements with Loeb were modeled by Ernest Hemingway in The Sun Also Rises.
In the period of time between the World Wars, Cannell was part of an American literary circle of authors based in Paris, where she wrote some short novels, many of them unpublished, about society women who faced enormous obstacles in dealing with exceptionally unattractive women. One of her short stories,“Fantocci,” which was anthologized into a collection of American literature written abroad, is about a conniving, manipulative women who orchestrates jealousy between two males, leading one to murder the other.
Cannell worked as a journalist in Paris, initially as fashion editor for The New York Times in 1931, and eventually covering German press conferences in the early 1940’s as Hitler emerged as a viable threat to the security of the United States. Cannell fled France as it became embroiled in World War II and returned to the United States. She temporarily served as publicity director for special exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum in 1947, but made her mark primarily as a writer. A freelance book reviewer from the 1950’s until her death, Cannell also taught at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education as a fashion consultant and lecturer before becoming a ballet critic for the Christian Science Monitor in 1964, a position she held until her death in 1974 at the age of eighty-three.