Jessica Mitford

Jessica Mitford (1917-1996) was the daughter of Lord and Lady Redesdale, and she and her famous five sisters and one brother grew up in isolation on their parents' Cotswold estate. Rebelling against her family, she became an outspoken Socialist and brilliant muckraking journalist, authoring many celebrated books. She died while working on a follow-up to The American Way of Death, for which, with characteristic humor, she proposed the title "Death Warmed Over."

Poison Penmanship - The Gentle Art of Muckraking By Jessica Mitford Introduction by Jane Smiley Poison Penmanship collects seventeen of Mitford's finest pieces-about everything from crummy spas to network-TV censorship-and fills them out with the story of how she got the scoop. Category: General Books Publisher: NYRB Classics